daf bit: Kiddushin 41

[cellio]

The mishna teaches: a man may betroth a woman directly or through an agent, and a woman may be betrothed directly or through an agent. A man may give his daughter in marriage when she is a na'arah (literally a young girl) but not when she is a minor. The gemara expands this last point: a man must wait until his daughter grows up and says "I want So-and-so". (41a)

I had previously thought that a na'arah was an undifferentiated young girl; now I wonder what the precise definition is with respect to "minor", which I take to be "before the age of bat mitzvah". I think it might be past time for me to acquire a good talmudic dictionary/glossary; any recommendations?

(Today's daf is 43, which is in the middle of a long discussion of agency based on this mishna, which was too complicated to try to summarize or excerpt for a daf bit.)

Comments

[kmelion.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Na'arah means once she's hit puberty?

[ticklethepear.livejournal.com]

I was thinking along the same lines - onset of menarche?

I read a study about adolescents in Morocco, and the authors chose the age of first mensturation for girls and the age when boys start fasting for Ramadan as rough guides to determining when adolescence begins.

[cellio]

That's consistent with this context. It just doesn't track with my previous impression -- not that I can cite a pedigree for my previous impression, mind, so this isn't an argument against this interpretation.