Faith
Up to what age is one called an orphan?
Question
Up to what age of the orphan is one considered to be transgressing the prohibition, "You shall not afflict any widow or orphan"?
Thank you
Answer
Shalom and blessings,
The Rambam wrote (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Deot 6:10) that a person must be careful with orphans and widows, because their souls are extremely lowly and their spirit is depressed, and so on, as it is stated: "You shall not afflict any widow or orphan," and until when are they called orphans for this matter? Until they no longer need a grown person to rely on him to support them and tend to them, but rather each one is able to do all his own needs for himself, like all other adults.
And there are those who wrote that this is, at most, until the age of twenty, and afterward he is not called an orphan under any circumstances (Shevet Binyamin, end of siman 229).
And there are those who wrote that a married orphan girl, since all her needs are upon her husband, is not included in the category of an orphan (Responsa Panim Meirot, part 1, siman 37).
With blessings,
Hillel Meirs

