[Avodah] Is Polygyny a Good Thing?

[Micha Berger]

H/T RYGB
R' Moshe Tzuriel's account (I assume maintained by his students) shared
the following on FB.
https://www.facebook.com/RabbiMosheTzuriel/posts/1475152189362617

Translation mine, corrections requested.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha


HaRav Moshe Tzuriel
October 10 [2020] at 9:10pm [IDT]

Question: It is known that nowadays there is Cheirem deRabbi Gershom
that prohibits a man from marrying two women. Does this imply that from
the Torah it is okay to do so? Or is it still undesirable?

Answer: We have two editions of the medrash "Avos deRabbi Natan" (which
was composed shortly after completion of the Talmud). In the version
from Eretz Yisrael, which was available to ("in the hands of") some of
the rishonim and is now being reprinted, at the beginning of chapter
two, Rabbi Yehudah ben Beteirah says, "If Adam haRishon deserved to be
given ten wives, [HQBH] would have given [them] to him. But it was only
proper to give him but one woman only. I, too, am enough for my wife,
my portion is enough for me."

Also in the medrash Pesiqta Rabati (pisqa 44) they criticized Elqanah,
the father of Shemuel haNavi: "And after all this praise, it is written,
'And he had two wives'?" Similarly in the Targum on Rus (4:6) it explains
the reason for Peloni Almoni's refusale to take Rus as a wife. Because it
is not done to take a second wife, and he was already married.

And also in Ketubot (62b) about Rebbi's son. When it was discovered
that his wife was infertile, he refrained from taking another wife,
lest they say this one is his wife and this one -- his prostitute.

Rabbi Reuven Margaliot wrote a maamar about this (in his book "Olelot",
published by Mosad haRav Kook, pg. 17) and brings some more sources. One
of them is what the end of Tractate Ta'anit describes, because on Tu beAv
the daughters of Israel went out to the vineyards "and whoever does not
have a wife will go there." Explaining, what business does someone who
already has a wife have with this?

The fact is that in all the five hundred Tannaim and Amoraim mentioned
in the Talmud and Midrashim, we did not find one of them that had two
wives! And even if you ask about Avraham Avinu, there is no question here,
because Sarah forced him to take Hagar (Bereishis 16:2). And it is stated
in the Bible "and give it to Avram a woman to wed" (v. 3). And with our
ancestor Yaaqov, he only asked for Rachel, but Laban cheated and burdened
Leah as well. And it was those two women who demanded that he also take
Bilhah and Zilpah (Genesis 30:4,9). Yaaqov did not want them, but he was
humble and pleasant and did the will of his wife. And Yitzchaq Avinu, even
though his wife was infertile for twenty years, never took a second wife.

Today in our parsha [Bereishis] we are told about a negative example,
Lamech Ben Methuselah. He took two wives, one for childbirth and one
for beauty (Rashi on Bereishis 4:19). And what became of it (according
to Rashi in pasuq 20)? Two sons who served Avodah Zara. He also had a
son who made copper vessels, from which a weapons were made. "From the
wicked came the wicked."

>From all this it is clear that the Torah is disapproving of one who
takes for himself two wives.