On June 22, 2026, influencer Ian Carroll posted a tweet claiming the Talmud permits the rape of Gentile babies under three years old.

It doesn’t. Not even close.

The claim is recycled centuries-old antisemitic slop — popular with Carroll, Dan Bilzerian, and their ilk — that deliberately strips ancient legal text out of context to make it sound like something it isn’t.

Here’s what the Talmud actually says.

What Carroll is distorting

The passages Carroll and others cite come from discussions about legal consequences — specifically, dowry rights and marital status under ancient biblical law.

In Ketubot 11b, Rabbi Meir rules that a girl who was raped before age three retains her full virgin’s dowry when she later marries, because at that age the hymen grows back and thereby restores her physical virginity. Another sage, Rava, explains this using an analogy: it’s like poking a finger in an eye — a tear falls and another replaces it.

In Niddah 44b, rabbis similarly debate the minimum age at which intercourse would legally alter a girl’s marital or purity status under ancient betrothal law.

None of this is permission. None of it is encouragement. It is forensic legal debate — rabbis working through edge cases of ancient law, asking: if this crime occurs, what are the downstream legal consequences for the victim?

What Jewish law actually says

The Talmud says explicitly that seducing a minor is considered rape even if she verbally consents (Yevamot 33b). Rape itself — of adults or children — is forbidden throughout Jewish law.

Later authorities reinforced this. Maimonides, the 12th-century legal giant whose rulings still shape Jewish practice today, explicitly prohibited pre-marital intercourse, interpreting Deuteronomy 23:18’s ban on prostitution to include all pre-marital relations. The Talmud itself (Kiddushin 41a) forbids marrying off a minor, which by extension forbids consummation.

Bottom Line

The Talmud is a 37-volume, 63-tractate record of rabbinic debate spanning the third through sixth centuries CE. It is not a law code. It is a legal and ethical discussion that explores hypotheticals exhaustively — including horrific ones — precisely to establish where the law stands in every conceivable scenario.

Ancient cultures across the world, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, had different norms around marriage age. Consummation, however, was typically delayed until maturity, and the rabbis frequently pushed back against abuse even within those norms.

Carroll knows none of this — or doesn’t care. The goal isn’t understanding. It’s defamation.

Sources

Ian Carroll, Dan Bilzerian, Ketubot 11b, Niddah 44b, Kiddushin 41a, Yevamot 33b, Maimonides, Chabad, Aish