Talmud Bavli
Talmud Bavli

Commentary for Kiddushin 58:19

אמר רב חסדא האי דעדיפנא מחבראי דנסיבנא בשיתסר ואי הוה נסיבנא בארביסר

R'Huna was thus in accordance with his views. For he said: He who is twenty years of age and is not married spends all his days in sin.' In sin' - can you really think so? - But say, spends all his days in sinful thoughts. Raba said, and the School of R'Ishmael taught likewise: Until the age of twenty, the Holy One, blessed be He, sits and waits. When will he take a wife? As soon as one attains twenty and has not married, He exclaims, 'Blasted be his bones!'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [MS.M. , 'May he be blasted'.]');"><sup>20</sup></span> R'Hisda said: The reason that I am superior to my colleagues is that I married at sixteen.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' So that my mind was entirely free for study.');"><sup>21</sup></span> And had I married at fourteen,

Daf Shevui to Kiddushin

Here we can get a sense of why the rabbis urge men (boys) to marry so early—to ward off “Satan.” This is probably a way of expressing the sexual urge. Unmarried boys over the age of puberty will almost certainly either masturbate or engage in illicit sex, both activities the rabbis did not condone. To prevent this, it would be best to marry as young as 14. But again, this does not mean that people actually did so.
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