:Pilegesh

In Judaism, concubines are referred to by the Hebrew term {{Lang|he-latn|pilegesh}} ({{langx|he|פילגש}}). The term {{Lang|he-latn|pilegesh}} appears to be an Indo-European loanword related to {{langx|grc|παλλακίς}} {{Lang|grc-latn|pallakis}}, meaning 'concubine'.Michael Lieb, Milton and the culture of violence, p. 274, Cornell University Press, 1994Marc Lee Raphael, Agendas for the study of Midrash in the twenty-first century, p. 136, Dept. of Religion, College of William and Mary, 1999Nicholas Clapp, Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen, p. 297, Houghton Mifflin, 2002

In the Hebrew of the contemporary State of Israel, {{Lang|he-latn|pilegesh}} is often used as the equivalent of the English word mistress—i.e., the female partner in extramarital relations—regardless of legal recognition. Attempts have been initiated to popularise {{Lang|he-latn|pilegesh}} as a form of premarital, non-marital or extramarital relationship (which, according to the perspective of the enacting person(s), is permitted by Jewish law).{{cite news |title=Kosher sex without marriage |url=http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Kosher-sex-without-marriage |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |date=16 March 2006 |author=Matthew Wagner |accessdate=13 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140503230106/http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Kosher-sex-without-marriage |archive-date=3 May 2014 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all }}Adam Dickter, "ISO: Kosher Concubine", New York Jewish Week, December 2006[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4826676.html Suzanne Glass, "The Concubine Connection"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130103033314/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4826676.html |date=3 January 2013 }}, The Independent, London 20 October 1996

There are many definitions for what a {{Lang|he-latn|pilegesh}} relationship is. In the Eastern world, {{Lang|he-latn|pilegesh}} fit into the complex family organization and the woman had more of a distinct legal and social position, whereas in the later Western world, {{Lang|he-latn|pilegesh}} was regarded as a long-term sex companionship between a man and a woman who could not or would not be married.

Several biblical figures had concubines when they were not able to create natural children with their wives. The most famous example of this was with Abraham and Sarah. Sarah gave her maidservant Hagar to Abraham while maintaining ownership of both maidservant and offspring. Their union produced Ishmael. Hagar gained the status of full wife in regards to Abraham, but nonetheless Sarah retained the status of main wife.

This type of {{Lang|he-latn|pilegesh}} is recorded in Jewish sources as being a singular case. All later cases of {{Lang|he-latn|pilegesh}} recognized the {{Lang|he-latn|pilegesh}} and guaranteed similar rights in the house as the legitimate wife.

Since having children in Judaism was considered a great blessing, legitimate wives often gave their maids to their husbands so they could have children with them when those women themselves were childless, as in the cases of Leah and Zilpah and Rachel and Bilhah. Even in the exceptional case of Sarah and Hagar, Abraham would have been obligated to treat Hagar as a full wife and she would have been treated as an equal by Abraham. Sarah's rights would have been regarding the technical legal status of being considered the inheritor and since the other wife and offspring would have been hers by ownership she became the legal albeit not biological mother of Ishmael.Orach Chayim: Laws of the Handmaiden.

According to the Babylonian Talmud,Sanhedrin 21a the difference between a {{Lang|he-latn|pilegesh}} and a full wife was that the latter received a ketubah "marriage contract" and her nissu'in or marriage ceremony was preceded by a formal betrothal or kiddushin, which was not the case with the former.{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12148-pilegesh|title=PILEGESH (Hebrew, ; comp. Greek, παλλακίς).|last=|first=|date=|website=Jewish Virtual Library|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}} According to Rabbi Judah, however, the {{Lang|he-latn|pilegesh}} should also receive a marriage contract, but without including a clause specifying a divorce settlement. According to Rashi, "wives with kiddushin and ketubbah, concubines with kiddushin but without ketubbah"; this reading is from the Jerusalem Talmud.

Certain rabbis, such as Maimonides, believed that concubines are strictly reserved for kings, and the am ha'aretz may not have a concubine;{{Citation needed|date=April 2014}} indeed, such thinkers argued that commoners may not engage in any type of sexual relations outside of a marriage. Maimonides was not the first Jewish thinker to criticize concubinage; for example, it is severely condemned in Leviticus Rabbah.Leviticus Rabbah, 25 Other rabbis, such as Nahmanides, Samuel ben Uri Shraga Phoebus, and Jacob Emden, strongly object to the idea that concubines should be forbidden.{{Citation needed|date=April 2014}}

According to Mnachem Risikoff, the institution of the pilegesh is an alternative to formal marriage, which does not have the requirements for a get upon the dissolution of the relationship, thus negating the issue of the aguna.Between Civil and Religious Law: The Plight of the Agunah in American Society, Irving Breitowitz, Greenwood Press, 1993. By coincidence, Breitowitz's book was reviewed by Risikoff's grandson, Rabbi Steven Resnicoff, in Jewish Action, Winter 1994, Vol. 55, No. 2.

Any offspring created in a union between a pilegesh and a man were on equal legal footing with children of the man and his wife.

• {{Section link|Polygamy|Judaism}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web |url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4826676.html |title= The Concubine Connection |work= The Independent |location= London |date= Oct 20, 1996 |first= Suzanne |last= Glass |url-status= usurped |archive-date= Nov 19, 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081119030810/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4826676.html }}
• {{cite web |title= ISO: Kosher Concubine |publisher= New York Jewish Week |first= Adam |last= Dickter |date= Dec 2006 |url= https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/iso-kosher-concubine/ }}
• {{cite web |url= http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=16328 |title= Kosher sex without marriage |publisher= Jpost |first= Mathew |last= Wagner |date= Mar 16, 2016 }}

Category:Jewish marital law

Category:Concubinage

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