Thanks. The shidduch system that we have today is a lot different than the system they used for 3,500 yrs. There was a completely different dating method. Boys never took the girl on ten dates before he decided that he actually liked her looks, personality, sense of humor…It was much more like the chassidish way of dating where the parents basically chose a boy/girl and they met once or twice. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think there are much less older singles by the chassidim because of this. My chassidish friends can’t understand how we can date so many guys to try and find Mr. Perfect. They met one or two and shoiyn, it’s perfect.
mepal,
Sounds like you are presenting a very good argument for us to move towards the Chasidish shidduch model. Based upon your writings, this should help alleviate the age gap issue.
But what perhaps was similar for 3,500 years, was the point that the men were appreciably older than their wives. If that is in fact the problem, we should have been experiencing this age gap issue for the past 3,500 years.