Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Exodo 21:15

The one who strikes his father or his mother is liable only if he wounds them. In this respect, cursing is more stringent than striking, for one who curses [his/her parents] after death is liable, while one who strikes them after death is not. Exodus 21:15 teaches that one who strikes either of his parents is liable to the death penalty. Striking an ordinary person is not a capital crime and is punishable through financial penalties only. However, striking one’s parent is a form of rebellion against not only society but in essence against God as well. Therefore the Torah deems it, and cursing one’s parents (Ex. 21:17) to be capital crimes, punishable by death. Since the Torah does not state how the execution is to be performed, the Rabbis declared that the person is to be strangled. Our mishnah teaches that in order for the child to be guilty of striking he must make a wound. If the child strikes without causing a wound s/he is not to be executed. The mishnah also teaches that although a child is executed for either striking or cursing one’s parents, there is a stringency with regards to cursing that does not exist with regards to striking. One who curses is liable even if he curses the parent after death, whereas one who strikes is only liable if the parent was alive when struck.

having found her but he is unable to demonstrate it because there were no witnesses. The connective vav here has the sense of “or”, as in “he who strikes his father or his mother” [Exodus 21: 15].

ובא האות והמופת, “and the sign or wonder predicted will come to pass;” the letter ו in the word והמופת means: “or.”We have a similar construction in Exodus 21,15, where the line: ומכה אביו ואמו, means: “anyone who strikes his father or his mother.” Similar constructions occur in Exodus 21,17, and in numerous other places in the Torah. The Sifri quotes a Baraitha in which Rabbi Akiva is cited as saying that we must not be misled into believing that G-d would interfere with the position of sun or moon in order to comply with the wishes of a false prophet. What is meant in our verse is that a true prophet, who has in the past performed miracles, and had thus legitimised himself by having performed such miracles, has become a heretic and the people now believe him, not knowing that he has become a heretic. If such a prophet would call on the people to perform acts of idolatry, he must not be believed, regardless of the fact that at one time he was a legitimate prophet. No true prophet is to be believed if his message entails violating laws of the Torah, regardless of how many times he had in the past demonstrated that he was a true prophet, unless when he did so he said that he suggested such a violation only as a one time emergency measure due to exceptional circumstances. If you were to ask, that seeing that G-d knew in advance that such a prophet would turn into a heretic, so why did He equip him with prophetic powers in the first place?The Torah answers this question by telling us that it is G-d’s way of testing our faith in Moses’ Torah being the one and only Torah He has given us, and that it will not undergo changes in the course of history. (verse 4) This is even more true, when the socalled prophet performs acts by a slight of hand which deceive the onlookers into believing that he had performed miracle. The same is true if such a charlatan knows how to trick you into believing that you had heard things in the name of the Lord, things which he had never heard from G-d. Do not let either your eyes or your ears deceive you when the subject is the inviolability of the laws of the Torah. You must follow only the revealed word of G-d as handed down by Moses in the Torah.