Jerusalem – 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.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
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.”
Clearly after a year or two of HS they are no longer children.
there are issues, but this does not seem like the most brilliant solution.
What. Breathtaking. Stupidity.
Ben 18 lacupa did any one hear of that?
I think it’s time for us to have a licensing board and communications board so everyone that thinks up a mishugas cannot put it into the open as a Rabbi. A “right wing religious jew” by-line would be pretty bad as well but at least it would not be “Rabbi”.
Its a good solution and for the better this rabbi is mixing the Yotzros flip flop but the idea is a good one
THIS IS NONE SENSE!!
They will not get educated after marriage so they can find a descend paying job! All they will do is have children every year starting from age 15-16 instead of 18-19. at age 32 they will be out here in the US collecting for hachnuses Kalah for a father of 15-16 children (and couple of more to come…) And of course all of them we will have to help them buy houses!!!
Let them make a new law that no one should get married only with some degree so they have some knowledge and responsibility before they start building a jewish home! How is that sound? Ha?
So the solution to poverty due to having too many children is to marry them off earlier so they start having more children earlier and have less education. By the way who is supporting the new couple?
OMG, that is terrible! cant kids be kids anymore??? do they have to have babies at 16 …at that rate they can have 20 kids, why on earth wont they lets kids have their childhood anymore, surely they can help out with laundry and cooking/ cleaning if they are indeed a burden, what a horrible thing to say that kids are a burden!
New law: firemen will start putting out fires by spraying gasoline on the flames.
According to the Shulchan Aruch, Even Huezer Siman Alef Sief Gimel, the Mitzve Min Hamuvchar is to get married by the age of 13. If boys would be married at a young age, they would be prevented from committing terrible sins that are unfortunately committed by most teenagers. Of course there are those who stick their head in the sand and deny it, but lets not fool ourselves. I hope parents would come to their senses and marry off their childred at the youngest age possible.
How will marriage at 15 alleviate financial difficulties? It will only increase them, since now there will just be more people to support.
idiots like this guy,give judaism a black eye,any parent who would marry off their daughter under the age of consent which is 18,should be given a long prison sentence for child abuse,and the idiot who married her,should be locked up for statutory rape
The reason people got married at 15 back in the olden days was because the life expectancy was less than 40!
Let’s see… families are so big that parents are not able to care for their children, so the best solution would be…. (wait for it!) to have the children move out and start large families of their own at an age when they’re not emotionally or financially ready to handle it! Amazing! Some times, one wonders what these rabbis are smoking…
The full article says that early marriage will stop rape and keep young people from hanging out at clubs. Problem: Young people who are prone to rape and want to hang out at clubs are too immature for marriage!
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.” Yes, a much better idea, stay home birthin’ babies that they and their equally juvenile spouses can neither afford to take care of on their own, nor will they have the maturity to be successful parents. (And yes, I agree, children are a mitzvah but it’s better to set up a stable household first into which the blessings can be poured.)
The Rabbi was quoted as saying that the girls can be a burden to the household. Children a burden? I thought that frum people considered children a Brocha, a treasure from Hashem? Learn something everyday.
I am no one to speak for the small enclaves of charedi jews and how they live their lives. If they lower the age, fine. Its their community.
The halacha is like the shulchan aruch. And if you say people lived only till 35 then.your nuts.and to all you atheists who worry about supporting the babies,move to china and only have 2 babies to save money
What happens when the young married women grows up and realizes that she wants an education and a job and other things as other women do OUTSIDE the home?? Women mature faster than men!! It is common knowledge!! What happens then?? To the husband, kids?? She is not going to be happy scrubbing and washing floors all day every day and changing diapers and being a cook. She will want more from life. She probably will find it if she has no education she will look for it!! You cannot keep her in the dark for long!! I hope VIN posts this!
I can’t beleive the idiocy of this article. Maybe a better approach to their finacial difficulty is getting a heter from a rav so they don’t have the burden of too many mouths to feed. Anyone with their head in the real world knows that a married man or women does not gaurentee responsible behavior.
The idea of kids being ‘kids’ and ‘childhood’ is a goyishe, Victorian idea. None of the naysayers are part of a community where this arrangement would function, so I understand, but this is a very good idea for everyone concerned, and for the Jewish People as a whole.
Lets recap recent articles and laws trying to be passed in Israel. First article claims women are a distraction for male drivers, therefore, women should not be allowed to drive. Next article written was about a women sent to jail for wanting the Kosel to be available to all women for davening. Now an ariticle refering to our daughters as “burdens” and to marry them off at 13. Im not a supporter of womens lib, but I am very worried about the future of women in Israel. What are they trying to do and what message are they trying to give?
i dont think 15-16 year olds are mature and marrying them off so as not to be a burden to her parents is ludicrous.
all this casues is that when she will be 17 she will already have a child or two and then there is a bigger burden financially.
Better they should raise the age,and a girl find a husband who is willing to work and provide for his family, rathr than to live a life of schnoring.
The first question a girl should aask is what, and how do you plan to make a living. R U going to COLLEGE, and what is your goal in life?
Find a husband who will have a future, or at least try to make something of himself, and be honest, forthright, and have an even temperment. Come from a good home, and look at the parents, the brothers, sisters, and his family background.
How does the Father treat his wife, his work ethics, etcd..
The Torah law is rather clear – getting married young is considered ideal. As young as 13 for a boy, and as young as 12 (or even younger, in theory) for a girl. Obviously, in today’s day and age this is not usually feasible (never mind that it is illegal in most jurisdictions), but to dismiss someone out of hand for suggesting that boys and girls marry in their mid-teens is contrary to the Torah. Instead of trying to squeeze your worldview into the Torah, how about reconsidering your own misconceptions? A 25-year-old is not fundamentally more suited for marriage than is a 15-year-old.
To #32 With the economy now in all countries,you have to rely on yourself to bring in the money!! You cannot rely ion parents and grandparents — FACE IT!! People lost a lot of money in 2008 and 2009 and now people are tightening their belts. States do not want to give handouts unless they MUST!! It is about time some of these young men took responsibility — if they know the meaning of the word. Some have never gone shopping and do not realize how much prices have gone up on just stapes alone!! When you start a family the money literally flies out!! They need educations and JOBS!! I hope VIN posts this!!
To #49 , Use YourHead
I wish you had used your head when you made the idiotic statement that, “A 25 year old is not fundamentally more suited for marraige than a 15 year old’
It is very disheartening to read articles like this and painful to read comments from people supporting these foolish ideals and especially to do so in the name of Torah. As one comment here points out he is attributing sickening values to the Torah that even people without the benefit of the values of the Torah have made illegal.
I can’t begin to fathom what type of a person would imagine that in the present day and age it would be healthy or normal for a boy or girl to be Wed and the age of 13. 15 is sickening enough but 13!
The proposal comes from the “Chairman of the Lobby for Jewish Values Ofer Cohen” if these are Jewish values, then we have become a diseased people.
I became a Baal Teshuvah some 30 years ago. The orthodox Judaism that I saw and became a part of, is slowly eroding and being taken over by sects of extreme fanatics who have developed cult like groups who are making a claim to be representative of Judaism.
As much as I would hate to have to take the side of secular Jews and particular in Israel, the movement among them to rid the face of Judaism from these fanatics in quite appealing.
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.
Well, that certainly sounds like a very coherent reason to lower the marriage age!
all I can say is SIGH. for a nation thats supposed to be intelligent, we have some very stupid people and leaders. for all of you who agree with this nonsense, just marry the kid off right after his upsherin. face it, this is not the alte heim. the divorce rate is already thru the roof, and this will just cause more and more, causing more kids to become “leibedike yesomim”. I can positively say that anyone that agrees with this is probably totally lack of any education.
lower?anyone whose been married for over 25 yrs would suggest hiring it to 30imagine how much less solicitation there would be for chanusas kalh as just one of many benefits
What everyone seems to forget that back in the days when a boy or a girl reached 12 -13 years old they helped their parents on the farm or whatever the parents were busy with. The boys did not sit all day learning torah as much as we would love to dilute ourself into saying so. The girls helped at home and the boys in the farm. There was no mortgage, rent, tution, phone, electric, gas, water or grocery bills to name a few. You grew it, you ate it, you lived it and until we go back to that system of life, then yes a boy and girl should have some sort of an idea how they will manage all that before they or their parents take on a spouse for them. Having more poor families to feed when we cant manage the ones out there already does no one a favor especially the 13 & 15 year old teens!!!!!!
This is rape. Period. anyone who has any other opinion, thinks it’s okay for a child to copulate and reproduce has an attraction towards children. It is not better for a child to get married so she not get “exposed” to modern culture. She can spend this time learning a trade, a craft, a hobby…
As for Torah, too many frum men are addicted to a secular sexual ideology, back then they were not. It cannot be compared.
Are frum people so worried about modern culture, that they would subject their child to rape and a forced marriage? I agree with reply 24# this is a Muslim ideology.
So what’s better for the chareidi girl — to help her mother out with the younger children in the house or to leave and become a wife and mother herself?
Let’s be real: talk of “avoiding sin” is a reference to the boys. Sometimes to our embarrassment we display a very naive mindset. Never mind that the 15-year old’s child-wife will carry the brunt of the burden (of marriage and all it entails) both physically and emotionally and will probably want to run away from home by the time her third child is due to arrive, if she doesn’t suffer a breakdown beforehand.
I’ve known mature 16-year olds to marry, but most are much too immature to take on such responsibilities.
What??? If children are a burden then don’t have any. Or at least dont have too many. This is not a solution. It is a cycle then will never end. They will be married off at a crazy young age, they will have no education. Then they will have a lot of kids, then not have enough to support their own children. So they will marry them off at a young age as well, and so on and so forth. Genius!! How about, everyone getting a good education, stop being lazy and make something of yourselves so you dont become a beggar and feel sorry for yourself.
Child abuse takes many forms. This is yet another. IY”H the state will have more sense then to entertain such a notion. Someone has to protect the kids.
Why marry at 15? Invoke kedushah ketana, and get them out of the house at 3!
We may disagree with him, but what this Rabbi is saying has a source in Torah.
Halachikly speaking, the obligation to marry begins at 13, but because it is necessary to study before marriage, the Gemarah advices to wait 18 years to marry. But if 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 and with good assistance, they lived a beautiful and happy marriage. There are of course some exceptions, This is how our parents, grandparents, grand-grandparents got married. To wait too late before marrying is a chiddush of our generation, People in our generation want to make us believe that marrying late was always the norm.
So you all think that getting married and being allowed to have children before you are even allowed to drive is okay? That you don’t yet qualify for a job or to rent an apartment of your own, haven’t graduated school yet, but to make the most important decision of your lives at that age is all right?
But you criticize horribly the gentile world for all the teenage/underage mothers out there, right?
You people are delusional and borderline insane, if not far over the border already!