[Avodah] the cohen gadol and marriage to a pubescent girl

[Minden]

RMYG wrote:
>> (As an aside, physical maturity was probably even later in the time of the gemore, up to four or five years later.)
>
> What do you mean here?

Menarche, which dropped from about 17 years to less than 12 during the last 150 years. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puberty#Historical_shift ) It's difficult to extrapolate to the time of the gemore, though - it depends on a list of factors such as ethnic genetics, nutrition and the like. Still, chances are that at the time of the gemore, girls were nubile at a higher age than today, thus even widening the gap to today's societal standards.

Lipman Phillip Minden

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