yitzchakmba

Hi Avi K, I have seen this faulty logic before the absence of discussion does not mean absence of them having more than one wife. In a culture and environment where it is normal to have more than one wife it’s not even a Halachic discussion point which is why we dont see it discussed at all virtually. It’s only when Judaism is in conflict with the Churches war against Polygany in the late 10th century and beyond that this is even discussed. The Tenach has hundreds of references and inferrred Polygounous families especially if you read through NaK only a few are troublesome as we know that’s for us to learn and understand how not to do Polygany. Additionally the Culture of Polygany was a normal part of the Jewish landscape for non European Jews until the Modern State of Israel, Polygany is very pragmatic solution to many Marriage and Halachic issues for family situations, however because of the West’s Catholic/ Protestant bias against Polygany it’s an Issue. As an ex Catholic boy I am more than familiar with this issue in fact the truth of Marriage laws of HaShem in contrast to what I learnt and was raised in as a “good catholic boy” was one of that caused me to dump xtianity and eventually choose to become Jewish. Its sad to see that Polygany is disparaged and constantly portrayed as bad when in fact it’s a very Holy and has many Tikun aspects to it. The GRA is quoted as saying that if he was to stop learning Torah he would first go from Town to Town to get the Ban of Rebenu Gershon overturned, because he said that it would lead to many more Jewish souls being born and that in turn would hasten the coming of Mashiach.

Interestingly their is not band for Sephardim / Mizrachim etc but we still see great resistance to this being accepted which considering this the default Jewish culture for marriage it seems that the only source for this is external factors ie feminism and perception / acceptance to western morals which by extension is sourced from christian dogma.