We discussed the reason the Ibn Ezra gives why we kill a Ben Sorer Omoreh. He explains that although he has not commited any single crime, his entire lifestyle indicates that he lives on this planet to seek pleasure. This is pure heresy, apikursus, and he is killed for that.
The Sefer HaChinuch explains that every person has two opposing forces within him; the physical drives, and the spiritual powers. For a person to have a fighting chance of living a decent and spiritual life, one where the physical is subjected to the spiritual, at least his formative years must be lived without his physical nature dominant. The Ben Sorer Omoreh, by sinking himself into physical pleasure in his formative years, is destroying his moral integrity to the point where he will no longer be able to live an upright life. He is a goner, with no chance. Therefore he’d better die!
The Ohr HaChaim takes this even further; imagine a king who has gatekeepers who belong to a gang of thieves; could anyone come and complain to the king about the thieves? The gatekeepers simply wouldn’t let him in! So too, when a person has given himself over to his Yetzer as the Ben Sorer Omoreh has done, there can be no hope for him, because the gatekeepers, his eyes and ears, are under the Yetzer’s control; they simply won’t allow any reproof to pass through!
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