Niddah, Chapter 5, Mishnah 8. This chapter follows the stages by which a child becomes an adult and the halachos that shift along the way. Our mishnah gives those stages a memorable image, drawn from something every listener in the Mishnah's world had watched ripen on a tree.
Three stages of a fig
"Mashal mashlu chachamim ba'ishah: paggah, bochal, vetzemel." The Chachamim compared the three stages in a woman's physical development to the three stages of a ripening fig. A paggah is a fig that is still unripe. A bochal is a fig that has begun to ripen but has not finished. A tzemel is a fig that is fully ripe.
What each stage represents
"Paggah, od tinokes." The unripe fig corresponds to a girl who is still a child, before any signs of maturity have appeared.
"Bochal, eilu yemei ne'ureha." The fig in its first stage of ripening corresponds to the beginning of her adolescence, the period the Mishnah calls her days of na'arus.
The father's rights during the first two stages
"Bazo uvazo, aviha zakai bimtzi'asah uvema'aseh yadeha uvehafaras nedareha." During both of these stages, the childhood years and the early years of adolescence alike, her father retains three rights. He is entitled to whatever she finds, he is entitled to her earnings and the products of her handiwork, and he has the authority to annul her vows.
Tzemel: the end of the father's authority
"Tzemel, keivan shebagrah, shuv ein le'aviha reshus bah." Once she reaches full maturity, the stage parallel to the fully ripe fig, her father's rights come to an end entirely. He no longer has a claim to what she finds or to what she earns, and he no longer has the power to annul her vows. She stands on her own.
The mashal is worth pausing over. Ripening is not an event but a process, and a fig does not jump from hard and green to soft and sweet. The Chachamim chose the image precisely because growing up works the same way, in identifiable stages, each one carrying its own halachic consequences until maturity is complete.