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Israeli Rabbi: Lower Marriage Age to 15

by Moria Ben-Yosef for YNetNews

ISRAEL — Initiator of new bill says legislation would financially help large families, curtail offenses. ‘Girls who do not want to study or work are a burden to the household,’ says Rabbi Asher Idan.

The Lobby for Jewish Values and Director of Jerusalem-based Kol HaNa’ar Rabbi Asher Idan has presented a new initiative to lower the marriage age allowed by law.

In the past few days, Chairman of the Lobby for Jewish Values Ofer Cohen has approached several members of Knesset from religious factions in order to garner support for the new bill.

Currently the age of marriage allowed by law is 17, and according to the initiators of the bill, lowering it by even one year would pose a significant difference.

“There are many Hasidic communities that are interested in lowering the marriageable age, namely Vizhnitz and Breslov,” explained Rabbi Idan.

“Some Hasidic communities are already violating the law by marrying at the age of 15-16. Parents of large families who cannot financially support all their children would be able to marry off their daughter earlier so that she can move into her husband’s house,” he added.

“Girls who do not want to study or work are a burden to the household,” Rabbi Idan noted, “In my opinion, these young people will contribute more to the State because they won’t go to nightclubs or waste their time looking for nonsense someplace else.”

‘Haredi press guilty’

Rabbi Idan said that lawyers are currently examining the legislative aspect of the bill, “We will curtail rape cases and violation of the law by allowing marriage a year earlier.

”This one year is significant. Nowadays boys and girls cannot have relations, and we will allow this by letting them marry, while encouraging and guiding them,“ he said.

The Kol HaNa’ar director is a colorful and renowned figure among the ultra-Orthodox community. Last February, he lashed out against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the latter stayed at a Tiberius hotel that did not have a kosher certificate.

In the past, Idan also bickered with the mayor of Tiberius after the municipality accused him of trying to disrupt the status quo between religious and secular residents by promoting an initiative to separate between males and females on city bus lines and place Shabbat sirens on the boardwalk.

The purpose of changing the marriage age, according to a haredi source, is ”to change the haredi view that has been prevailing in recent years, according to which girls must acquire an occupation before getting married. This approach is mainly held by interested persons such as directors of seminaries and different school who want as many girls to join their institution.

“The haredi press is also guilty,” the source added, “Because it promotes an agenda that says women must be educated. This is very unfortunate and is promoted not by rabbis, but by businessmen that control the education apparatus.”

‘Peer pressure creates crisis’

According to the source, in recent years the haredi public has been aligning itself with the secular one, in an effort to encourage haredi girls to study more and develop their careers.

“This creates terrible competitiveness. Peer pressure leads every girl to jump on the trend and study the most sought-after occupation at the most respected institution. This competitiveness creates crisis and tension, and estranges them from the values of the family and the home,” noted the source.

“Let us restore things to the way they were and stop trying to upgrade the haredi doctrine,” added the source, “The key is to give them an opportunity to marry early and this way save them from the pressure and the feeling that they must pursue an academic track, because many are not interested in studies.”

“At the moment we are feeling the pulse, and it seems that certain members of Knesset are showing interest. Some will be willing to take up the gauntlet,” claimed Cohen.

Rabbi Idan does not think that the age of marriage he is proposing is too young: “The Talmud says that you can get married at the age of 14. The Baba Sali married at the age of 13 and the Shulchan Aruch states that you conduct the Bar Mitzva ceremony and get married on the same day – You say Mazal Tov and bring out the bride.

”The woman is not the reason, she is the emotions. A woman isn’t reasonable; she is emotional and the man possesses the reason. They are two opposites that the creator of the universe brings together,“ he noted.

Idan is certain the bill will be passed by the Knesset: ”No one will oppose the halacha. The Knesset has witnessed the recent wave of crimes and offenses in both secular and religious families with many children, and this will solve our problems.“

MK Nissim Zeev (Shas) does not see a reason to change the age of marriage. ”Even if the bill is passed, it will not change things significantly and I don’t see women rushing to get married earlier. I also don’t think parents are going to want their daughters to Marry so young, except for special circumstances,“ he said, adding ”furthermore, I believe that studies help strengthen the family.”

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25 Comments

  • ch resident

    “The haredi press is also guilty,” the source added, “Because it promotes an agenda that says women must be educated. ”
    God Forbid A women should be educated then they might question our(men)authority. who doesn’t like playing with pup-its.

  • mushka south africa

    If the daughters are a burden to their family then they shouldn’t have so many children!

    This above article is totally contrary to the Rebbes thinking!!!!!

  • Moshe

    He is right.

    And bt the way, Halachikly speaking, the obligation to marry begins at 13 (for a boy) and 12 (for a girl), but because it is necessary to study before marriage, the Gemarah advices to wait 18 years to marry. But if you have no intention to study, and your Yetzer Hara is strong, it’s better to marry before 18. To marry earlier may be a segulah against many aveiros that are committed in the frum community. I know many frum people (included my parents) who married earlier (my mother was 16) and with good assistance, they lived a beautiful and happy marriage. There are of course some exceptions, but with proper guidance, there is no reason to fail. This is how our parents, grandparents, grand-grandparents got married. To wait too late before marrying is a chiddush of our generation, this is why I agree with Rabbi Asher Idan. People in our generation want to make us believe that marrying late was always the norm. That is not true. What education do our girls need other than proper Torah education? They can learn a job after marrying. And what about those large families? Marrying earlier is THE solution for them.

    Of course, every case is different.

  • sick

    sick….just the whole notion of girls basically being a burden unless they are married…that whole nonsense.and of course not having a childhood is not even a consideration.well i see some similarities with the Talibans.

  • shame on them!

    i really hope this doesnt pass!
    if u are willing to have many children, you must be ready and able to support them! what is this? ready to throw children into marriage and someone else’s care because they’re a burden! shame on them! yes girls must be educated so they can fend for themselves if need be! what if the husband canot provide? maybe if the mother of those girl were educated and could make some money, then they would not look to get rid of their kids asap!
    i am absoutely appalled!

  • girl

    I’m 13 and I don’t really want to get married at 15- maybe for some people but mostly, no one rly does

  • Milhouse

    #2, You have a huge chutzpah to write that “they shouldn’t have so many children” and then turn around and with the same mouth claim to know what is “totally contrary to the Rebbes thinking”! If there’s one thing a person can say that is totally contrary to the Rebbe’s thinking it’s that people should deliberately limit the number of their children. Everyone knows that; it’s impossible that you don’t, so you’re deliberately ignoring it. And that is the height of chutzpah.

  • Milhouse

    The article claims that this rabbi is the initiator of the bill. That is of course nonsense. How can someone who is not a Member of Knesset initiate a bill? The article doesn’t mention a single MK supporting it, which means there IS no bill. The whole story is a beat-up, typical of YNet. Why do people fall for this over and over? Responsible news aggregators should not quote YNet; if the story appears somewhere else quote it from there, and if it doesn’t appear anywhere else then it’s not a story.

  • Andrea Schonberger

    No way could I have been a REAL wife at 15. Girls and boys need to develop educationally, emotionally, morally, AND physically before they are actually ready for marriage. Marriage is serious business and teenagers are not equipped for such an undertaking.

  • Shmuli

    I think that we should bring it down the age to 3, the age Rivka got married. OK, only kidding. They should raise the age to 20. People really shouldn’t be great great great great grandparents by the time they turn sixty.

    Also, if people get married by the age of 12 they won’t have any wartime stories to tell their grandkids.

  • gibberish

    This is such nonsense that it isn’t worthy of any serious consideration. If he thinks the age should be lowered to 15 then he shoulc cross the border and practice wjat he preaches.
    Milhouse is right, This “rabbi” has no say in bill initator and he is expressing a personal view to which he is of course entitled. By the way to what age should the age for boys be lowered????

  • Milhouse

    Le’etzem ho’inyan, people who condemn this should learn what the Torah has to say about it. The gemoro says a man should to marry off his children “somuch lepirkon”. Have a look at what ages rabbosenu nesi’einu got married, and married off their children. (Our Rebbe and Rebbetzin, of course, got married quite late, first because of the war, then the communist persecution, and then the extreme financial difficulties of Beis Rabbenu; but that was an extreme situation and we can’t derive any lesson from it.)

  • fed up with sfardi mentality

    thank G-d i’m not a sefardi or this guy’s daughter – i’m a burden on his household, that’s probably not even taking into consideration how much his oldest daughter works and slaves in his house to wait on him hand and foot

  • Legal Advice

    Let them come to New York and get married at age 14, as can be done in New York with the permission of their parents and a Judge, and then Israel will recognize the marriages even at age 14.

  • sfardi

    hey it has nothing to do with sfardis we just cater ur stupid ashkenaz community let me remind u that it said that hey are mostly breslov and vijnitz which are 99% askenaz!! boo ya!
    sfardi parents wud never consider there kids a burden, we actually encourage to marry later than 19!

  • my opinion

    i think this is such a stupid article! If 19 is too young to get maried than 14 is definately too young!!!! You should not get married until you at least finish college. Otherwise the marriage is bound to fail. So many marriages here in crown heights suck cuz the guys are all away studying all day and kind of ignore their wives and kids. If you want to learn thats perfectly fine – gezunteheit! But work your butt off as well and provide as much or close to what the wife makes and your first priority must be your family. That is why most secular and modern orthodox marriages are good, strong, and beautiful while lubavitch marriage are really bad.

  • children are a blessing; not a burden

    Girls getting married earlier in order to take a burden off their parents shoulders is no solution. First of all women should be educated (especially if their husbands want to learn) in order to help bring income into the household. Secondly, a good wife is the voice of reason. If a husband respects his wife and recognizes that she is not property he will value her opinion. In fact, many women today are the ones that manage the money and pay the bills even if they’re not the ones working.
    In addition, getting married earlier will help produce more children which will require more money that is unavailable in most households today. Lowering the age of marriage will only put our teenagers and future in more danger – more children defeats the original purpose of removing a burden. Marriage is not a solution to all problems. When done right it can produce a beautiful relationship between two people that can now raise well behaved confident children.

  • CR

    “Girls who do not want to study or work are a burden to the household,”

    Yeah, what about boys “who do not want to study or work”; are they any less of a burden? It seem to me that older “children” who still lives with their parents need a “patch oifen tuchus” to do something and not loaf around on Mama and Tatte’s cheshbon! “Work” should not be a four letter word. And marrying off such a person unprepared for the rigors of adulthood simply transfers the “burden” onto the poor, unsuspecting new spouse; a sure-fire recipe for marital disaster!

    I think this “rabbi” is projecting some of his own failures to raise productive, responsible children in his own family and is looking for a legal “hekhsher” to pawn them off.

  • to #20

    To #20:
    I sincerely hope you’re joking. Those are MAJOR generalizations and rather pathetic statements

  • to #23

    Im the author of #20. I couldn’t be more serious! Marriages who make sure they have a living (a career, not a job) first, make their spouses and children a priority and make time to actually date their spouses are the marriages who work. I am not just talking about jewish marriages – im talking about catholic, jewish, and all other religions – and of all religious levels. Way too many marriages fail here and the guys do not know the first thing about being a father/husband.

    p.s. NO im not lubavitch

    p.p.s. im not talking about all marriages – im talking about a majority of them.

  • #20 are you serious?!

    That is why most secular and modern orthodox marriages are good, strong, and beautiful while lubavitch marriage are really bad.
    Seriously which Lubavitchers are you hanging around?!

    About the age thing; the younger one marries and starts having children the more children they are likely to have so that just allowes for more poverty and more children who are being born and the parents unable to afford feeding, clothing them etc.