Lower the age to 12 as it used to be with our people since its inception thousands of years ago. Then came stupidity and evil and upped it ever since to never marry.

religious bull crap is exactly what's wrong with this country it's demeaning for woman to be qualified unjustly. this dark ages BS should be foiled. go home rabbi!!! there is a thing call science. and there is no better reasonable instrument than this. religion should be put to trash bin! man can be emotional and unreasonable and woman can be reasonable and wise. it's not an absolute. it's depends individually for each person whether female or male. even the bible don't support that. Deborah was a judge and army leader. could an emotional and unreasonable woman to be at that position?

oh yea, Golda Meir is the best proof ; ) When does A girl get Mature? It doesn't come with age...... Some girls are 16 and are mature.....some are above 50 and they are not mature remember Sarah B : )

If you can't support a large family , don't have one . Marrying a girl at 15 ? she's still a girl , not an adult who can chose her future husband [ if her future one is not imposed to her ]

There has been NO talk of this in the "mainstream" hareidi community, nor should there be. Most girls get married at 18-20, and boys at 21-22; which is quite early enough, and no-one would want them to get married earlier. Either a) this guy has been misquoted; b) he's a total idiot; or c) he's discussing some tiny enclave of hassidim who probably do what they like anyway.

According to science, until the age of 18 the womens body is not ready for motherhood and early pregency can cause complications. Get educated rabbi and keep your dark ages crap with you. As an Israeli citizen, i strongly oppose this law.

Younger marriage means more children born into these poor and uneducated families. Israel turns into a welfare state and these selfish Rabbis encourage this destruction of Israel.

So the answer to the problem of families who have more children than they can afford to support on state welfare they get is to marry them off earlier so they can get their own state welfare??? The sick haredi entitlements need to end now. This is not Jewish values - this is theft. Here's an idea that won't leave us all broke and won't allow sick rabbis to legalize rape: HOW ABOUT CONDOMS?

Someone with an unfortunate sense of humor wrote this to keep our minds off our troubles, right? Because no one in his right mind could really espouse such views...

They don't work , they don't serve and reproduce like rabbits ;) ,...

This ranks with the ignorant and idiotic proposal to raise the speed limit.

This is a really stupid idea,a 15 year old child is not able to deal with marriage and childbirth at such a young age. It is just a way for the rabbi to get more welfare monies to the religious sector,while the secular public shoulders the burden of paying for the increased number of religious families on the dole. It does not limit child abuse,there will e nothing to stop an older religious an from marrying a 15 year old child, and abusing her. There is a reason why a 15 year old is considered a child! Is Israel turning into a third world Arab country where 15 year olds can marry, and then who knows will the rabbi decide that a 10 year old girl or younger can marry...I say no! If this is allowed to happen Israel will lose!

This rabbi lists a number of concerns in the Haredi community -- and all of them are symptoms of horrible dysfunction. Large families that can't support themselves, children (yes, a 15 year old girl is still a child!) without appropriate frameworks, sexual tensions and crimes b/c boys are not given appropriate academic skills or means to support themselves, abnormal separation of the sexes and a reliance on the welfare of the State. Perhaps leaders of the haredi world should be looking at all of the underlying problems and not try to band-aid the symptoms!!

Those people really live in another dimension ! There is no place in a modern society to things like this. A 15 yo girl is a teenager who's barely able to know what's good for her or not. They obviously never read any book on psychology nor pedagogy ! Is using your own daughters as incomes to sustain your own family what you've been teaching to your children?

to allow men to marry more than one wife.

When I went to sleep last night (?) I thought it was a few days before Tu BiShvat. I didn't realize I slept from then until the day before Purim!

Sex offenders are predators. They locate their easy prey and ruin their victims' lives. Children 15 years old, will still be children 15 years old, even when they are re-labeled as adults withy rights to marry, etc. Their brains are not fully developed. Their emotions, etc. are not ready for such longitudinal committments and stress. This particular rabbi should become a used car salesman, although I am not certain of his success to convince people to buy somebody else's previous problems. Maybe he should go live in Islam where 6 & 7 year old baby girls are deemed ready for marriage. Maybe he can convince them to raise the age to 15?!

This is state sponsored human trafficking, and nothing less. A 15 year old does not have the maturity to understand marriage. Further, in the Haredi community, it will be the Father who makes this decision. The result: de facto human trafficking. A woman is forced to engage in behavior she does not understand. Therefore, no consent. This is an outrage! This is another example of completely outrageous behavior, by a leader of our religious community. The further these "leaders" stray from even remote common sense, the further away they reside from the average Israeli. This kind of thinking drives Jews away from the Jewish community. How can anyone sane minded Jew allow themselves to be part of this insanity?

The Hasidic community really does seem to come off as introverted & bizarre the more exposure they get. Do not know what to make of that lot.

It seems that our neighbors are having a growing influence on us by the day. This Rabbi should move to Iran or Afghanistan.

I would have thought someone might agree with this dunce.

In that case, you would curtail most cases of pedophilia on most gentle way - no pedophilia, no case! And in that way - you are preventing any going to public schools, therefor, saving money of tax payers! Of course, all most unfortunate consequences we can gently tie to "Tora says so!" (although you do not have a single line where it would be permissible). And we flog all who says otherwise.

This "rabbi" is an idiot, and an embarrassment to other Jews. The Baba Sali? Well, we know the cultural environment in which he was raised. Idan's arguments parallel those of fundamentalist Muslims who follow the model of Mohammed who, according to tradition, married Aisha at SIX and consummated that marriage when she was nine. And so within the Muslim world you the phenomenon of middle aged men marrying girls who are still children. (Most today consider this pedophilia.) And when people in with better sense (and decency) in those Muslim countries try to raise the minimum age for marriage to 15 or 16 the imams rise up in opposition. And like Idan, they too think "a woman isn't reasonable". We have better sense than that. Maybe Idan should move to Yemen. He'll fit right in. I'll even chip in for his ticket. At the least he should be stripped of his ordination and kept away from children.

They just want to make sex with a minor a legal – an why not? It would thwart many arrests from the sick child molesting Haredi men. It is not and never will be OK for a 15 year old girl to get married and have a sexual relationship, let alone risk her life to give birth. It’s beyond sick. A 15 year old can’t vote but would be allowed to get married? A 15 year cannot work legally, so all the parents are doing is fobbing off their offspring and forcing them to fend for themselves And what happened to school? Where does that come into the equation? I feel, if it's possible, more revulsion for these people than I’ve ever felt before.

In the Amish/Mennonite communities the girls are trained to be mothers and wives. So they are an example of what is possible even in this age. But you will ridicule what you are ignorant of. If your priority is a non-dysfunctional family and working as a unit instead of many self centered individuals that usually make up a family it is possible. Yeah for most of you it would be impossible. Truth be told you wouldn't be ready until 40 or more.

I don t think this would be a good thing to mothers of large families .These girls are very needed at home ,they help lighten the burden of their mother.

be sure that you give her a kitchen with a 42 cm high sink, for the dishes. How correct you are Asher Idan.With your class of girls, being a burden to the household is turning into a plague of your own making ---- Same as you, being a burden to our society and our govt. I stayed at the Tiberius hotel because it didn't have the additional rip-off you enjoy clipping from gullible customers. These stupid rabbis with their medieval ideas, just like their islamic cousins. Maybe we should have a sale at the Mall for 12-13 years old girls, so those old rabbis, bald, unkept beard,cane and cash on hand can have the last fling of their lives ---- You are right Idan. Women have no sense; characters of your stature will turn them into SCHMATTESS before the ripe old age of 19. You are a despicable jew.

Because they had a LIFE EXPECTANCY of 40!

She raised the greatest Prophet of all time. Second to that was her cousin Elizabeth who gave birth in her old age to John the Baptist of whom Rabbi Yeshua said none greater was born of woman. He was greater but he was born of a virgin. So it would seem that the best children are born to teenage girls and old or older women. The best lifelong protection from breast cancer for a woman is to have a baby before the age of 18. On the other hand, Aristotle the great Greek thinker said the problem with early age marriages for females is that they tend to become promiscuous later in life. But that was Greek pagan society not a Torah based culture.