One of the Chashuvim of Vilna once came crying to Rav Zemeleh Volozhin that he married off his son to the wise and kind daughter of a prominent family of Vilna, but to his surprise after the Chasuna they found out that the girl was 10 years older than the boy! Rav Zemeleh cut him off mid-sentence and answered him light heartedly. At the end of Parshas Masei (36:10), the Torah mentions the names of the Bnos Tzelafchad in a different order than previous mentioned in Parshas Pinchos (27:1). Rashi comments that previously they were mentioned in order of their wisdom, while here they were mentioned in the order of their age. Why here did the Torah mention them by age?
Rav Zemeleh explained that the Gemara Bava Basra (119) says that the youngest any of them married was at the age of 40. Surely the Torah would not want to reveal their ages before they married so it listed them in order of their wisdom. Only here when the Torah says that they married their cousins, does the Torah finally reveal their true ages. Apparently the Torah felt that after their marriage, no one worried if anyone would find out how old they really were. (Pninim Uparpara’os) Revach
In Volozhin they too had a shidduch crises. I hope every one find they Bashert quickly
Mayleh if they were cousins, i hear because usually family knows the true ages .. But stam a stranger to lie about an age of ten years? most poskim agree that this would fall under a mekach taus, and would not requre a get except that we say to give a get meesafek. and she loses her entire kesuba!
I hope the point of this little story is not that it is no big deal to trick and lie to people about shidduchim. I find this story little troubling as it seems to wink at not being truthful about shidduch information . In truth, it is really bad idea nd causes much heartache.