Niddah 48: Young Women's Breasts Again

We begin Perek VI today with a new Mishna.  It teaches that two pubic hairs are the definitive sign of womanhood.  If a woman's childless husband died, she is permitted to perform chalitza with her husband's brother.  If upper signs of puberty appear first, Rabbi Meir says that it must be that the two hairs fell out.  Thus she cannot perform chalitza nor marry her husband's brother.  The rabbis teach that she is permitted to perform chalitza or enter into levirate marriage.  In fact, the lower signs of puberty can appear before the upper signs but not the other way around.

The rabbis discuss the timing of lower and upper signs of puberty.  They turn to writings that order the development of these secondary sexual characteristics as proofs.  The rabbis then turn to the development of one breast before the other.  They note that this might have to do with the responsibilities that come with poverty, childcare, and physical labour.  An example of one young woman is shared.  At the end of our daf, we learn that women are considered by most of our rabbis to be those who will check for these signs of sexual maturity.  Rabbi Yehuda disagrees, not trusting women to judge young women accurately.  The rabbis agree that women are permitted to evaluated as long as they judge more stringently than leniently.

Again, we are forced to face the reality of young women's lives.  There is an understanding that young women's breasts will be watched, touched and evaluated by others even at the age of eleven. We know that scrutiny and evaluation of our bodies continues, and that it damage both women and men: women focus on the value of our bodies over all else, and men learn that women's bodies are somehow detached from our emotional and intellectual experiences.