For the source text click/tap here: Yevamot 108
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Our Rabbis taught: What is regarded as mi’un? — If she said, ‘I do not want So-and-so my husband,’ or ‘I do not want the engagement that my mother or my brothers have arranged for me.’
Yet a minor girl can be married off by her mother or brothers. Our daf establishes the rabbis' opinions regarding her right to refuse that marriage. Her refusal can be to anyone, anywhere, any time - even after the marriage has been consummated. It is fascinating that the act of sexual intercourse, usually used to finalize the act of acquisition, is utterly meaningless in this one situation.
It is as if she were never married at all - she is able to go back to her family and partake of teruma if she was a priestess marrying an Israelite, for example.
We explore child custody in Jewish and Israeli law and how the legal rationale for the relationship between parent and child gradually evolved.