דיני ממונות הטמאות והטהרות מתחילין מן הגדול דיני נפשות מתחילין מן הצד
and witnesses came and said: 'How can ye testify to this bond: were ye not with us on that day in such and such a place?' the bond is valid, and its signatories remain competent [witnesses], for we presume that they might merely have postponed writing it.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., they might have witnessed the loan on an earlier date, but have postponed writing the bond until the first day of Nisan (Rashi). [According to Yad Ramah, render, 'they might have post-dated it.' We do not assume that it has been ante-dated (v. infra) as there is a presumption in favour of all duly attested documents, v. B.B. (Sonc. ed.) p. 748, n. 16.]
');"><sup>16</sup></span> Now if you should think that inquiry and examination are necessary, how 'presume that they might merely have postponed writing it?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' If such an assumption is permissible, examination as to date and placed is purposeless.
');"><sup>17</sup></span>
Chovat HaTalmidim
As Rashi, may his memory be blessed, explains the word chinukh (education), in the verse (Deuteronomy 20:5), "who built a house but did not dedicate it (chankho) - "Chinukh is a term for beginning." But it is obvious that we would not say, chinukh, about any beginning. For example, when the Gemara (Pesachim 116a) says about the order of the Haggadah, "One begins with disgrace and ends with praise," we would not say, "One is mechanekh with disgrace, etc." And likewise regarding the Sanhedrin (Sanhedrin 32a) - that we begin from the side - we would not say that, we are mechankhin from the side. However in Parashat Lech Lecha (Rashi on Genesis 14:14), Rashi explains it further to us, as follows: Chanikhiv, etc. whom he had trained in the commandments. It is a term for introducing a person or a thing, for the first time, to some particular occupation in which it is intended that he should remain. It has a similar sense in (Proverbs 22:6), "Chanokh the lad," in (Numbers 7:84) "the dedication (chanukat) of the altar" and in (Psalms 30:1) "The dedication (chanukat) of the house."
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