Bratslav Rabbi “Detained For Questioning”
Suspected of Marrying Children Barely Old Enough to Bleed
The whole shomer negiah thing is hard for anyone, and certainly teenagers are hardly the exception. But at least in Yavne’el, Israel, the kids have some options!
Haaretz reports,
“Rabbi Shlomo Eliezer Schick, the spiritual leader of the Bratslav Hassidic movement in Yavne’el, near Lake Kinneret, is suspected of officiating the marriages of some 20 underage couples, mostly ages 12 to 16. Tiberias police began investigating the case some two and a half years ago, following complaints from the secular residents of the community.Police detained Schick for questioning at the Ben Gurion International Airport upon his arrival from New York.”
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How surprising! I would have expected it of Rav T and the Satmarrers before the Bratislavers.
—Big Bill · October 31st, 2005 at 7:36 pm
typical haaretz slander story.
One fact: police detained Rabbi for questioning and Rabbi released with restrictions (as Mobius knows, police can basically do what they want here). But the rest of the story is pure speculation with no corroborating information or examples in the flesh and blood.
The interesting history about marrying minors is that in Arab countries, the Arabs would take Jewish girls for wives and force assimilation. To prempt this decree, the communities would marry off the kids really, really young.
—josh · October 31st, 2005 at 11:35 pm
There is truth to Josh’s latter comment RE Arab marriage of young Jewesses. That is one explanation for the difference in custom between Ashkenasim and Sephardim in regards to Tallis wearing. Ashkenasim generally wait until marriage before donning the larger tallis, wearing up until then a tallit katan (‘tzistzis’). Sephardim wear tallits from the time they’re boys. I’ve been told that it was a general custom amongst Jews back in the days of old for all Jewish men to wait until marriage before wearing a tallit; but because Sephardim got married so young – to avoid having their daughters forced into marriage by Arabs – they wore a tallit young too.
—Ezra · November 1st, 2005 at 12:21 am
Rabbi Nachman got married at 14. He may have been pre-pubescent.
—Na Nach Naches · November 1st, 2005 at 12:22 am
I think Jews are kind of wierd. Is that true?
—schmiel · November 1st, 2005 at 5:22 am
Josh and Ezra:
If you’re going to post something as blatantly ridiculous as that, at least have the integrity to cite a scholarly acceptable source.
—AngerBoy · November 1st, 2005 at 3:27 pm
I’m with AngerBoy. As a Jewish feminist, I find it incredible that someone is attempting to blame Arabs for the exploitation of Jewish girls by Jewish men. We need to honestly look at the crimes within our community as well as the crimes committed against Jews by non-Jews.
—blamegame · November 1st, 2005 at 4:47 pm
My wife’s aunt was married at 14. My wife also reminded me that it was not unheard of for wealthy older Jewish men (20s, 30s) to offer money to the family in order to marry a young girl.
In hebrew, with more reasons. The professor states that there were bad side effects:
lib.cet.ac.il/Pages/pri…
—josh · November 2nd, 2005 at 4:51 am