As Important religious questions had to be put to the bridal pair which required a learned man to do (Gittin, 6; lada'ushin, 6, 13), it was afterwards resolved that the marriage-ceremony should be performed by a rabbi, and it is celebrated in the following manner :—A beautifully embroidered silk or velvet canopy about three or four yards square, supported by four long poles, is held by four men out of doors on the day of the wedding. Under this (1e111), which represents the ancient bridal chamber, the bridegroom is led by his male friends preceded by a band of music, and welcomed by the joyous spectators with the ex clamation, Blessed is he who is now come! Nzn) ; the bride, with her face veiled (nnati4 is then brought to him by her female friends and led three times round the bridegroom, in accordance, as they say, with the remark of Jeremiah, the woman shall compass the man' (xxxi. 22), when he takes her round once amidst the congratulations of the bystanders and then places her at his right hand (Ps. xlv. to), both standing with their faces to the south and their backs to the north. The rabbi then covers the bridal pair with the Talith, or fringed wrapper [FRINGED GARMENTS] which the bridegroom has on (comp. Ruth iii. 19; Ezek. xvi. 8), joins their hands together and pronounces over a cup of wine the benediction of affiance (nzna j'011N), which is as follows : Blessed art thou, 0 Lord our God, king of the universe, who hast created the fruit of the vine. Blessed art thou, 0 Lord our God, king of the universe, who hast sanctified us with thy commandments, and has forbidden to us consanguinity, and has prohibited us the betrothed, but hast permitted us those whom we take by marriage and betrothal. Blessed art thou, 0 Lord, who hast sanctified thy people Israel by betrothal and marriage' (Kethuboth, 7 a) Whereupon the bridegroom and bride taste of the cup of blessing, and the former produces a plain gold ring, and, in the presence of alI the party, puts it on the bride's finger, saying, Behold thou art conse crated unto me with this ring according to the rites of Moses and Israel !' The rabbi then reads aloud, in the presence of appointed witnesses, the Kethuba, or the marriage-settlement, which is written in Syro-Chaldaic, and concludes by pronouncing over another cup of wine the seven benedictions nm3), which the bridegroom in ancient times, before the ceremony of marriage became a public act and was delegated to the spiritual head, used to pronounce himself at the end of the meal. The bridegroom and bride taste again of this cup of blessing, and when the glass is emptied it is put on the ground and the bridegroom breaks it with his foot, as a symbol to remind them in the midst of their joys, that just as this glass is destroyed so Jerusalem is destroyed and trodden down under the foot of the Gentiles. With this the ceremony is concluded, amidst the shouts, May you be happy! tn).
3. Polygamy and Coneubinage.—As nothing is said in the post-exile portions of the Bible to dis courage polygamy, this ancient practice also con tinued among the Jews during this period. During the second temple, we find that Herod the Great had nine wives (Joseph. Antiq. xvii. I. 3); his two sons, Archelaus the Ethnarch, and Antipas the Tetrarch of Galilee, had each two wives (Joseph. Antiq. xvii. 13. 2; xviii. 5. 1) ; and John the Baptist and other Jews, who censured the one for violating the Mosaic law by the marriage of his deceased brother's wife who had children (Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 13. 2), and the other for marrying Herodias, the wife of his half-brother Herod-Philip (Matt. xiv. 3, 4; Matt. vi. 17, IS; Luke iii. t9), raised no cry against their practising polygamy ; because, as Josephus tells us, the Jews of those days adhered to their ancient practice to have many wives at the same time' (Joseph. Antiq. xvii. 1. 2). In harmony with this ancestral custom, the post exile legislation enacted various statutes to regulate polygamy and protect the rights and settlement of each wife (IN ish= yebamoth, iv. I I ; Kethuboth, x. 1-6; ii. 7). As a striking illustration of the prevalence and legality of polygamy during this period, may be mentioned the following cir cumstance which is recorded in the Talmud : Twelve widows appealed to their brother-in-law to perform the duty of Levir, which he refused to do, because he saw no prospect how to maintain such an additional number of wives and possibly a large increase of children. The case was then brought
before Jehudah the Holy, who promised that if the man would do the duty enjoined on him by the Mosaic law, he himself would maintain the family and their children, in case there should he any, every Sabbatical year when no produce was to be got from the land which was at rest. The offer was accepted by the Levir, and he accordingly married his twelve sisters-in-law; and after three years these twelve wives appeared with thirty-six children before Jehudah the Holy, to claim the promised alimony, as it was then the Sabbatical year, and they actually obtained it (yerusalenz yebamoth, iv, 12). Rabba b. Joseph, founder and president of the college at Machuza (A.D. 338-352, see art. EDUCATION in this Cyclopwdia), taught that a man may take as many wives as he pleases, provided that he can maintain them all (int., Nan rrS N1rn InvN SY wv: gin] DIN NV): IM4Y1470, yebamoth, 65 a). From the remark in the Mishna, that a Levir may marry his deceased brother's four widows (Yebamoth, iv. It), the Baby lonian Gemara concluded that it recommends a man to have no more than this number (Babyl. yebamoth, 44 a) ; from which most probably Mohammed's injunction is derived (Koran Sura, iv. 3). It was Rabanu Gershom b. Jehudah of France (born circa 960, died to23), who, in the rith century, prohibited polygamy under pains of excommunication, saving in exceptional cases (Graetz, Geschichte der yudeiz, v. 4o5-5o7). His motive for doing so is a matter of dispute; the older Occidental rabbins say that the prohibition originated in a desire to preserve the peace of the family, whilst the Oriental rabbins will have it that it was dictated by the governments of Christian countries. His interdict, however, made but slow progress, even in Germany and France, for which it was chiefly designed. Thus Simon b. Abraham of Sens, one of the most celebrated French Tossa fists, tells us (circa 1200) : ' The institution of R. Gershom has made no progress either in our neigh bourhood or in the provinces of France. On the contrary, it happens that pious and learned men and many other people marry a second wife in the lifetime of the first' (B. Eben Ha-Ezar I). The practice of marrying a second wife in the event of the first having no issue within ten years aiso obtained in Italy till about the 15th century—the Pope giving a special dispensation for it. The Spanish Jews never recognised R. Gershom's in terdict; bigamy was practised in Castile till the 4th century, whilst the Christian government of Navarre declared polygamy among the Jews as legal, and the law of King Theobald allowed them to marry as many wives as they could maintain and govern, but they were not permitted to divorce any one of them without sending all away (Kayserling, Geschichte der yuden in Spanien, i, 71). Nor was the said interdict acknowledged by the Jews in the East; and monogamy is there practised simply because the bride makes a special agreement and has a clause inserted in the Kethuba (ri.mn), or marriage-settlement, that her husband is not to marry another as long as she lives. An exception, however, is made in case there is no issue. As to the opinion of the Karaites on monogamy and polygamy, the celebrated Jehudah b. Elia Hadassi (flourished 1149) remarks, in his famous work against rabbinic Judaism, The Pentateuch pro hibits one to marry two wives with a view to vex one of them on nrii Lev. xviii. 18); but he may take them provided he loves them and does not grieve either of them, and treats them both affectionately. If he does not diminish their food, raiment, and conjugal rights (Exod. xxi. II), he is allowed to take two wives or more, just as Elkanah married Hannah and Peninnah, and as David, peace be upon him, and other kings and judges did' kol Ha-Copher, ed. Eupatoria 1836, p. 129). From this it is evident that polygamy was not prohibited by the Jewish law nor was it regarded as a sin, and that the monogamy of the Jews in the present day is simply in obedience to the laws of the countries in which they live. There were, however, always some rabbins who discouraged polygamy (Aboth, ii. 7 ; Yebanzoth, 65 a, al.); and the elevated notion which they had of monogamy is seen in the statutes which they enacted, that the high-priest is to be the hus band of one wife and to keep to her ( . . .