Niddah 44 – נדה מד

Why does the mishna use the term ‘yom echad’ regading the age of a newborn (“a one day old baby” in the first mishna), and a three year old (“three years and one day” in the second mishna) if all that is needed is merely even a short moment i.e. as soon as he is born, as soon as she completes three years?

One thought on “Niddah 44 – נדה מד

  1. The gemara in erchin (18b) states that the age of a person is always measure by units of days, months and years and not in terms of hours. For instance, a boy born 12pm and another boy born 6pm will still become bar mitzvah at the same time i.e. at the beginning of the day thirteen years later. What follows is that as soon a child is born and enters his first day, even if only for a short time, he is considered to be ‘one day old’ – in line with the concept of miktzas hayom kekulo, a portion of the day has significance like a complete day. This means that we view the day as one unit, and he identifies with the day in its entirety.

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