Reply To: The Math of the Age Gap

AZ:

It is 9,000 guys to 9,000 gals with 1,000 gals left over.

My example was predicated on their being an exact even number of guys and gals. You can’t have 1,000 left over if all 9,000 got married.

When you meet Rabbeinu Gershom please ask him.

What happened in the 1,000 years SINCE Rabbeinu Gershom? Where was NASI all that time?

In addition this age gap induced problem is a relatively new phenamona (case in point-how many siblings did your parents and their friends have vs. how many families these days have 8/9 children).

In Europe we had more children than in America. A frum family in Europe with “only” 6-7 children (rather than the more typical 10-12) would be considered modern. (That’s a joke.) But any way you slice and dice it, we had more children in pre-WWII Europe (and pre family planning possibilities) than now.