One of the attacks often mounted against Hasidic life is a notion that Hasidic parents take a seventeen year old girl and eighteen year old boy, place them in a room against their will and an engagement is declared thirty minutes later.
I won’t start quoting now Talmud, Jewish by-law and other Sefurim to debunk this. However, let us just look how it works: “Shiduchim” (matches) are read to boys, girls and their parents. If either one of the list rejects, it is off the table in many households, while in others households even if the parents object, the Shiduch proceeds if the boy and girl so decide.
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