It was a shidduch crisis. The young women were not getting married and a solution needed to happen. The greatest Rabbis of the generation got together and worked out a solution. They made enactments, and people took it seriously. The solution worked. Girls were able to get shidduchim once again, and a major social obstacle was overcome.
Fiction? No – Jewish Halachic history.
THE BACKGROUND
It was one of the enactments in a gathering called the Takanas Shum. The confluence of illness, danger and the crusades had contributed to the fact that there was a higher than normal mortality rate in the Jewish community. If a young woman’s new groom were to pass away, Chas v’shalom, the entire dowry that the bride came with – went to the husband’s family. The bride’s family did not get any of it back.
As a repercussion of this reality, many parents no longer provided their daughters with a large dowry. They did not wish to risk the significant sums of money that it entailed. As a consequence, the young girls sat single, with no prospects of shidduchim.
Something had to be done.
THE GEDOLIM GET TOGETHER
The great Gedolim of Medieval Europe, of the communities of Speyer Vermes and Mainz (forming the acronym Shum), gathered and made a number of takanos. Who were these great leaders? They were Rabbeinu Tam and the Rashbam, Rashi’s grandsons. The Raavan, one of the early Baalei haTosfos. Over 250 Rabbis, Rishonim were in attendance.
THE SOLUTION TO THE SHIDDUCH CRISIS
The takanah that they made at the gathering was to decree that if a husband chas v’shalom passed away in the first year of marriage, the dowry would not be inherited by the husband’s family, but it would revert back to the bride’s parents. If he passed away within two years of marriage, then half of the dowry would go back to the bride’s family (although this is a yesh omrim). The decree was passed and observed. The halacha is incorporated in the Shulchan Aruch and is mentioned in Even haEzer 53:3.
The gathering was held in the city of Troyes. It happened 857 years ago – in the year 1160.
But the result was that the Takanah worked. The parents of the brides began to once again give dowries and the young girls began to wed once again.
It solved the Shidduch crisis then.
WHAT WE NEED NOW
We need another Takanas Shum of sorts. We have girls that have not received shidduch calls in months – if not ever. This may be because of the disparity in numbers between available boys and girls, but whatever the reason may be – it needs to be resolved.
There are individual people and organizations that are attempting to address it. Reb Shlomo Yehudah Rechnitz tried to address it and even authored a number of articles and backed some initiatives too. But we need to make a macro-effort here.
This is something that should be on our spiritual agenda. If that Shidduch crisis of nearly 900 years ago so captured the attention of the Gedolei haRishonim, it is certainly be something that we should consider. The solution given then made it into the pages of our Shulchan Aruch. We need to address this issue on a grander scale.
The author can be reached at yairhoffman2@gmail.com
