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

[Yitzhak Grossman]

On Wed, 2 Jul 2008 07:03:16 EDT
T613K at aol.com wrote:

...

> What about the rest of us?  Are we obligated to adjust our mental  furniture 
> so that marriage between a child and a middle-aged man no longer seems  
> distasteful?  I don't know.  It really is a good question.  I  must admit that I 
> have never found the picture of three-year-old Rivkah marrying  40-year-old 
> Yitzchak to be exactly romantically satisfying, either.  Even  allowing for the 
> fact that the marriage was not consummated until she matured,  it's not so 

It is certainly not a fact; Rashi (Breishis 25:20, apparently citing
Pirke D'R. Eliezer) implies that he consummated the marriage
immediately, and see Mizrahi and Sifsei Hachamim there, where the point
is virtually explicit.

> appealing.  When I found out that the Rashbam says Rivkah was  14, not 3, when she 
> got married -- I did feel better.

It is not surprising that Rashbam explains the chronology differently
from the Aggadic version, but note that Tosfos (Yevamos 64a s.v.
V'Leilef) suggest in one interpretation that the Bavli itself contains
an opinion that Rivkah was older than three.

> --Toby Katz

Yitzhak
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