Child marriage in Judaism

Child Marriage in Judaism is restricted to female children; the earliest point at which a male is permitted to become betrothed (Hebrew: erusin) is, in Judaism, the age of majority. Although boys were regarded, by classical rabbinic literature, as sexual beings once they had reached 9 years of age, girls were regarded as sexual beings from the age of just 3. According to the Talmud, it was permissible for an adult male to have sexual intercourse with a 3 year old girl, if she was maritally single; girls could be betrothed and married (Hebrew: ') at this age
A ketannah was completely subject to her father's authority, and her father could arrange a marriage for her, whether she agreed to it or not. If the father was dead, or missing, the brothers of the ketannah, collectively, had the right to arrange a marriage for her, as had her mother.
Annulment
For a ketannah, the first marriage imposed on her by her father was completely compulsory for her; the standard adult divorce process was necessary to terminate it. However, according to the Talmud, if the marriage did end (due to divorce or the husband's death), any further marriages were optional; the ketannah had the right to annul them, and a ketannah who did this was not regarded by legal regulations as a divorcee, in relation to the marriage. Unlike divorce, mi'un was regarded with distaste by many rabbinic writers; in earlier classical Judaism, one major faction - the House of Shammai - argued that such annulment rights only existed during the betrothal period (erusin), and not once the actual marriage (nissu'in) had begun.
The mi'un did not need to be explicitly declared for the annulment to take effect. If a ketannah merely demonstrated that she disapproved of the marriage, this would constitute annulment.
For a formal declaration of mi'un, the usual procedure was for the ketannah to say I do not wish to live with my husband, in the presence of two witnesses; her annulment would take effect immediately after this was said.
As mentioned above, there is an inconclusive dispute in the Talmud about whether a na'arah had the same restrictions or annulment rights as a ketannah. However, in the later middle ages, many rabbis tried to abolish child marriage altogether; this, though, was due to their distaste for mi'un, rather than due to any concern about paedophilia<ref name="JewEncMiu" />. Effectively, child marriage became nearly obsolete in Judaism<ref name="JewEncMiu" />; in modern times, it is an extremely rare event, as most areas with large Jewish communities have national laws against child marriage.

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