One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת שְׁבִיתַת עָשׂוֹר
Shevitat Asor · Chapter 2
Sefer Zemanim · The Yom Kippur fast: how much, within what time, and who is exempt
1 date
Eating shiur - a large date (koseves)
1 cheekful
Drinking shiur - sized to each mouth
9–13
Ages: training to full obligation
Life
The sick are fed - danger overrides
Part 1The measures of liability
- How much food. One is liable (kareis) for eating a large date's worth of food (koseves) - slightly less than an egg; a fixed amount, whatever a person's size. (2:1)
- How much drink. A cheekful (melo lugmav) - enough to fill one cheek; measured by each person's own mouth, not a set volume. (2:1)
- What combines. All foods join toward the date, all liquids toward the cheekful - but food and drink never combine with one another. (2:1)
- Within one window. The amount must be eaten within kdei achilat pras (the time to eat bread the size of three eggs, a few minutes); pause longer and the amounts do not join. (2:4)
RememberOne date of food, one cheekful of drink, within one short sitting - that is the line of liability.
Part 2What counts, what does not
- Forbidden food still counts. One is liable whether the food eaten was permitted or itself forbidden - neveilah, forbidden fat, or blood. (2:2)
- Less than the measure. Below the shiur there is no kareis, yet the Torah still forbids any amount; one receives "stripes for rebellion." (2:3)
- Only human food. Things unfit to eat or drink (bitter herbs, brine, raw vinegar) carry no kareis even in quantity; vinegar mixed with water does. (2:5-6)
- Too full to eat. One so stuffed that more food is loathsome to him is not liable - to him it is no longer "food." (2:7)
RememberAny amount is forbidden, but only a date's worth of real, edible food brings kareis.
Part 3When life comes first
- Feed the dangerously ill. One who is dangerously ill and asks for food is fed until he says "enough" - even if physicians say it is unneeded. (2:8)
- Trust the patient. If the sick person himself says he must eat, he is fed on his own word, even against the doctors. (2:8)
- The overwhelmed. A pregnant woman overcome by a food's smell is first calmed by a whisper that it is Yom Kippur; if that fails, she is fed. (2:9)
- Ravenous hunger. One seized by faintness (bulmus) is fed at once until his eyes clear - even non-kosher food, without waiting. (2:9)
RememberA life in danger outweighs the day - feed first, even non-kosher, even on the patient's own word.
Part 4Training the young
- Start at nine. From age nine or ten a child is trained to fast a few added hours, by his stamina - never a full fast. (2:10)
- Completion at eleven. At eleven a child completes the fast by Rabbinic ordinance, as training in the mitzvot. (2:10)
- Full obligation. A girl of twelve and a day and a boy of thirteen and a day, showing signs of maturity, must complete the fast by Torah law. (2:11)
- Never under nine. A child under nine is not made to fast at all, lest it endanger him. (2:11)
RememberTrain from nine, obligated at bar/bat mitzvah, and never fast a child under nine.