Twenty Words Before a Single Law

About This Talk

Chapter 2 is a chapter of definitions rather than rulings, fixing the vocabulary the rest of the Book of Women will use without further explanation. It runs the ages first, a girl a k'tanah until twelve, a na'arah once two pubic hairs appear after twelve years and a day, and a bogeret exactly six months later, with the clock alone insufficient, so that a girl without the sign remains a minor into her twentieth year and beyond, while an aylonit passes straight from child to adult with no maidenhood at all, and a woman who gives birth after twelve is an adult on that ground alone. It then rules that hairs grown before the age of majority are hairs from a mole and remain so even where they stay in place, unless no inspection was made before majority, in which case hairs found afterward are accepted and no speculation is entertained about when they grew. The doubtful cases follow and they are handled without compromise: hairs cuttable by scissors but not bendable point to base leave the person an adult wherever adulthood is stricter and a minor wherever minority is stricter, a girl with one upper sign and no lower sign is a doubt while all the upper signs together make her definitely an adult on the presumption that the hairs grew and fell, a male of thirteen and a day with upper signs is a doubt if his lower area was inspected and a presumed adult if it was not, and the androgynous is recorded as a case that no physical sign will ever settle. The chapter closes on evidence and on time, accepting the word of a single trustworthy woman about the sign while requiring two fit men for the age, accepting a father's word for vows, valuations and consecration but never for lashes, ruling that the years in question are neither lunar nor solar but the years as reckoned by the Jewish court, and then listing the twenty terms defined so far with an instruction to keep them in mind and not forget their meaning.