Tumah
Veteran Member
The Jewish view is that there's no problem with having more than one wife. Your argument from Genesis is a bad one:
1. It's talking about intercourse, not marriage
2. There is no verse in Genesis that says "the two shall become one". It literally says "and they shall be one flesh". There's no reason why this unification can't be performed multiple times with multiple partners.
3. There were only two people around. If there were three people and it said two, then two might be understood as limiting. When there are only two people, there's no reason to impose that interpretation on it.
That being said, there is an idea that having a second wife will cause strife in a household. The second wife is called a ṣarah which comes from the root ṣar or pain. But that's a personal choice. By Jewish Law it's permitted to have more than one wife.
The reason why we stopped is because about 1,000 years ago, the Jewish communities of Europe were starting to get become centers of their own. A ban was made in those communities on polygamy to lessen hostilities from their Christian neighbors. Included in the ban was a way to circumvent the ban when necessary. The ban only extended to Euopean communities where they hand to contend with Christian sensitivities. Which is why you can sometimes find Jews coming from Arab lands to Israel along with their multiple wives.
Incidentally, I had a Rabbi who is technically (by Jewish Law) married to two women. His first wife became permanently hospitalized due to insanity which renders her incapable of receiving a Bill of Divorce. So he accessed the workaround to get married to another woman.
