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Noah and his sons also are recorded as having only one wife each (Gen. 6: 7 and 13). Abraham had only one wife; and he was persuaded to marry his slave Hagar (Gen. 16: 2, 3) only at the urgent request of his wife, who deemed herself barren. Our oral tradition states that Abraham married Hagar, who remained chaste for him, (Keturah), when Sarah died. (Gen. 25:1) Isaac had only one wife. Jacob married two sisters, because he was deceived by his father-in-law, Laban (Gen. 24: 23-30). He, too, married his wives' slaves at the request of his wives, who wished to have children (Gen. 30: 4, 9). There was jealousy among the wives, and Leah (weary), felt the brunt of it. The sons took it out on Joseph, who might have brought some ire onto himself with some loshan ha ra about his half-brothers. The sons of Jacob as well as Moses and Aaron seem to have lived in monogamy. Among the Judges, however, polygamy was practiced, as it was also among the rich and the nobility (Judges 7: 30; Judges. 12: 9, 14; I Chron. 2: 26, 4:. 5, 8: 8). Elkanah, the father of Samuel, had two wives, probably because the first (Channah) was childless (I Sam. 1: 2). The tribe of Issachar was noted for its practice of polygamy (I Chron.7: 4). Caleb had two concubines (I Chron. 2: 46, 48). David and Solomon had many wives (II Sam. 5: 13; I Kings 11: 1-3), a custom which was probably followed by all the later kings of Judah and of Israel (I Kings 20: 3). Because Kings had so many wives, the prince that became a king, had to have the names of his mother mentioned in the Tanach and not just the father. Jehoiada gave to Joash two wives ''only'' (II Chron. 24: 3).
There is no Biblical evidence that any of the Prophets lived in polygamy. Monogamous marriage was used by them as a symbol of the union of God with Israel, while polygamy was compared to polytheism or idolatrous worship (Hos. 2: 18; Isa. l. 1; Jer. 2: 2; Ezek. 16: 8).
The last chapter of Proverbs, which is a description of the purity of home life, points to a state of monogamy. The marriage with one wife thus became the ideal form with the great majority of the people; and in post-exilic times polygamy formed the rare exception. Herod, however, is recorded as having had nine wives (Josephus, "Ant." 17: 1, 3), but Herod was not one after whom Jews wished to model themselves.
The Israelite woman slave who was taken as a wife by the son of her master was entitled to all the rights of matrimony, One who lived in bigamy might not show his preference for the children of the more favored wife by depriving the first-born son of the less favored one of his rights of inheritance (Deut. 21: 15-17; The king should not "multiply wives" (Deut. 17: 17) and the Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 21a, where the number is limited to 18, 24, or 48, according to the various interpretations given to II Sam. 12: 8); and the high priest is, according to the rabbinic interpretation of Lev. 21:13, commanded to take one wife only (Tractate Yevamoth 59a; Tractate Yoma 2a).
The same feeling against polygamy existed in later Talmudic times.
Of all of the more than 2800 the rabbis named in the Talmud there is only one who is mentioned as having lived in polygamy. The general sentiment against polygamy is illustrated in a story related of the son of R. Judah ha-Nasi (Tractate Ketubot 62a).
A peculiar passage in the Targum (Aramaic paraphrase) to Ruth 4: 6 points to the same state of popular feeling. The kinsman of Elimelech, being requested by Boaz to marry Ruth, said, "I can not redeem; for I have a wife and have no right to take another in addition to her, lest she be a disturbance in my house and destroy my peace. Redeem thou; for thou hast no wife."
This is corroborated by R. Isaac, who says that the wife of Boaz died on the day when Ruth entered Palestine (Tractate Bava Batra 91a). Polygamy, was, however, sanctioned by Jewish law and gave rise to many rabbinical discussions.
While rabbi Raba says that a man may take as many wives as he can support ( Tractate Yevamoth 65a), it was recommended that no one should marry more than four women (Tractate Yevamoth 44a).
R. Ami was of the opinion that a woman had a right to claim a bill of divorce if her husband took another wife (Tractate Yevamoth 65a). The institution of the Ketubah, which was introduced by the Rabbis, still further discouraged polygamy. Subsequent enactments of the Geonim (Babylonian head rabbis from 589 ce to 1038 CE) tended to restrict this usage.
An express prohibition against polygamy was pronounced by R. Gershom ben Judah, "the Light of the Exile" (960-1028), which was soon accepted in all the communities of northern France and of Germany.
The Jews of Spain and of Italy as well as those of the Orient continued to practice polygamy for a long period after that time, although the influence of the prohibition was felt even in those countries. Some authorities suggested that R. Gershom's decree was to be enforced for a time only, namely, up to 5000
Even in the Orient monogamy soon became the rule and polygamy the exception; for only the wealthy could afford the luxury of many wives.
In Africa, where Islam influence was strongest, the custom was to include in the marriage Ketubah contract the following paragraph: "The said bridegroom . . . hereby promises that he will not take a second wife during the lifetime of the said bride . . . except with her consent; and, if he transgresses this oath and takes a second wife during the lifetime of the said bride and without her consent, he shall give her every tittle of what is written in the marriage settlement, together with all the voluntary additions herein detailed, paying all to her up to the last farthing, and he shall free her by regular divorce instantly and with fitting solemnity." This condition was rigidly enforced by the rabbinic authorities.
The Jews of Spain practiced polygamy as late as the fourteenth century. The only requirement there was a special permit, for which a certain sum was probably paid into the king's treasury each time a Jew took an additional wife . Such cases, however, were rare exceptions. The Spanish Jews, as well as their brethren in Italy and in the Orient, soon gave up these practices; and today, although the Jews of the East live under Mohammedan rule, but few cases of polygamy are found among them.
Later authorities, however, permit him to remarry even when there is only one witness to testify to the death of his wife, and even when that witness did not know her personally, providing that after he had described the deceased woman the husband recognized the description as that of his wife. So while Pastor Yisrayl Hawkins can point to the Torah and the Tanach and find example of Jewish leaders having multiple wives, polygamy was not considered by Talmudic Jews, from at lest 2500 years ago, to be acceptable behavior. And while Jewish polygamy did exist in Sephardic communities in the 1300s, it was the exception and not the rule, and done away with from Judaism for at least 700 years. This is not to say that Jewish men are immune from having illegal bigamous marriages or leading double lives with mistresses stashed away. The most public was discovered upon the death of the famous architect Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky). Kahn had three different families with three different women at the same time: his wife, Esther, whom he married in 1930; Anne Tyng. who began her working collaboration and personal relationship with Kahn in 1945; and Harriet Pattison. In 2003, Kahn's son with Pattison, Nathaniel Kahn, released an Oscar-nominated biographical documentary about his father, titled My Architect: A Son's Journey detailing Kahn's triple life. Bibliography: Hastings,
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