To
Read Rambam
Dovid
Eidensohn
We
want here to understand how to read and understand what the Rambam wrote in
Mishneh Torah, his great commentary on the basic laws of the Torah.[1] We have selected a
particularly difficult passage in the Rambam which seems to fly directly into
the teaching of the Vilna Gaon and the Ramban, the greatest authorities[2]. These two greats teach that
the Rambam approves of Jewish marriage not only with Kiddushin which is
customary but also with Pilegesh. The Vilna Gaon even proves his point by
showing a gemora in Sanhedrin 21A that permits marrying with Pilegesh. But the
Rambam in the laws of Melochim seems to say just the opposite, namely, that
only a king may marry a Pilegesh, not ordinary Jews. The question is dynamite.[3]
This
is the Rambam there, “And the king may take from all of the Jews women and
Pilagshim. Women with a Kesubo and Kiddushin, and Pilagshim with no Kesubo and
no Kiddushin, but by establishing a marriage he obtains her and they are
married. But ordinary Jews are forbidden to marry a Pilegesh, other than the
Omo Hoivriah [a woman given by her father who has no money to a man who will
accept her in his house as a servant and marry her or give him to his son, so
she is not left alone in a house without marriage where men will abuse her].”
Yes,
the question is explosive. The Rambam clearly writes, “An ordinary man may not
marry a Pilegesh” and this defies the gemora quoted by the Vilna Gaon, his
stated opinion, and that of the Ramban, both who clearly permit Pilegesh.
I
wish to say that I received in writing from the Geonim Reb Moshe Feinstein and
Reb Yaacov Kaminetsky both zt”l that they know me as one who can plunge deep
into deep Torah commentaries and reveal new light. And now I will try to do
that here.
First
of all, we refer to what we quoted footnote #1 above, the Teshuva of Ramo in
the name of Rabbi Eliezar Ashkenazi, who had new ways of understanding Rambam.
How can that be done here? If Rambam says clearly only a king may marry a
Pilegesh, how can this be resolved with the gemora, Vilna Gaon and Ramban, if
they all say a Pilegesh is permitted to a simple person who is not a king?
It
seems that the Ramo had exactly the same problem that we have. The Mishneh in
Nedarim 90b says clearly that a woman after the earlier phases of the Mishneh
when women would never lie about their husbands were suspected of lying in
order to find a better husband and would lie about their husbands. Therefore,
the Mishneh itself declares that from now on, hundreds of years before Rambam,
women could not force a GET from their husband. But there are those who say
that Rambam does permit a woman to force a GET. Ramo quotes Rabbi Eliezar
Ashkenazi that this question is asked by major authorities but they simply
didn’t know how to read the words of the Rambam. He read the exact words of the
Rambam and showed that these great rabbis simply didn’t know how to read the
Rambam correctly.
The
Mishneh does not say that no woman could force a GET. It says that if a woman
demands a GET she is not believed because she might be lying to get a better
husband. But the Rambam never mentions the word “divorce.” The wife in his
teaching is a woman who stays in her husband’s house, does the dishes, raises
the children, and never mentions a GET. She only tells the husband to stay away
from her in marital relations. The Rambam adds, however, a critical word that
nobody comments on, the word shaato meaning the husband is given time to straighten
out the marriage.[4] This
word indicates that Beth Din will find out what is going on in the house. Is
the husband treating his wife properly, or not? Therefore, a period is set by
the husband who is told, “Fix up your marriage, or give a GET. You have one
month or whenever the Beth Din says.” If the husband fixes the marriage and the
marriage begins to function properly, fine, if not, a GET. And this is exactly
what the Mishneh wanted to teach, so the problem is solved.
But
what is the solution here with Pilegesh? Again, what extra word did Rambam put
into his statement in Melochim? OMO
HOIVRAH. So what? That is the key. When I stared at it a while, a light came
into my dull head. This is it! How can Rambam say that a woman sold as a slave
may become married without Kesuba and Kiddushin as a Pilegesh, but that no
normal man may do it? What kind of logic is that? A slave woman has more rights
than regular women and men? That is ridiculous. Okay, it is ridiculous. But
what is the logic that a slave woman has more rights than regular women or men?
Then I finally figured out the solution to the puzzle. Rambam only allowed a
king to marry a Pilegesh, but regular men could certainly marry a Pilegesh. The
woman sold by her father as a slave was a Pilegesh but she was not married
willingly. Her father sold her. Such a woman is a Pilegesh who can marry a man
who is not a king, and the king may marry any woman, as long as she does not
marry willingly, but because a king just took her, or her father sold her.
I
conclude this by returning to the source of it all, the Ramo’s teshuva 91 by
Rabbi Eliezar Ashkenazi. At the end of the lengthy study there, it brings
important and exciting ideas about divorce and forced divorce, but none of them
is permitted without the permission of great rabbis. Incidentally, even Ramban
and other great rabbis only permitted Pilegesh if a prominent rabbi is in
control of the marriage, not if two plain people just shack up. If anyone is
interested in Pilegesh they can contact me, as I have semicha from the greatest
Rabbis of Europe and Israel, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Rabbi Yaacov Kaminetsky,
Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashev (to pasken Gittin using his name) and others. A
Pilegesh marriage has no Kesubo and no Kiddushin and each can leave when they
want. But if anyone violates the marriage, that is the end of it. People who
want Pilegesh must first get permission from the senior rabbi and maintain the
rules or it is over.
[1] Based
upon Teshuva of Ramo #96 and Rabbi Eliezar Ashkenazi there
[2]
Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer 26:1 Gro #6
[3] See
Rambam Melochim Kings
[4] See
Rambam Mishneh Torah Noshim 14:8
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