In the 10th century CE, the leading Jewish authority of European Jewry was Rabbenu Gershom [ben Yehuda] Maor Hagolah - literally "Our Rabbi Gershom, Light of the Diasporah" of Mainz, Germany. He issued many decrees, the two most famous of which were that, on the force of excommunication, a man could not marry a second wife, and that the wife's consent was required for divorce. This ban was immediately binding to all European [aka Ashkenazi] Jews, and over time came to be accepted by almost all Jews, save the Yemenites. Now with the near-destruction of all native Sephardi communities, in the Arab/Muslim countries, and their mass immigration to Israel (or the West), no-one practices polygyny at all, except perhaps amongst the few hundred die-hard Jews that remain in Yemen.
There are many authorities that claim that this ban wasn't innate to Jewish Thought, but in direct response to pressure from Christian Authorities of the time,[1] who were trying to fight polygyny among the non-Jews.[2] Indeed, the ban itself says that it is binding "for one thousand years", which have in fact passed.[3] Those who are against the continued enforcement of this ban, also like to bring a quote, from a later giant in Jewish Thought, Ha'Gaon m'Vilna (literally "The Genius of Vilna", Lithuania). He said something like:
"If I would be successful, in accomplishing two things I would be idle from [learning] Torah and Prayer and go from city to city to eliminate the prohibition of Rabbenu Gershom against taking two wives for with this will bring the Redemption closer, and the second that they should do the Blessing by the Cohanim every day."
As you can probably tell, I'm somewhat conflicted on this issue. There are many good arguments on both sides, and abolishing such a long-standing ban is not a thing to undertake lightly, especially considering that Jews have no universally accepted "central-authority", or even a present Religious Leader of enough stature [4] to pull-off something like this, without causing further division and strife (after all, anybody who did not accept the cancellation of the ban, would have to excommunicate anyone who chose to be polygynous). I'm pretty sure that it NOT for me, especially considering my beloved wife's reaction to a truly innocent comment I once made - "[in bewilderment] What could possibly have been their mindset, back then, that they managed to live with multiple wives?". She didn't speak with me for three days...
In any case, even where the Religious Authorities to lift the Halachic ban, there would still remain the major hurdle of changing the secular Israeli Law. There is absolutely no way that the Supreme-Court would allow a [sexist] law that allowed polygyny but not polyandry, and rightly so from a their POV. As polyandry is RATHER prohibited, I highly doubt that ANY Religious Authority would be foolish enough to even consider removing the ban, if only to avoid this Pandora's Box. So this will have to wait at least until we are a Jewish Theocracy... Which would be grounds to renounce the ban today, as an outside influence.Wasn't Germany still semi-Pagan at the time?Some [weakly] argue this expression is taken NOT to be taken literally, but simply means "forever". I don't even consider myself knowledgeable to have an opinion on the "rightness" of the ban, and its' continued enforcement. So it's not in my hands, any way. ;-)
Polygyny Outlawed, more after a word from our sponsor...
There are many authorities that claim that this ban wasn't innate to Jewish Thought, but in direct response to pressure from Christian Authorities of the time,[1] who were trying to fight polygyny among the non-Jews.[2] Indeed, the ban itself says that it is binding "for one thousand years", which have in fact passed.[3] Those who are against the continued enforcement of this ban, also like to bring a quote, from a later giant in Jewish Thought, Ha'Gaon m'Vilna (literally "The Genius of Vilna", Lithuania). He said something like: As you can probably tell, I'm somewhat conflicted on this issue. There are many good arguments on both sides, and abolishing such a long-standing ban is not a thing to undertake lightly, especially considering that Jews have no universally accepted "central-authority", or even a present Religious Leader of enough stature [4] to pull-off something like this, without causing further division and strife (after all, anybody who did not accept the cancellation of the ban, would have to excommunicate anyone who chose to be polygynous). I'm pretty sure that it NOT for me, especially considering my beloved wife's reaction to a truly innocent comment I once made - "[in bewilderment] What could possibly have been their mindset, back then, that they managed to live with multiple wives?". She didn't speak with me for three days...
In any case, even where the Religious Authorities to lift the Halachic ban, there would still remain the major hurdle of changing the secular Israeli Law. There is absolutely no way that the Supreme-Court would allow a [sexist] law that allowed polygyny but not polyandry, and rightly so from a their POV. As polyandry is RATHER prohibited, I highly doubt that ANY Religious Authority would be foolish enough to even consider removing the ban, if only to avoid this Pandora's Box. So this will have to wait at least until we are a Jewish Theocracy...
Which would be grounds to renounce the ban today, as an outside influence.Wasn't Germany still semi-Pagan at the time?Some [weakly] argue this expression
is taken NOT to be taken literally, but simply means "forever".
I don't even consider myself knowledgeable to have an opinion on the "rightness" of the ban, and its' continued enforcement. So it's not in my hands, any way. ;-)