Torah Riddles Test #62

  1. Question: If two witnesses saw one hair and the other two witnesses saw another hair why don’t they combine to be complete testimony that a boy or girl has come of age but 3 sets of witnesses, one for each year a person has lived on a certain property do combine to prove that someone has the required amount of years needed to assume they are owners of that piece of property?

Background:

 A. The issue mentioned in Choshen Mishpat 30:13 is that a witness can’t testify on a half a matter, only on a whole matter.

 B. Two pubic hairs is a sign of bar or bat mitzvah.

C. 3 years of living or working the land is a chazaka or assumed status of ownership over a piece of land.

Answer: The Be’er Heitiv (24) says that each year is a complete unit by itself. That is all they can testify for that year, so it can be testified about by itself and then combined to equal 3 years of chazaka. But one hair isn’t a unit of measurement at all since both can be seen at once so it is only considered part of the unit of two hairs which is a sign of adulthood and a partial testimony isn’t testimony.