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 * Portrait photograph of Horace Bixby and biographical note.
 * Portrait photograph of Horace Bixby and biographical note.
 * Portrait photograph of Horace Bixby and biographical note.



Life on the Mississippi (film)

Life on the Mississippi is a made-for-television feature film, based loosely on the book of the same title by Mark Twain. It was directed by Peter H. Hunt, and starred David Knell as the young Mark Twain and Robert Lansing as his teacher, Horace Bixby. It aired in 1980 as part of the PBS series, Great Performances, and was released for home video in 1984 by MCA Entertainment. It was the first in a group of films directed by Hunt based on Twain's work.

Marriagable age
The Jewish view of what the proper age for marriage is has varied greatly across the span of Jewish history and the wide range of cultures within which Jews have lived. Views have also differed as regards males and females, and with the circumstances of the individuals involved.

=Legal background=

Jewish law (halakha) recognises two age statuses for males and three for females. A male under thirteen is considered a minor (katan), with no legal liability, or capacity to incur an obligation. As a result, he is incapable of entering into either erusin or nisuin, by his own action or by that of anyone else. From the age of thirteen years and a day, he is considered fully an adult (gadol) and can marry at his own will. Similarly, a female under age twelve is termed a minor (k'tana), with similar lack of capacity. But specifically with respect to marriage, her father is authorised to act on her behalf. Thus, he can both "betroth" her, that is, accept erusin on her behalf and (at the same time or subsequently) give her over to nisuin, that is, consent to her beginning to cohabit with her husband. Although a female becomes an adult (gedola) with full legal liability at age twelve, for the six months which follow, her father retains sole power regarding her erusin and nisuin. During this period, she is termed a "youthful female" (naara). At the age of twelve years and six months, she acquires the status of a "mature female" (bogeret) and can marry at her own will. A marriage contracted for a minor girl by her father is of full effect according to Torah law, and thus can only be disolved by divorce or widowhood. The father's ability to marry off his daughter in this manner can only be exercised once. cite. If her first marriage ends due to divorce or the death of her husband, she is considered "an orphan in her father's lifetime", with full control of her own marital destiny.

If a minor girl's father is dead, her mother is empowered to marry her off just as her father could have done, and her brothers, acting collectively, can do so as well. This arrangement was created by Rabbinic enactment, rather than by Torah law. Its purpose was to provide a fatherless girl with another adult male who would have a strong personal interest in maintaining her chastity. This was necessary, as, in some of the societies within which Jews lived, the absence of such a protector would mark the girl as free for sexual exploitation by the general public. If the marriage continues until the the girl's majority, it then acquires full effect according to Torah law, and can only be disolved by divorce or widowhood. However, so long as the girl remains a minor, she can annul the marriage without the husband's agreement, a process known as mi'un.

and would not be had the right to arrange a marriage for her, as had her mother, although in these situations a ketannah would always have the right to annul her marriage even if it was the first. A marriage that takes place without the consent of the girl is not an effective legal marriage. If the marriage did end (due to divorce or the husband's death), any further marriages were optional; the ketannah had the right to annul them. The choice of a ketannah to annul a marriage, known in Hebrew as mi'un (literally meaning "refusal", "denial", "protest"), lead to a true annulment, not a divorce; a divorce document (get) was not necessary, and a ketannah who did this was not regarded by legal regulations as a divorcee, in relation to the marriage. Unlike divorce, mi'un was regarded with distaste by many rabbinic writers, even in the Talmud; in earlier classical Judaism, one major faction - the House of Shammai - argued that such annulment rights only existed during the betrothal period (erusin) and not once the actual marriage (nissu'in) had begun.

Despite the young threshold for marriage a large age gap between the spouses was discouraged, and, in particular, marrying ones young daughter to an old man was declared as reprehensible as forcing her into prostitution. According to the Talmud a father is commanded not to marry his daughter to anyone until she grows up and says 'I want this one'.

Tosafot records that in European Jewish (Ashkenazi) communities in the Middle Ages, it was nevertheless customary for girls to be married off very young. This is explained as being due to the fact that "the hardships of the Exile grow worse with every passing day, so if a man can dower his daughter today [he will hasten to marry her off, lest] tomorrow he will not be able to, and she will remain unmarried forever."

Child marriage was possible in Judaism due to the very low marriageable age for females. A ketannah (literally meaning "little [one]") was any girl between the age of 3 years and that of 12 years plus one day; a ketannah was completely subject to her father's authority, and her father could arrange a marriage for her without her agreement.

Child marriage
In Ashkenazi communities in the Middle Ages, girls were married off very young(12 1/2) because then they would be able to have children in the Jewish community. Some of the rabbis in the Talmud were in favor of having boys marry as soon as they reached the age of majority ( before 20). Those unwilling to marry after the age of twenty were considered cursed by God. Torah study was viewed as a valid reason for delaying marriage, but lifelong celibacy was discouraged. Despite the young threshold for marriage, a large age gap between the spouses was opposed. In modern times, child marriage is extremely rare in the Jewish community; it is banned by law in most countries.

Cantonists
At the end of 1834 rumors began to spread among the Jewish masses concerning a law which was about to be issued forbidding early marriages but exempting from conscription those married prior to the promulgation of the law. A panic ensued. Everywhere feverish haste was displayed in marrying off boys from ten to fifteen years old to girls of an equally tender age. Within a few months there appeared in every city hundreds and thousands of such couples, whose marital relations were often confined to playing with nuts or bones. The misunderstanding which had caused this senseless matrimonial panic or _beholoh,_[1] as it was afterwards popularly called, was cleared up by the publication, on April 13, 1835, of the new "Statute on the Jews." To be sure, the new law contained a clause forbidding marriages before the age of eighteen, but it offered no privileges for those already married, so that the only result of the _beholoh_ was to increase the number of families robbed by conscription of their heads and supporters.

A Hebrew word signifying "refusal, denial, or protest"; used technically by the Rabbis to denote a woman's protest against a marriage contracted for her during her minority; also the annulment of such a marriage.

A marriage contracted for a girl minor by her father was regarded as valid; and it necessitated the formality of a divorce if separation was desired (see Daughter; Majority; Marriage). If, however, the minor was divorced or widowed after she had been given in marriage by her father, and then, while still in her minority, married again, or, in the case of the father's death, was given in marriage by her brothers or by her mother, even when her consent was obtained, such a marriage was not valid until she reached the age of maturity. During her minority she might at any time declare her aversion to her husband and leave him without a geṭ (Yeb. 107a). Nor was any formal declaration on her part necessary. If she in any manner showed her disapproval of the marriage contracted for her, or if she accepted betrothal-money ("ḳiddushin") from another man, she was released from the bonds of the marriage previously contracted in her behalf (Yeb. 108a; Maimonides, "Yad," Gerushin, xi. 3; Shulḥan 'Aruk, Eben ha-'Ezer, 155, 3).

Form of Mi'un. The usual procedure in regard to mi'un was that the minor said, in the presence of two witnesses, "I do not wish to live with my husband . . . ," or used some other phrase denoting the same idea, and thereby became released (Yeb. 108a). Originally it was the custom to make out a so-called "geṭ mi'un," in which the minor declared, "I do not like him; he does not please me; I do not wish to remain with him as his wife." This was subsequently abolished, and the following practise was introduced: The two men before whom such a declaration was made prepared a document, which, however, was not necessary for the minor's remarriage, since she became free as soon as she had made the declaration (Yeb. 107b, 108a). This document, as given by Maimonides ("Yad," l.c. xi. 11, and with a few unimportant variations in "Or Zarua'," i. 687), reads as follows:

"On . . . [day of the week], the . . . day of the month . . ., in the year . . . according to the . . . era, . . ., daughter of . . . , protested before us and said, 'My mother [or my brothers] deceived me and gave me in marriage [or betrothed me] to . . . , son of . . . , and now I declare before you that I do not desire him, and that I will not stay with him.' We have examined this . . . and are satisfied that the girl is yet a minor, and have written and signed and given [this] to her as a document and a clear proof. ...................., witness. ...................., witness."

If the marriage was contracted for the girl before she had reached the age of six, or after that agewithout her consent, the formality of mi'un was not necessary. If the marriage took place with her consent when she was between the ages of six and ten, mi'un was necessary if she showed signs of intelligence and of appreciation of the symbols of marriage. After ten, mi'un was necessary even if the girl manifested no signs of intelligence (Yeb. 107b; Giṭ. 65a; "Yad," l.c. xi. 7; Eben ha-'Ezer, 155, 2). Since mi'un was regarded as an annulment of marriage, and not merely as a separation, like divorce, the girl might afterward marry any of the relatives of her presumptive husband, and he any of her relatives. She might marry a kohen, or might remarry her previous husband, even though she had been married to another after mi'un (Yeb. 108a; "Yad," l.c. xi. 16, 17; Eben ha-'Ezer, 155, 10; see Divorce).

Antiquity of Custom. The institution of mi'un seems to have been of very early origin. The Rabbis speak of it as a wellestablished custom, although some of them look upon it with disfavor. Bet Shammai restricted mi'un to betrothed minors, and prohibited it after marriage had already taken place (Yeb. 107a). Bar Ḳappara includes mi'un among the things which one should avoid (ib. 109a); and one is therefore advised against associating oneself with witnesses for the purposes of mi'un ("Yad," l.c. x. 16). In the Middle Ages some of the rabbis vigorously objected to the marriage of minors, giving as one of their reasons the desire to make mi'un impossible (Tos., Yeb. 109a, s.v. " Wayitraḥeḳ"; "Haggahot Maimuni" to "Yad," l.c. xi. 1; "Or Zarua'," i. 686; Eben ha-'Ezer, 155, 1, Isserles' gloss).

In the fifteenth century R. Menahem of Merseburg wished to abolish the institution of mi'un altogether; and while he did not secure for his decree unanimous adoption, the sentiment against the marriage of young children, which became stronger in later times, and the diffidence with which the Rabbis approached a case of mi'un on account of the conflicting opinions, caused this institution to become almost obsolete (see Judah Minz, Responsa, No. 13, Fürth, 1766; Eben ha-'Ezer, 155, 22, Isserles' gloss; and "Pitḥe Teshubah," ad loc.; see also Majority).