Editing Concubinage (section)

===Medieval and modern Judaism ===
In Judaism, concubines are referred to by the Hebrew term [[pilegesh]] ({{langx|he|פילגש}}). The term is a loanword from [[Ancient Greek]] {{lang|grc|παλλακίς}},{{sfn|Lieb|1994|p=274}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Raphael |first1=Marc Lee |title=Agendas for the Study of Midrash in the Twenty-first Century |date=1999 |publisher=Department of Religion, College of William and Mary |page=136 |oclc=607184334 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Nicholas Clapp|title=Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen|pages= 297|publisher= Houghton Mifflin|date= 2002}}</ref> meaning "a mistress staying in house".

According to the [[Talmud|Babylonian Talmud]],<ref name="JewEncPil" /> the difference between a concubine and a legitimate wife was that the latter received a [[ketubah]] and [[Jewish wedding|her marriage]] (''nissu'in'') was preceded by an [[erusin]] ("formal betrothal"), which was not the case for a concubine.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12148-pilegesh |title=PILEGESH (Hebrew; comp. Greek, παλλακίς).|website=Jewish Virtual Library}}</ref> One opinion in the [[Jerusalem Talmud]] argues that the concubine should also receive a ''marriage contract'', but without a clause specifying a divorce settlement.<ref name="JewEncPil" /> According to [[Rashi]], "wives with kiddushin and ketubbah, concubines with kiddushin but without ketubbah"; this reading is from the Jerusalem Talmud,<ref name="Concubine"/>

Certain Jewish thinkers, such as [[Maimonides]], believed that concubines were strictly reserved for royal leadership and thus that a commoner may not have a concubine. Indeed, such thinkers argued that commoners may not engage in any type of [[human sexuality|sexual relations]] outside of a marriage. Maimonides was not the first Jewish thinker to criticise concubinage. For example, [[Leviticus Rabbah]] severely condemns the custom.<ref>''Leviticus Rabbah'', 25</ref> Other Jewish thinkers, such as [[Nahmanides]], [[Samuel ben Uri Shraga Phoebus]], and [[Jacob Emden]], strongly objected to the idea that concubines should be forbidden. Despite these prohibitions, concubinage remained widespread among Jewish households of the Ottoman empire and resembled the practice among the Muslim households.<ref>{{cite book|title=Gender, Mastery and Slavery From European to Atlantic World Frontiers|author=William Foster|year=2009|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cfhGEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT30|page=30|isbn=9781350307438}}</ref>

In the [[Modern Hebrew|Hebrew]] of the contemporary [[Israel|State of Israel]], ''pilegesh'' is often used as the equivalent of the English word "[[Mistress (lover)|mistress]]"—i.e., the female partner in extramarital relations—regardless of legal recognition. Attempts have been initiated to popularise ''pilegesh'' as a form of premarital, non-marital or extramarital relationship (which, according to the perspective of the enacting person(s), is permitted by [[Halakha|Jewish law]]).<ref>{{cite news |title=Kosher sex without marriage |url=http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Kosher-sex-without-marriage |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |date=16 March 2006 |first1=Matthew |last1=Wagner |access-date=13 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140503230106/http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Kosher-sex-without-marriage |archive-date=3 May 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Adam Dickter, "ISO: Kosher Concubine", ''New York Jewish Week'', December 2006</ref><ref>[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4826676.html Suzanne Glass, "The Concubine Connection"] {{Webarchive |url=https://archive.today/20130103033314/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4826676.html |date=3 January 2013 }}, ''The Independent'', London 20 October 1996</ref>