Sanhedrin 8:1-2

Sanhedrin 8:1

A boy can become a ben soreir u’moreh (“stubborn and rebellious son”) starting when he produces two hairs until his “beard” has grown in. Really, they referred to the boy’s pubic hair but the Sages spoke euphemistically. Deuteronomy 21:18 says, “If a man has a son….” We see that this law applies to a son but not to a daughter, a “son” but not a (full-grown) “man.” A minor is exempt because he is not yet obligated in mitzvos.

Sanhedrin 8:2

The son becomes liable when he eats a tartemar (50 dinars’ weight) of meat and drinks half a log (around 7 ounces) of Italian (i.e., quality) wine. Rabbi Yosi says that he must eat a maneh’s weight of meat and drink a full log of wine (i.e., twice the volumes stated in the first opinion). If the boy ate these things as part of a mitzvah meal (like a wedding or a bris), at the celebration of intercalating the month, from second tithe in Jerusalem, from animals that died on their own or were torn by predators, of swarming or creeping things, [some versions of the text include: if he ate untithed produce, first tithe from which trumah has not been taken, or second tithe or dedicated produce that had not been redeemed,] if his eating is a mitzvah or a sin, if he ate other food but not meat, if he drank other beverages but not wine – in all of these cases, he is not a ben soreir u’moreh until he eats meat and he drinks wine because Deuteronomy 21:20 calls him “a glutton and a drunkard.” While there is no proof that “glutton and drunkard” refers exclusively to meat and wine, there is support for the idea: Proverbs 23:20 says, “Do not be among those who drink wine excessively and eat meat gluttonously.”