<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 9.00.8112.16457"></HEAD>
<BODY style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" id=role_body
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 rightMargin=7 topMargin=7><FONT id=role_document
color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: "Akiva Miller" <kennethgmiller@juno.com><BR><BR>>>
....We do know that Moshe Rabenu never took even a second
wife....<</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial><BR>Akiva Miller</FONT></DIV><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"
color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial></FONT>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>>>>>></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Actually we don't know that for sure. I recently came across an opinion
(unfortunately I don't remember where) that the Isha Kushis of whom Miriam spoke
was not Tzipporah, but another wife -- perhaps a wife he had taken before he met
Tzipporah -- as there seems to be a gap of about 60 years between Moshe fleeing
Egypt and his meeting Yisro/marrying his daughter/shepherding his sheep.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>But your point that there seems to be an ideal of one wife is nevertheless
well-taken. Even men who had more than one wife had one main wife. AFAIK the
only wife Yakov ever called "Ishti" was Rochel. Yitzchak had only one wife
because he was an olah temimah and it would have been unseemly for him to have
more than one wife. Yehudah seems to have been vulnerable in the Tamar story
because his wife had died and he was alone -- no indication of multiple wives.
Yosef had only one wife. The other shevatim, it never says anything about their
wives.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Elkanah had two wives, possibly having taken the second wife because his
first wife was infertile (and he loved her too much to divorce her).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Dovid had many wives but his main wife or "real" wife was Batsheva.</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>BTW a co-wife is a "tzarah" in Loshon Kodesh, which well expresses how any
woman would feel towards another woman who was a rival for her husband's love.
</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT><BR><FONT color=#0000ff><STRONG>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============</STRONG></FONT><FONT lang=0 size=2 face=Arial
FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 size=2 face=Arial
FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><BR><FONT
color=#0000ff>-------------------------------------------------------------------
</FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>