[Avodah] Yanik

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

AhS YD 244 is about  vehadarta penei zaqein -- both someone chronologically
old (as long as he is not a rasha or an am ha'aretz who therefore ends up
non-observant by ignorance), and a talmid chakham.

In se'if 3 he says that a zaqein for the sake of this mitzvah would even
include a TC who is a yaniq. Not a qatan. So what's a yaniq? Someone
17 or younger.

Are there any mitzvos for which 17 yrs old is a significant age?

The ony reference I could dream up is R' Elazar ben Azaria, who was 17,
was supposed to be getting kavod (being nasi), and turned gray (keben
shiv'im shanah) overnight. Problem is, he was 18 according to the Bavli;
it's the Yerushalmi who has him becoming nasi at 16, and saying this quote
at 17. And of cvourse the bigger problem is that there is no reason to
turn the age REbA happened to be into a cutoff line.

Can anyone think of something?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where
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