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Age is a very important part of Jewish Halakha, with many dates being critical for one's responsibility, including Misos Beis Din (capital punishment). E.g. 3 year old girl can be betrothed and a male adulterer be killed for having relations with her (she is exempt as an Oneis till 12); 12 year old girl and 13 year old boy are liable for capital transgressions such as Shabbos, Avodah Zara.

I could not, however, find any obligation on a father or a mother or oneself or a Beis Din to keep track of someone's age. If so, how one is supposed officially to know his/her age? Birthdays in Judaism discusses celebrating, but not the necessity of knowing one's age.

Some say pubic hair are a sign, but this is only an approximation. Imagine two witnesses testify on someone transgressing Shabbos, but who's testifying on his age?

user15464
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Al Berko
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    A father is trusted to say that X is his son, even though he's (obviously) related to X. – Double AA Oct 28 '17 at 23:06
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    What (or who) is "Beilah" (4th line)? I'm trying to follow the transliteration, but, I'm a bit lost. If you would, please translate some of the "yeshivish" terms into English. – DanF Oct 29 '17 at 02:12
  • These days, everyone has a birth certificate. It's quite reliable, though, technically, someone could forge one. In the worst case, why can't a child or adult just look at that document and figure it out? Eventually, of course, once you reach a certain age, dementia may set in. If that happens, even if someone trustworthy tells you your age, it may not matter. Seems that you're asking 2 questions - 1) Is there an obligation for a parent to keep track, and 2) how does someone know. I think I've answered the 2nd question. – DanF Oct 29 '17 at 02:19
  • @DanF I know someone who was a refugee. They lost their birth certificate in the rush, and they never had any way to count their birthday. To this day he has no idea how old he is or when his birthday is; I believe they celebrate the day he came to America. – DonielF Oct 29 '17 at 05:23
  • @DanF OP's translit. of בעילה (intercourse), per San. 69a – Oliver Oct 29 '17 at 07:26
  • I may be mistaken, but other than halachos of Kavod for an elder at age 70, I believe there is no practical matter as to exactly how old a person is beyond 20 (I believe that's the age where even if one did not develop Simanim they become an adult in some fashion). I think it would be simple enough to determine whether someone is older than 20, although that does leave the 20 years beforehand up as a question. Regardless, interesting question, and +1 from me! – Salmononius2 Oct 29 '17 at 19:15
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    I don't know if Moshe (or anybody else) was obligated to keep track of his age but, nevertheless, he did; "Today, I am one hundred and twenty years old" (Deut. 31:2). I hope you too keep track of your age. (Can't wrap my head around how things would be otherwise: Beit Din: "Why didn't you circumcise your son on the eighth day?" Father: "I didn't know old he was." Beis Din: "He was just born last week! How could you forget how old he was?" Father: "Well, nobody told me I'm obligated to keep track of his age.") – Oliver Oct 29 '17 at 20:34
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    @DonielF Yes, situations like that do exist. I'm assuming this person never had a Bar / Bat Mitzvah (celebration, etc.)? I guess in such cases, one needs to approximate. Somehow, when you reach 50, either your body or your doctor is pretty quick to tell you your age :-) – DanF Oct 30 '17 at 02:57
  • @Oliver "but, nevertheless, he did" - I don't see how this proves that he did. It's very possible that G-d could have told him. Re the brit (and other important dates), many people are off by a day. The reason is that, at least in U.S., many Jews remember their Gregorian birth date, and celebrate then. You can, of course, use a converter to discover your Hebrew date. The problem is, that if you were born after sunset, you're birthdate is the next Hebrew date. Many people don't know what time they were born. – DanF Oct 30 '17 at 14:46
  • @DanF It's proof to the point of rational, IMO, unless you know of some source which indicates that God revealed Moses' birthday to him. – Oliver Oct 30 '17 at 15:15
  • @Oliver rational, yes. But, if you think about it, considering that he lived most of his early childhood in the royal palace, and the Egyptians had their own calendar, perhaps someone there convince him that he was born on an Egyptian calendar date, and that could have been "off", as well. All I'm suggesting is that these ideas are possibilities. – DanF Oct 30 '17 at 17:20
  • I made some minor edits by translating the yeshivish. It could still use some improvement. Additionally, you may want to briefly explain "Who's testifying on his age - is his father believed, but he's a relative." Most of our readers don't follow what the problem is. If it's easier, you can delete this piece, as I think the rest of the question would suffice. – DanF Oct 30 '17 at 17:25
  • @DanF I should, probably, make it a different question altogether - who's reliable to testify the age of a transgressor, or, criminal liability in general? – Al Berko Oct 30 '17 at 22:27
  • The simple answer is that it’s probably just extremely impractical to count one’s age in the days before a computer could let you know right away. “I remember I was born sometime before Chanukah, but I don’t remember how long ago. I tried keeping track, but I couldn’t count higher than 10528 days...” The Gemara in several places also seems to imply that a large percentage of Jews in those days were illiterate, or at least unable to write. – DonielF Dec 18 '17 at 15:11
  • How did I not see this when I read through this last year? 12 and 13 don’t matter as much as two hairs. While a child who hits puberty early has to wait for adult privileges, if I child hits 12/13 without hitting puberty, he’s not considered an adult until he does (or until he hits 20, at which point we give up). So age does matter somewhat, but not as much as you make it out to be. – DonielF Dec 19 '18 at 13:38
  • @DonielF But not the vice verse, even if he has the hairs he's not liable UNTILL he's 13. So the question stays, I think. Same with girls - נערה, בוגרת etc – Al Berko Dec 23 '18 at 14:29
  • @AlBerko Read my comment again. We’re not in disagreement; I’m just saying that while age does matter, it’s not as important as you seem to be making it out to be. – DonielF Dec 23 '18 at 14:55
  • There is an implicit obligation to keep track of one's age, or (more importantly) the age of one's children. Since it has halachic implications, it would be irresponsible - פשיעה - to not do so. Are we obligated to keep track of which day is shabbos? – Derdeer Feb 28 '21 at 02:37

1 Answers1

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There is no obligation to have Eidim (two male witnesses) present at every birth, as we are not trying to kill as many people as possible with Misos Beis din(death penalty). This is because the Gemoro Makos 7a says:

סנהדרין ההורגת אחד בשבוע נקראת חובלנית רבי אליעזר בן עזריה אומר אחד לשבעים שנה -
A Sanhedrin that executes a transgressor once in seven years is characterized as a destructive tribunal. Rashi explains - If you would have done this you would have increased murder in Isreal because people would no longer fear court.

And when we don't have eidim to prove his age, we cannot kill him:
Kesubos 15a says:

ספק נפשות - דיני נפשות להקל דהא והצילו העדה כתיב- במדבר לה- it is written in Bamidbar 35:"The Congregation (sanhedrin) shall save" - Death penalty is judged leniently when in doubt - which means until we have full proof with Eidim we cannot kill the subject to death.

So how can we ever put someone to death?
The answer is that when there are Eidim that know the boy has been in the world for 13 years (and 1 day) and the girl for 12 years (and 1 day) only then do we implement death penalty.
For example the eidim were invited to the Shalom zachor (thanksgiving lechaim) the following friday night after birth on wednesday night the first citing of that boy. When this boy is 13 years and 1 day later Beis din can only now Kill him if he has שתי שערות (two hairs of puberty), and is Mechallel Shabbos. Even though he is really 13 years and 3 days. The same would apply for a girl born earlier in the week and the eidim saw her at the kiddush next shabbos morning. However with regards to a woman, if she gave birth in front of eidim absolutely no proof is needed for her age (see backround info below) and she gets Misas beis Din. see Shulchan Aruch Even Haezer 155,12-14:

Bottom line: When there is doubt of age one is always strict e.g saphek Kiddushin requires a Gett, Saphek gittin she's ossur to Kehuna, Saphek Dinei Nefashos (i.e we have to be lenient not to kill them see above) we only know for sure how long he's been alive with proof of Eidim.

user15464
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    Isn't it weird? So many Halokhos deal with age and there's no approach whatsoever to monitor it. Doesn't it make the laws theoretical and not practical? – Al Berko Dec 17 '17 at 22:04
  • My question was not about what do we do in Sofek. We know what to do. But how come the Sages did not provide us with an obligatory system to minimize it? – Al Berko Dec 17 '17 at 22:10
  • @Al Berko if we obligate eidim to be present at the birth even though this will minimize saphek kidushin/gittin cases which is good, the flipside is that we are providing grounds for more people would get killed which the Beis din Avoid at all costs as it says in Makkos 7a "a Beis din that killed more than 1 in 7/70 years is a murderous Beis din" – user15464 Dec 18 '17 at 14:52
  • @Al Berko see my ammended version that incoorperates your point – user15464 Dec 18 '17 at 15:02
  • @AlBerko This could be generalized to an obligation to keep track of the passage of time for things other than people and the mitzvos that involve them, correct? E.g. When the Torah says "כבש בן שנה" does that form an obligation to keep track of the animal's age or just require that it meet the criterion when the time comes (as I think is the simpler way to interpret such rules)? – WAF Dec 19 '18 at 13:00