Jews in Early Modern Poland
An offprint from POLIN STUDIES IN POLISH JEWRY VOLUME TEN 'PI 'FP", iF; .,;: h P "" ,,) h P ;IP ;; P "p ;;;: SI' ;;;p IFP 'PP!')M.@i,t qq, ,qt "" ,., qq. ""sq" "" 'h 4" ,;c qq. ,eq sq" q" ,;c Jews in Early Modern Poland Edited by GERSHON DAVID HUNDERT "F'p""", PPP "PhP "P;PP,,> SIP ',P;,;'" ;,flIP JP' ;;,J3!:in qq, 'cc 4" '''''4 q" "'''''''' ,n '" '" 4" '" ",,;e Publishedfor The Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies London . Portland, Oregon The LittmanLibrary ofJewish Civilization 1997 PH hl;PI >PF PI'" II. ;"m." I., ",m-hp,;,;pl' ;PI' "P iF,. ",I.-li,,, qq, c', ,;, qq. '" '" ,,',"4'\"'1( qQ' ,q, ,., "4,44 '" The Ban on Polygamy in Polish Rabbinic Thought ELIMELECH WESTREICH INTRODUCTION THE Ban of Rabbenu Gershom (R. Gershom ben Judah ofMayence, 960-1028) has been seen by historians as a key determinant of the singularity of Ashkenazi Jewish culture. 1 Hence, analysis of its fate in Poland is a most appropriate means ofexamining how far Polish rabbis adhered to the Ashkenazi legal tradition. In sixteenth-century Poland there were two approaches among halakhic scholars: one, represented by R. Solomon Luria (1510-73, known as Maharshal), was closed to other Jewish legal traditions; the second, represented by R. Shalom Shakhna (d. 1558) and his great disciple R. Moses Isserles (c. 1522-72, known as Rema), was, conversely, characterized by openness to other legal traditions. At the turn of the sixteenth century, R. Joel Sirkes (1561-r640) developed a position that harmonized these two approaches. The Ban ofR. Gershom (who was often known also as Me'or Hagolah, 'Light of the Exile') forbade both polygamy and divorcing a woman against her will.
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