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

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 01, 2008 at 03:32:27PM -0500, Josh Skolnick wrote:
> : There have been many responses so far implying that a change of outlook is
> : warranted, which I would agree with, however what should be the outlook.
> : What I mean by this is do we say that a young child can get married to
> : anyone, or only to certain people? ...
> 
> Interesting question: Is the implication that we ought to be getting
> married that young, or that this is something specific to the kohein
> gadol?

Ought to be?  I know of very little (though not nothing) indicating
that girls ever "ought to" have got married that young; I think it
was always regarded as simply what people did, rather than as some
moral imperative.  I think we today should regard it much as we do
cousin marriages: morally neutral, used to be common, is no longer
common, there are perfectly understandable reasons *why* it's no
longer common, but if once in a while it happens, mazel tov.

In the course of my reading I've come to understand that many or most
USAn goyim feel an actual revulsion towards cousin marriages, that they
feel it's actually unnatural and immoral, rather than just unusual;
AFAIK no such attitude exists among those who have grown up O-Jewish,
even in the USA, and I don't think anyone would say that it should be
banned because of "darchei noam".

I think the same attitude should apply to young marriage, *if* the girl
and both her parents agree that it's right for her, and they seem to
know what they're doing; the fact that the outside world has newly
invented a revulsion to such marriages shouldn't affect us one way or
another.  There are many practical and rational reasons why young
marriage is inappropriate for 99% of girls today, but in those cases we
should oppose the marriage for those reasons, not because it's
*inherently* wrong; in the rare case where those reasons don't seem to
apply, or where those in the best position to know say they don't apply,
we should not oppose it.


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas