One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
אִישׁוּת
Marriage 2
Sefer Nashim · A chapter of definitions rather than rulings, fixing when a child becomes an adult, what the law does with the cases it cannot classify, and whose word is accepted about which question
12
Years and a day, after which two hairs make a girl a na'arah
6
Months, the entire length of maidenhood before a girl is a bogeret
8
Upper signs of maturity listed for a woman, none of them decisive alone
20
Terms defined across these two chapters, which the reader is told to memorize
Part 1The ages, and the sign that arrives too early
- Minor, maiden, adult, and only six months between the last two. From birth until twelve a girl is a k'tanah, and hairs grown in that time are treated as hairs from a mole; two hairs grown after twelve years and a day make her a na'arah, and from the last day of the following six months onward she is a bogeret. (2:1, 2:2)
- The clock alone settles nothing. From twelve years and a day until twenty a girl without two hairs remains a minor even where she shows signs of barrenness, and hairs grown even in her twentieth year still buy her six months of maidenhood first. (2:3)
- The aylonit skips maidenhood entirely. A woman thirty days short of twenty with no hairs and all the signs of barrenness is an aylonit, and otherwise remains a minor until she grows two hairs or reaches thirty five years and a day, at which point she is barren regardless of signs and passes straight from child to adult with no na'arah stage at all. (2:4, 2:5, 2:6)
- Bearing a child is itself the sign. A woman who gives birth after the age of twelve is an adult though she has manifested neither the upper nor the lower sign. (2:9)
- Hairs that came early stay worthless, unless nobody looked. Two hairs grown before twelve in a girl or thirteen in a boy are hairs from a mole and remain so even after the age is reached; this applies where the child was inspected and the hairs were classified, but where no inspection was made until majority and two hairs are then found, they are acceptable signs and we do not say they may have grown earlier. (2:18, 2:19)
RememberThe same two hairs on the same body are a sign or nothing, and what decides is whether somebody looked a year ago and wrote down what he saw.
Part 2Doubt, and the stringency that runs in both directions
- Upper signs alone leave a doubt. Signs appearing before twelve are disregarded, and after twelve and a day the lower sign settles the matter without reference to the upper ones; one upper sign without the lower creates a doubt between minor and maiden which is decided stringently, while all of them together make her definitely an adult, since we assume the hairs grew and dropped off. (2:7, 2:8)
- Inspecting a boy can cost him a presumption. A male of thirteen and a day with no hairs but with the upper signs is a doubt, yet where his lower area was never inspected and he shows upper signs he is presumed an adult. (2:15)
- Both stringencies at once. Two hairs must be long enough to bend in half with their point touching their base, and where they can be cut by scissors but not bent, the person is treated as an adult in every matter where adulthood is the stricter ruling and as a minor in every matter where minority is the stricter ruling. (2:16)
- Where the hairs must be, and the follicle presumption. The two hairs may be anywhere in the pubic area, upper, lower or on the organ, must be in a single place with a follicle at their base, are acceptable from a single follicle, and two adjacent follicles without hairs are themselves a sign, since a follicle does not exist without hair having grown and fallen. (2:17)
- The categories that never resolve. A male of thirteen who has neither hairs nor beard is a minor until twenty years less thirty days and then a saris by his signs, or by thirty five and a day regardless; one whose organs were severed is an adult at thirteen and a day since he will never manifest signs; an androgynous remains in doubt with no physical sign that can ever settle it, and a tumtum only through an operation. (2:10, 2:11, 2:12, 2:13, 2:14, 2:24, 2:25)
RememberThe doubtful case is not split down the middle. It carries the adult's stringency and the minor's stringency at the same time.
Part 3Evidence, the court's calendar, and the twenty terms
- One woman is believed about the sign. A girl is inspected in her twelfth year or later by trustworthy, ethical women, and even where a single woman conducted the inspection her word is accepted as to whether the signs appeared. (2:20)
- Nobody is believed about the age except two fit men. The testimony of women is not relied upon regarding a child's age, nor that of relatives, and the matter is established by two men fit to testify in court. (2:22)
- A father's word binds but does not strike. A father's statement of his child's age is accepted with regard to a sacrifice, and with regard to vows, valuations, property forsworn and consecration, and is not accepted with regard to lashes or other punishments. (2:23)
- The years are the court's years. Wherever years are counted for a male, a female, valuations or any other matter, they are neither lunar nor solar years but the years as reckoned by the Jewish court, ordinary or leap as the court established them. (2:21)
- Twenty terms, and an instruction to the reader. A cheresh is one who neither hears nor speaks, while one who speaks without hearing or hears without speaking is an ordinary person; and the chapter closes by listing the twenty terms defined across these two chapters and directing that they be kept in mind at all times and not forgotten, so that their meaning need not be explained again. (2:26, 2:27)
RememberThe law tunes belief to consequence. One woman settles the sign, two men settle the age, and a father can obligate his child but cannot have him struck.