Sanhedrin 108

1:
Our mishnah continues the ever-expanding cords of restriction that make it virtually impossible for a "riotous and rebellious son" ever to come about. It is not enough for the hapless lad to gobble down the meat and quaff the wine: he must have procured these comestibles by spending money that he has stolen from his father. I have failed to find a hint of the matter of theft in the Biblical text and do not really understand how the sages derived it therefrom. The origin of the idea that the lad must steal the money for the foodstuffs is to be found in the Halakhic Midrash Sifré, Parashat Ki-Tetze, Paragraph 8. But even then it is taken for granted. Perhaps the idea is that it is logical that the food must have been stolen since if he only eats what his parents provide for him he could never become "a riotous and rebellious son".

2:
Our mishnah requires that the money for the food be stolen from the father but that the food be consumed outside the father's jurisdiction. Our mishnah provides three scenarios. If the lad steals from his father and eats the food on his father's premises he will constantly be frightened that his father will discover him at his wild ways, and this could hardly be an ill omen for the future. (We shall elaborate fully on this consideration when we reach Mishnah Five.) Furthermore, on his father's property the opportunity to steal his father's money is always present. With regards to others, the opportunity to steal is much less and he is much more likely to be caught in the act of stealing; so this too could hardly bode ill concerning his future behaviour. Therefore, the only scenario that fits is that the money be stolen from his father but the foodstuffs bought with these ill-gotten gains be consumed outside his father's jurisdiction. Only thus does he have ample opportunity for theft and little to worry about being found out. (How would strangers know what it was that he was eating?)

3:
Rabbi Yosé bar-Rabbi Yehudah reads the text of the Torah in an even more restrictive manner. In the Biblical passage both parents speak with one voice. Therefore, Rabbi Yosé requires that the money be stolen from both parents. In the Gemara [Sanhedrin 71a] an Halakhic objection is raised: how can the lad steal from his mother when everything she owns belongs to her husband?! More than one suggestion is made how to maintain Rabbi Yosé's requirement: perhaps the monies stolen were intended to buy something for both parents jointly; alternatively, perhaps someone had made a gift over to his mother on condition that her husband had no jurisdiction of it…

Geoffrey Ashe writes:

First, I just wanted to say again how much I enjoy reading and learning with RMSG (I've been subscribed since we were learning Berakhot).

I am not proficient in Hebrew (I can read it for prayer, but my comprehension of what I am reading is greatly to be desired) but I'd like to start trying to learn Gemara. Do you recommend a particular English translation of the Talmud? In other words, which of the three popular English translations of the Talmud – Steinsaltz, ArtScroll, and Soncino – would you recommend?

I respond:

I am going to disappoint Geoffrey and all those others who think like him. I cannot make a recommendation for two main reasons.

Firstly, I have no acquaintance with then English translations of Rabbi Steinsaltz' Talmud or of the Artscroll edition. Rabbi Steinsaltz' commentary on the Talmud is excellent, innovative, authoritative, and I am sure that it will become a classic. But those comments are concerning the original Hebrew edition. I can make no comment on the English translation: I have never seen it and do not know who made the translation. Nor have I seen the Artscroll edition, so I must refrain from judging it. However, I would guess that it is aimed at a readership for whom the values and ambience of Conservative Judaism are foreign. The Soncino translation was made under the general editorship of my revered teacher Isadore Epstein z"l – but it was made by many people and some of the tractates were translated long before I was born! By trying to give a literal rendition of the text it leaves the student who is wholly reliant on the English text just as perplexed as he was before.

Secondly, I do not believe that any English translation on its own can be sufficient. In order to study Gemara one needs two indispensable items: a teacher and a Ĥavruta [fellow student]. It is not impossible to study Gemara without a Ĥavruta, but I believe that is is impossible to study Gemara without a teacher. One of my fondest dreams is that one of the shiurim that will be offered in the projected Virtual Bet Midrash that I mentioned in our last Shiur will try to do for Gemara what RMSG tries to do for Mishnah. It's all a question of time and money – and I have precious little of either!

Sorry to disappoint you, but I do have high hopes for the future.