Child Marriage
In Ashkenazi communities in the Middle Ages, girls were married off very young(12 1/2) because then they would be able to have children in the Jewish community. Some of the rabbis in the Talmud were in favor of having boys marry as soon as they reached the age of majority ( before 20). Those unwilling to marry after the age of twenty were considered cursed by God. Torah study was viewed as a valid reason for delaying marriage, but lifelong celibacy was discouraged. Despite the young threshold for marriage, a large age gap between the spouses was opposed. In modern times, child marriage is extremely rare in the Jewish community; it is banned by law in most countries.
Read more about this topic: Jewish Views On Marriage
Famous quotes containing the words child and/or marriage:
“When a child stays needy until he is fifty
oh mother-eye, oh mother-eye, crush me in
the parent is as strong as a telephone pole.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“It appears that ordinary men take wives because possession is not possible without marriage, and that ordinary women accept husbands because marriage is not possible without possession; with totally differing aims the method is the same on both sides.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)