The Patriarchs didn’t willingly marry more than one woman. And polygamy always led to strife.

• Abraham had two wives, but Hagar was not his choice, she was given to him by his wife Sarah to fulfil Sarah’s need for surrogate children; and the result was tragic conflict between the children of the two wives.

• Isaac’s shiddach was via his parents and an intermediary, and he succeeded in having only one wife, the right one.

• Yakov had four: Leah was not his choice, Lavan (with the help of Rachel and Leah) tricked Yakov into marrying her; and, a sa result of this situation there was tragic rivalry between Rachel and Leah, and especially between their children. Furthermore it was only when Rachel and Leah ceased to give birth that they gave Yakov their handmaidens as wives. Even that was perhaps only due to the rivalry between them, and there were indeed complications with the handmaids Bilha and Zilpah and rivalry between the various sets of children.

• Later in the Bible we read of the rivalry of Pnina and Chana: a loved but childless wive and a wife who bore children. It’s clear from the story that the husband deeply loved the childless wife, and told her she was worth more than many children. So why would he have married the other wife?

AR: The implication is that the childless wife who was loved was the chosen spouse, the other was married simply for children, and perhaps at the behest of the childless wife, as with Sarah, Rochel and Leah.

AR:  Although polygamy is permitted according to Torah Law, we can speculate that the Torah does not approve of it, and that it is destructive. [Not everything that is permitted by the Torah is recommended by the Torah. A famous case relates to the Torah law permitting a man to marry a woman prisoner-of-war because of her beauty: the Rabbis teach that the passages following this present the laws regarding a ‘rebellious son’ because the Torah wants to teach us that this will be the inevitable result of such a marriage.] AR: As far as I know: The Talmud, with its vast amount of recoreded events and stories does not contain references to polygamous marriages among the rabbis.