[Avodah] pilegish status

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Mon, Aug 08, 2016 at 06:13:51PM -0400, Micha Berger wrote:
: If we eliminate the problem of man-made agunos (as opposed to actual
: lost husbands) by eliminating qiddushin in favor of pilagshos, we have
: done *major* damage to qedushas Yisrael.

Someone wrote in private email that he didn't understand this part of
my reply to RAM. So, to clarify in public with the assumption that
if I wasn't clear, he wasn't alone:

A pilegesh is a contract arrangement. She is provided for by the man,
and this commitment legitimizes any sex between them. Like any other
contract, each side trades the duties they're willing to impose on
themselves in tradeoff for the gains. It's a step above zenus because it's
monoandrous, and therefore the bonding nature of sex is being utilized,
not subverted. But there is enough similarity between a pilegesh and a
zonah for Radaq and Malbim to understand Shofetim 11:1 calling Yiftach's
mother a zonah because she was a pilegesh, not a literal zonah. (The
Radaq's perspective is much like mine; that must be where the idea got
planted in my head.)

In contrast, qiddushin is a restoration of the two halves of Adam --
"vedavaq be'ishto veyahu levasar echad". It's a beris, covenental, a union
in which both sides commit to contribute to buld a common good. (Quite
different than a contract.) The work Adam was made for.

Quite a distance from a deal between a ba'al and a pilegesh to have
various needs met.

--

There is another issue, non-theoretical, that I said in my first post
but not my second: See the Rema (EhE 25:1). The Raavad allows a commoner
to have a pilegesh. The Rambam, the Rosh, the Tur and the Rama limit
pilegesh to the king. Even RYEmden, a translation of whose teshuvah I
posted a link to last time, refused to allow it in practice unless two
others signed on. There as no record of those two others.

So, in terms of halakhah lemaaseh (which admittedly isn't Avodah's focus),
we don't allow pilagshos.

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Zion will be redeemed through justice,
micha at aishdas.org        and her returnees, through righteousness.
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