Niddah, Chapter 5, Mishnah 9. The preceding mishnah drew a parable from the growth of a fig: the unripe fruit, the fruit that is beginning to ripen, and the fruit that has ripened fully, corresponding to the stages through which a girl passes on her way to physical maturity. That parable, however, leaves an obvious question unanswered. In practical terms, how do we recognize that the final stage, the fully ripened stage, has arrived? Our mishnah takes up exactly that question, and records four opinions among the Tannaim.
The mishnah asks: "Eizehu simaneha", what are her signs? What is the bodily indication that a girl has reached the stage of development described in the parable?
The four opinions
Rabbi Yose HaGlili holds that the sign is "misheya'aleh hakemet tachas hadad": once the breast has developed to the point that a crease or fold forms beneath it, where it presses against the body. The appearance of that fold demonstrates that this stage of maturation has been reached.
Rabbi Akiva holds that the sign is "misheyatu hadadim": when the breasts incline and hang against the chest. This describes a somewhat later point in the girl's development, since it requires a larger measure of growth than the fold described by Rabbi Yose HaGlili.
Ben Azzai holds that the sign is "mishetashchir hapitomes": when the areola darkens. Here the indication is not a matter of size at all, but of a change in coloring.
Rabbi Yose supplies a fourth gauge, and his is framed as a test rather than as an appearance. Suppose one were to press with the hand, "yado", upon the tip of the breast, "ha'oketz": the flesh would give way under that pressure, "v'hu shokea", it sinks inward, "v'shoheh lachazor", and it lingers before rising back into place. The tissue has become soft and full enough that it no longer rebounds instantly, and it is exactly that slowness in recovering its shape that serves as the indication.
Reviewing the mishnah
Four Tannaim, four readings of the same body. Rabbi Yose HaGlili looks for the fold beneath the breast; Rabbi Akiva, for the breasts inclining against the chest; Ben Azzai, for the darkening of the areola; Rabbi Yose, for tissue that sinks under pressure and is slow to rise. Each is offering a way of translating the parable of the ripening fig into a sign that can actually be identified, so that the stage of physical maturation spoken of in the previous mishnah can be recognized in practice.