Quote:
Originally Posted by Tascero
I have one quick question, that I'd like to be answered. Can anyone answer this?: Did the old covenant allow polygamy, or polyandry? Do Jews believe in either of them, or both?
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It is my understanding that the OT allowed for polygamy (specifically, polygyny). Polyandry wasn't acceptable due to the OT view of women belonging to there husbands. Polyandrous marriage/arrangements can be found in several ancient cultures, but not in the OT Scriptures.
While historically speaking, polygamy isn't forbidden in Judaism, it was forbidden by rabbinical authorities. Only those on the fringe practice polygamy (as we understand it) today.
However, there is the case of the Agunah. The Agunah is a "bound woman". In Judaism there are two aspects to marriage, the Jewish marriage and any civil arrangement established by any government a Jewish couple lives in. This means that in Judaism there is both a civil and a religious divorce. What Jewish men have tended to do is file for a civil divorce and withhold issuing a Jewish writ of divorcement to their wives (the "get"). This means that although the couple is divorced in accordance to civil law, they are not divorced in accordance to Jewish law. Jewish law technically allows a man more than one wife, so men withholding the get often remarry into a second civil marriage with a new Jewish Ketubah (Jewish marriage contract), leaving their first wife bound to the union as far as the Jewish community is concerned. These husbands often extort money, parental rights, or property from their first wives in exchange for the get. Until the Jewish get is issued, the woman is Agunah. Should she remarry under civil law, the Jewish community would condemn her as an adulteress.
Many rabbis are trying to take action to allow women to be free from this abuse that has raged since the time of Christ.
However, as it relates to this question, those men who do force their wives into the Agunot (plural for Agunah) and remarry are technically married to more than one woman according to Jewish law. So these men could be called polygamists on technicality.