Child marriage in Judaism

In Jewish Ashkenazi communities in the Middle Ages, girls were married off very young.Kiddushin (tosafot) 41a Despite the young threshold for marriage a large age gap between the spouses was opposed,Yebamot 44a and, in particular, marrying one's young daughter to an old man was declared as reprehensible as forcing her into prostitution.Sanhedrin 76a Child marriage was possible in Judaism due to the very low marriageable age for girls. A ketannah (literally meaning "little [one]") was any girl between the age of 3 years and that of 12 years plus one day; a ketannah was completely subject to her father's authority, and her father could arrange a marriage for her without her agreement. If the father was dead or missing, the brothers of the ketannah, collectively, had the right to arrange a marriage for her, as had her mother, although in these situations a ketannah would always have the right to annul her marriage even if it was the first. According to the Talmud a father is commanded not to marry his daughter to anyone until she grows up and says 'I want this one'.Shulchan Aruch Even Ha'ezer, 37:8 A marriage that takes place without the consent of the girl is not an effective legal marriage.Shulchan Aruch Even Ha'ezer, 42:1 If the marriage did end (due to divorce or the husband's death), any further marriages were optional; the ketannah had the right to annul them. The choice of a ketannah to annul a marriage, known in Hebrew as mi'un (literally meaning "refusal", "denial", "protest"), led to a true annulment, not a divorce; a divorce document (get) was not necessary,Yebamot 107a and a ketannah who did this was not regarded by legal regulations as a divorcee, in relation to the marriage.Yebamot 108a Unlike divorce, mi'un was regarded with distaste by many rabbinic writers, even in the Talmud;Yebamot 109a in earlier classical Judaism, one major faction - the House of Shammai - argued that such annulment rights only existed during the betrothal period (erusin) and not once the actual marriage (nissu'in) had begun.Yebamot 107a
In modern times, child marriage is extremely rare in the Jewish community; it is banned by law in most countries.
Rather than being seen as merely a literary device to quickly describe the populating of the earth, the biblical instruction to go forth and multiply was interpreted by the classical rabbis to mean that it was the duty of every male Jew to marry as soon as possible.Maimonides, Minyan haMitzvot, 212 Several Talmudic rabbis urged that children should be married as soon as they had reached the average age of puberty, which was deemed to occur at 14 years of age;Sanhedrin 76b however, it was also strictly forbidden, by classical rabbinical literature, for parents to allow their children to marry before the children had reached this age. Despite the young threshold for marriage, marriages with a large age gap between the spouses (e.g. between a young man and an old woman) were thoroughly opposed by the classical rabbisYebamot 44aSanhedrin 76a
The classical rabbis saw 18 as the ideal age to become married,Pirkei Abot 5:24 and anyone unmarried after the age of twenty was said to have been cursed by God;Kiddushin 29b rabbinical courts frequently tried to compel an individual to marry, if they had passed the age of twenty without marriage.Jewish Encyclopedia, Marriage Laws Nevertheless, the classical rabbis viewed study of the Torah as a valid reason for remaining unmarried, although they were only rarely willing to regard lifelong celibacy favourably.Yebamot 63b Since the classical rabbis viewed marriage as a duty deriving from the instruction to go forth and multiply, they also believed that the duty to marry ended once the husband had fathered both a son and a daughter;Yebamot 61a despite this, they also argued that no man should live without a wife even after he has several children.
=== Ability to give consent ===
Children, however, were not regarded as old enough to make an informed decision, and so could not consent to marriage themselves, although marriage to a female child was still permissible if her father consented, whether she agreed to it or not; if the father was dead, such consent could be given by her mother, or her brothers, but in this latter case the girl could annul the marriage when she reached the "standard" age of puberty (12), if she wished.
The mentally handicapped, and deaf-mutes, were also regarded, by traditional Jewish law, as being unable to give their consent; indeed, marriage to such people was forbidden. However, the rabbis allowed deaf-mutes to marry each other.
==References==
==External links==
*The Talmud Does Not Permit Sex With A Three Year Old
Category:Judaism
Category:Marriage