we don't have civil unions of any form, so all marriage and divorce issues are handled by the respective official religious authorities (Rabbinate, Muslim courts and Christian clergy). It is illegal, TTBOMK, for anyone to create new cases of Polygyny, BUT if someone immigrates here already having multiple wives, then that is perfectly legal. They had to add that caveat due to the polygynous marriages that Yemenite Jews practiced in Yemen, before moving here en-masse (as Jewish religious law, has prohibited polygyny for over a thousand years, the Yemenites being the one group that did not accept this decree).
I have heard that the Rabbinate here will in extremely rare situations, allow a Jew to have a second wife, if through illness or accident, his first wife becomes, mentally incapable of being divorced (which requires competence). Also, this law is very badly enforced, if at all, because for Jews it would be near-impossible to find a Rabbi to perform such a wedding in the first place, and because the police/government doesn't want to make a messy-issue with [mostly Beduin] non-Jews who still practice this (so the country ends up supporting a Beduin sheik with his 13 wives and 70 children).
While you were touring Jordan, I touched upon the topic of perceptions of Polygyny, and actual Jewish practice in ancient times.
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timeasmymeasure
In Israel
Date: 2005-11-14 03:49 pm (UTC)I have heard that the Rabbinate here will in extremely rare situations, allow a Jew to have a second wife, if through illness or accident, his first wife becomes, mentally incapable of being divorced (which requires competence). Also, this law is very badly enforced, if at all, because for Jews it would be near-impossible to find a Rabbi to perform such a wedding in the first place, and because the police/government doesn't want to make a messy-issue with [mostly Beduin] non-Jews who still practice this (so the country ends up supporting a Beduin sheik with his 13 wives and 70 children).
While you were touring Jordan, I touched upon the topic of perceptions of Polygyny, and actual Jewish practice in ancient times.