Parashat HashavuaSeries'LibraryPiskei Din (Hebrew)Test Yourself 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.
The class deals with the most common examples of mistakes or sins which we almost all do, some of which haven't changed, but we also point out those where historically there has been an interesting improvement over time.
Sometimes We Have No One to Blame But Ourselves & Our Imagination!
Rav Kook explains how fear and one's imagination often cause more damage than the problem itself. In fact, most of our problems we cause to ourselves, and if we made decisions based upon Godly logic and ideals, it would not only grant us a feeling of security, but in fact we would save ourselves from most problems, and surely the inflated or exaggerated ones.