- The ideal purpose of wine - wine brings ruin
The next Mishnah states that a בן סורר ומורה is liable after eating a תרטימר of meat (defined as two hundred maneh’s-worth) and half a לוג of Italian wine, which is habit-forming (Rebbe Yose requires only half this amount). Rav Chanan said: לא נברא יין בעולם אלא לנחם אבלים ולשלם שכר לרשעים – wine was only created in the world to comfort mourners, and to give earthly reward to the wicked. Rebbe Yitzchak said that the passuk, "אל תרא יין כי יתאדם" – do not look at wine which is red, warns against indulgence in wine, שמאדים פניהם של רשעים בעולם הזה – which reddens the faces of the wicked in this world, ומלבין פניהם לעולם הבא – and whitens their faces in the World to Come. Rava explains: שאחריתו דם – [because wine’s] end result is blood (i.e., his death). Rav Kahana said that the word for wine, "תירוש", is written "תירש", teaching: זכה נעשה ראש – if he merits, he becomes a leader; לא זכה נעשה רש – if he does not merit, he becomes poor. Rava says "ויין ישמח" is written with a “shin,” teaching that if he merits, משמחו – [wine] gladdens him, but if not, משממהו – it destroys him. This is why he said: חמרא וריחני פקחין – wine and fragrances made me wise.
- Noach’s first planting a vineyard, and what חם did to him
עובר גלילאה darshened that the letter “vav” is written thirteen times in the incident of Noach planting a vineyard and becoming drunk, to hint to cries of "וי וי" – woe, woe. Rav and Shmuel debate what Noach’s son חם did to him. One says סרסו – he castrated him, and the other says רבעו – he had relations with him. The first opinion says that because חם disabled Noach from having a fourth son, Noach cursed כנען, חם’s fourth son. The other opinion responds that חם did both. The passuk calls Noach "איש האדמה" – man of the earth when he planted a vineyard, hinting that Hashem told him: נח לא היה לך ללמוד מאדם הראשון – Noach, should you not have learned to avoid wine from Adam HaRishon (who was made from the earth), שלא גרם לו אלא יין – whose [failure] was only caused by wine? This follows Rebbe Meir’s opinion, that the עץ הדעת was a grapevine, שאין לך דבר שמביא יללה לאדם אלא יין – for there is nothing which brings wailing to a person as wine does. Rebbe Yehudah holds it was a wheat stalk, and Rebbe Nechemiah holds it was a fig tree.
- A בן סורר ומורה is not liable for eating meat of a mitzvah, nor of an aveirah
Rebbe Abahu said that one only becomes a בן סורר ומורה if he ate at a gathering שכולה סריקין – who are all good-for-nothings. This is challenged from the Mishnah, which taught that if he ate at a gathering involving a mitzvah (e.g., the meal convened for עיבור חודש), he does not become a בן סורר ומורה, implying that as long as it was not a mitzvah gathering, he would be liable!? The Gemara answers that the Mishnah teaches that even if he did eat at a gathering of idlers, since he was involved in a mitzvah at this gathering, he is not liable, because לא מימשיך – he will not be drawn to continue doing so.
The Mishnah taught that he is not liable if he ate forbidden meat, such as נבילה. The Gemara says he is not even liable for eating of a מצוה דרבנן, such as ניחום אבלים, or something Rabbinically forbidden, such as a תענית ציבור. He is exempt for eating something forbidden because the passuk says the parents declare: "איננו שמע בקלנו" – he does not listen to our voices, implying he only ignores “our voices,” ולא בקולו של מקום – but not if he even disobeys Hashem’s voice.
