and her lover were to be whipped.* Jacob b. Asher (d. 1340) and Joseph Caro (1488-1575) later prohibited concubinage.*’ Concubines were permitted, however, by many Spanish and Provencal authorities such as Abraham ben David of Posquiéres (1125-1198), Solomon b. Adret(c. 1235-c.1310), Asher ben Jehiel (c. 1250-1327), and Menachem b. Solomon Meiri(1249-1316), although they disagreed on the status of the concubine. Nahmanides (1194-1270) accepted concubines, but he warned against the moral evil involved and discussed this on a moral plane.* After this intense period of discussion in the early Middle Ages, the debate failed to proceed much further.
Concubines were accepted, albeit reluctantly, in the Middle Ages among both Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews and were often considered outside the herem of R. Gershom.” Moses Isserles (1520-1572) permitted concubines as long as they were careful
about mikveh. To him, the ideal of ritual cleanliness loomed more important than monogamy.*® Most authorities cited here based their prohibition and cautions on the deuteronomic law prohibiting prostitution in Israel. *
The general mood of the rabbinic authorities was to limit concubinage or accept it bediavady. The herem of R. Gershom was interpreted to include concubines in the Ashkenazic community but was not absolutely enforced, so concubinage in various forms continued until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Although the Practice of concubinage became infrequent in the Mediterranean ba Sin after the sixteenth century, it was discussed in the codes and by an occasional responsum. A curious exception was presented in the eighteenth century by Jacob Emden , who favored the institution AS a way of increasing the population of the Jewish community.
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