Monday, March 12, 2012

Why Can't I Have More Than One Wife?

19 of the Twelfth Month 5772

Someone posted a link to a post on why "polygamy is a bad idea." This was my response:

Yemenites only recently gave up fighting the "Holy State" on this matter, and only within the last 100 years did many Sephardi rabbanim accept this Ashkenazi taqanah of Rabbenu Gershom upon themselves.

If I can legally (according to the State of Israel) have sex with whomever I want, including other men's wives, and everyone else is supposed to mind their own business, then why can't I marry more than one wife?

I'll tell you why.

1) The secular state considers this dangerous and "oppressive" to women, even though that's just a Western/assimilationist mentality speaking.

2) The rest of the indoctrinated, numbed out Jews in this country continue to confuse Torah with Western/assimillationist sensibilities.

3) The usual double standards...

4 comments:

Chana said...

Good heavens. I should think that anyone who has read Bereshit would understand that polygamy, even when permitted, is *not* a good recipe for shalom bayit. And if the Avot couldn't make it work, what chance does an ordinary husband have?

Esser Agaroth said...

Chana, Thanks for your comment. You make a good point. I have also heard the argument that one should try one wife, before deciding to try two.

My point, though, was that who the heck is the State to dictate this kind of thing, with all the shenanigans which it allows.

Plus, who the heck are the Ashkenazim to tell Sepharadim and Mizrahim how they should hold?

Chana said...

As Robin Williams says about polygamy, "Hey, my first marriage isn't going so well...I think I'll *double down*?

Esser Agaroth said...

LOL! :-)