Beit Midrash
  • Family and Society
  • A Nation and its Halachot
קטגוריה משנית
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In about the year 1000, Rabbeinu Gershom of Mainz issued a decree, accepted by Ashkenazic communities, that outlawed polygamy/bigamy, either because it led to the mistreatment of women, caused domestic strife or was inconsistent with Western values. At the same time, a provision was made (some say by Rabbeinu Gershom himself) allowing for a man to take another wife even if his first wife was still alive. This would be prompted either by the wife’s inability to accept a Get (such as by being in a coma or a vegetative state) or her abject refusal to do so (Rabbeinu Gershom also ruled that a woman must agree to the divorce); or her having gone missing for an extended period. It was not to be used as a means of circumventing a mutually-agreed upon Get process. 100 rabbis from 3 distinct communities (in order to prevent any one rabbi from "railroading" the heter) would issue the permit, with a Get held in abeyance in case the first wife recovered from the coma or reappeared after being missing.
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