Jerusalem - The Chief Judge of the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court and a Sephardic Rabbi in Israel has ruled that the taking of a concubine is an act that in certain instances is permissible by halacha, the code of Jewish law.
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| Rabbi Eliyahu Abergel |
Rabbi Eliyahu Abergel, a Talmudist who has published dozens of books and thousands of responsa on Jewish law, wrote in his recent publication Divrot Eliyahu (Eliyahu’s Words) that a man prevented from having children, whether because his wife refuses to procreate or because she is unable to, may take a concubine with whom to procreate, because his first wife is “preventing him from building a family and spreading his seed,” adding even that “the concubine may also live with the couple.”
According to some Jewish legal definitions, a concubine is a woman who does not receive a kesuba, or marriage contract, from her husband, emphasizing the difference in social and domestic status between the main wife and the concubine, considered a mistress.
he 64 year old Rabbi Abergel is by no means a fringe voice, holding the title of Chief Judge of the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court and heading the Tzuf Dvash rabbinical school in Jerusalem. Rabbi Abergel was also a previous contender for the title of Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, a position that eventually went to Rabbi Shlomo Amar in 2003.
It is unclear if concubinage is practiced significantly in communities in Israel, or if it will increase based on the new ruling. However, Rabbi Abergel does relate that his ruling had practical implications for a head of a major Jewish institution, who was allowed to take a concubine after learning his first wife could not bear children.
Polygamy in its many forms has been a hotly contested subject of debate in centuries of Jewish law, most notably under the ban instituted by Gershom ben Judah’s synod of circa 1000 CE. The current ruling is specific to those whose childbearing attempts have been frustrated, and is additionally localized to Sephardi Jews, who have divergent legal customs from their Ashkenazi counterparts. Sephardi and Ashkenazi traditions are sufficiently different to necessitate a separate post of Chief Rabbi in Israel for each of the two traditions.
6 comments:
Why should the second wife be inferior to the first and not receive the status of legal wife with Ketuba, but be kep in this inferior status of Pilegesh (concubine). This is NOT according to Halacha which forbids concubines except for the King.
BS"D
Learn Halakha before speaking out. There is nothing in halakha that forbids a pilegesh. There was a TEMPORARY ban on polygamy for Jews in Germany & areas of France near Germany. The author of teh ban Rav Gershon, limited it to the year 5,000 form the creation. Therefore even that ban expired 773 years ago. Only custom has kept it going. In other countries the ban was not accepted. It is only the fact that Ashkenazi Jews & Rabbis took power over the Jewish world that has put this stuck problem on the rest.Again I say GO LEARN.
A concubine is fine as long as the first wife can also have a boyfriend.
Anonymous 16/19/16: You sound like an ignoramus.
On the story...Polygamy is illegal in Israel since 1969 but just like marriages for people under 18, it happens quietly. The "Halachik ban" on it expired half a millenia ago and only ever applied to SOME Ashkenazim. We Sephardi Mizrachim have always practiced it. Moreover, the "Ban" contravenes Halacha as it is aping customs of Goyim, which is always forbidden. Rav Gershom inplemented his ban because of fear of how Goyim would react, at a time when the Church was issuing edicts against the practice. To conform to such a Ban, even if it were still in effect, is sinful.
Polygamy would benefit our People to a high degree, and already does for those brothers practicing it.
This might help solve the problem of the amount of women in the Observant Jewish Communities that never marry and are left on the shelf, so to speak, whether because of fear of Mamzeirim, Dowries or Politics.
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