Can Hitting a Young Child Turn Discipline Into a Stumbling Block?

This source asks whether a father who hits a three-year-old child can violate the Torah principle of placing a stumbling block before another person by provoking a harmful response. The mapped unit is not permission for corporal punishment. Its practical concern is the point at which discipline ceases to educate and instead creates fear, rebellion, dishonesty or rupture of trust. The source places parental authority alongside responsibility for the child's reaction and moral development. Because the unit concerns a young child, violence and practical halakha, it requires very high review and child-protective framing. Contemporary parenting and child-psychology terms are discovery context only and must not be attributed to the classical sources.