Or HaChaim on Deuteronomy 21:18/אור החיים על דברים כ״א:י״ח

1 כי יהיה לאיש…איננו שומע, "When a man has a delinquent son…he refuses to listen, etc." Why does the Torah write איננו instead of אינו? Perhaps the Torah wanted to emphasise that when the evil urge dominates within man this deprives man of his normal ability to hear and to understand. The reason is that the evil urge takes up its position at the entrance of man's heart preventing words to get through to the soul. I have compared the matter to a king whose security guards were thieves and robbers. Can one imagine that these guards would permit their victims who want to complain to the king that they have been robbed to gain entrance to the king's palace and thereby to help incriminate themselves? Our situation is quite similar.

2בקול אביו ובקול אמו, "to the voice of his father or to the voice of his mother." Why did the Torah have to write the word: "his father," instead of merely writing "his voice," i.e. that of the man who has been described as having this son? The Torah wanted to emphasise that the rebellious son and those who have given birth to him of which the Torah speaks here are his original parents i.e. his Father in heaven and his Mother, i.e. community of Israel, G'd's partner (compare Zohar volume two page 85). This relationship between us and our Father in heaven, i.e. G'd, has already been formulated by Solomon in Proverbs 1,8: שמע בני מוסר אביך ואל תטש תורת אמך, "My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not abandon the teachings of your mother." Solomon refers to G'd and the community of Israel respectively. If the son of a terrestrial union became a delinquent it was only because the parents failed to discipline him in time and did not give him proper guidance. This in turn caused him to rebel. The Torah tells us that "when a 'man' has a delinquent son, etc.," i.e. a son who rebels against G'd, remember that even if both his biological father and his biological mother discipline him he will not pay attention to them seeing that he does not even listen to his Father in heaven. In fact, the result of rejecting the laws governing our conduct between ourselves and G'd bring in its wake that we will also ignore the laws of conduct between man and his fellow.