Description
The mishna in the last Perek of Masechet Yoma addresses the obligation of training one's young children to fast on Yom Kippur. Rashi tells us this is fasting "hours", i.e. the child usually eats at 9am, delay his meal for an hour or two. We will point out that this is not the mitzvah of chinuch per se, but rather a secondary obligation of "lehargilo b'mitzvot", a kins of exercise meant to train the child. Chinuch requires the ability of the child to fulfill the mitzvah in its entirety; here the child is fasting "hours" but does not conclude the fast. What's the law regarding other fast days? Does Halacha permit training the child to fast at a younger age than that specified by the Mishna?
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