Yoma Chart #17

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FOOTNOTES:
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(1) These Halachos also apply to a female child, except that the different stages begin one year earlier than for the male child. (We left out the stages of a female child to make it easier to read the chart.)
(2) According to Rebbi Yochanan, there is never an age at which a child is obligated to fast an entire day mid'Rabanan. The only decree that the Rabanan enacted, according to Rebbi Yochanan, was that a child should observe a *partial* fast beginning one year before his Bar Mitzvah if he is weak, and two year before his Bar Mitzvah if he is healthy.
(3) The obvious questions on this opinion are, 1. How can the terms "Lifnei Shanah" ("one year before") and "Lifnei Shtayim" ("two years before") be referring to the same age? 2. How can "Lifnei Shanah" ("one year before") refer to *three* years before age 13? At earliest, "Lifnei Shanah" should refer to age 11 -- which is one year before the-year-before he matures, see footnote #4)! RASHI answers these questions by explaining that "Lifnei Shanah" means one year before the-year-before the child becomes obligated to fast the *entire* day *mid'Rabanan* (which is age 12 for a weak child), meaning age 10. "Lifnei Shtayim" means two years before the-year-before the child becomes obligated to fast an entire day *mid'Oraisa* (which is age 13), meaning age 10.
(4) Rav Huna and Rav Nachman infer from the Mishnah's wording "Lifnei Shanah" and "Lifnei Shtayim" that the Mishnah is referring to the years prior to *the year before the child's maturing* (i.e. age 12), and not to the years prior to the child's becoming obligated in Mitzvos (age 13). Had the Mishnah's intention been to list the years before the child's becoming obligated in Mitzvos, it should have said, "l'Shanah u'l'Shtayim" ("for one year and for two years"), like the Beraisa says, without the extra word "*Lifnei*." (RASHI DH Ta Shema)