Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

Inevitably, the story about Jacob and his complicated love life raises a number of questions regarding the Jewish attitude concerning concubines and polygamy. Do Jews still practice polygamy? Outside Sephardic circles, polygamy has been banned for well over a thousand years, since the time Rabbanu Gershom outlawed it for Ashkenazic Jews.

Historically, there is no evidence of actual concubinage in the Talmud, nor is there any evidence of it in practice during the Middle Ages. In the responsa of Asher b. Jehiel (no. 32:1), there is a reference to a concubine, but it seems to be merely the case of a man cohabiting with a woman without going through a marriage ceremony with her, and not to a formal concubine. Modern readers would refer to such a woman as a “mistress.”

In general terms, the Talmud distinguishes between a concubine and a wife in the following way: Wives have ketubah (marriage contract) and kiddushin (formal marriage ceremony i.e., hupah) while concubines have neither. [1]

Ibn Daud adds in his notes to Maimonides, that any woman who does not dedicate herself to one man, is considered to be a harlot. [2]

However, Rashi takes issue with this definition. According to him, even a concubine must have kiddushin, but what she lacks is a ketubah (which delineates the financial responsibilities a husband has for his wife). In fact, Jewish law insists that even a married woman must have a ketubah, lest she be considered a concubine. Rashi’s opinion draws support from the Jerusalem Talmud (J. Ketubot 5:2, 29d). Most Halachic authorities generally rule in accordance with Maimonides and the Babylonian Talmud.

Opinions differ with respect whether a concubine is permitted or forbidden. Some scholars say that neither biblical or rabbinical law prohibits it. All that matters is that the concubine go to the mikvah ( a ritual pool of water) so that the man is not guilty of having sex with a menstruating woman (EH 26:1). The majority of medieval authorities conclude that concubinage is immoral. Radbaz, for an example, wrote back in the early 17th century, “Nowadays a woman is not sexually permitted to any man except through the formal marriage ceremony of kiddushin, Huppah,  sheva brachot (the seven marriage blessings) and ketubah.” (Resp, Vol, 4 #225)

Only one notable 17th century authority, Jacob Emden (responsum no. 15), expressed the opinion that it should be permitted. Emden’s citations of talmudic sources endorsing polygamy show that some of the most famous rabbis of the Talmud were footloose and fancy free when it came to the question of concubines. In all likelihood, Rabbi Emden probably would have felt quite comfortable living in the 60′s. Continue Reading

What did Jacob actually see when he had his mystical vision? Was it a ladder? Or was it a ziggurat? It all depends on how one wishes to translate the noun סֻלָּם (sulam).

Classical translations think it is a heavenly ladder, but more modern translations prefer ziggurat. For example, the NJPS translation renders it “He had a dream; a stairway was set on the ground”^[1] The ladder imagery may reflect a Babylonian and Egyptian influence. The word סֻלָּם (sulam = stairway) may be a cognate to the Akkadian simmiltu, which in Mesopotamian mythology provides the “long stairway to heaven” enabling travelers to pass from realm of existence to another.

This belief is similarly reflected in Babylonian architecture, as is witnessed in the ziggurats. Egyptian mythology also depicts the journey of the soul as ascending a sacred stairway, which  rejuvenated the soul into a higher form of life.^[2]

As an archetypal symbol, the ladder or stairway in  Jacob’s dream served as the axis mundi — an ontological reality where the sacred and the profane  realms intersect. In mythical terms, the axis mundi was considered to be the highest point of the universe and perhaps identified with the center of the world and the place where creation first began. As the center and locus where the spiritual and cosmic regions of the universe converge, intersect and join with the physical realm of reality. The axis mundi marks the place where God’s Being and Presence is most fully manifest.

---

[1].In addition to the possibility that this story reflects a  Babylonian or Egyptian influence, some modern scholars find it difficult to imagine or conceive how angels can move two and fro along a ladder without it getting highly congested (perhaps these scholars think Jacob’s dream resembled a rush-hour New York traffic jam). However, it seems to me that such a literal approach fails to take into consideration the cryptic nature of dreams, which frequently contain paradoxical elements, e.g., an dream about elephant passing through the eye of a needle. As a dream, its surreal images must be understood parabolically or symbolically–but never literally!

[2].In the Coffin Texts T 76 the dead king, though repeatedly saying he is “in chaos, in the Abyss, in darkness and in gloom,” repeatedly asks for a ladder so that he can get up to the sky.