Avodah Zarah 17a — the Talmud in English

He said to him

Rabbi Eliezer:

Akiva, you have reminded me!

Once I was walking in the upper marketplace of Tzippori, and I found one

of the disciples of Jesus the Nazarene

and Jacob of Kefar Sekhanya was his name. He said to me

that wicked man:

It is written in your Torah

Deuteronomy 23:

“You shall not bring the payment of a prostitute … into the House of the Lord.”

And that wicked man asked him:

What

is the law; is it permitted

to make from it

from the payment

a toilet for the High Priest?

Seven days before Yom Kippur, the High Priest would separate from his house to the Chamber of the Overseers, in the Courtyard of the Temple, and there they arranged a place for all his needs, including a toilet. And that wicked man asked him whether it was permitted to make this toilet from the payment of a prostitute. His question was whether the payment is forbidden only when making an offering from it, or whether it is forbidden to make from it even other needs in the Temple; and he cited as an example the toilet of the High Priest.

And I said nothing to him

to that wicked man.

That wicked man said to me:

that wicked man:

Thus Jesus the Nazarene taught me:

Jesus the Nazarene:

It is written

“For she gathered it from the payment of a prostitute, and to the payment of a prostitute shall they return.”

And that wicked man expounded it:

From a place of filth they came—

to a place of filth they shall go.

And the matter pleased me!

And

through this I was seized by heresy,

because

I transgressed what is written in the Torah

Proverbs 5: “Keep your way far from her, and do not come near the entrance of her house,” and we expound:

“Keep your way far from her”—

this is heresy. “

And do not come near the entrance of her house”—

this is the authority,

the government.

And King Solomon commands a person to distance himself from the authorities, because they direct their eyes at owners of wealth, to kill them and take their money.

And some say,

there is one who expounds this teaching as follows: “

Keep your way far from her”—

this is heresy and the authority.

“And do not come near the entrance of her house”—

this is a prostitute.

And the Gemara explains:

And how much

must one distance himself?

Rav Hisda said: Four cubits.

And now the Gemara explains the verse “For she gathered it from the payment of a prostitute, and to the payment of a prostitute shall they return,” not in accordance with the words of that wicked man.

And the Rabbis,

who do not expound the heretical statement expounded by Jacob, the disciple of that man,

this

verse in the Book of Micah, “

from the payment of a prostitute”—

what do they expound from it?

As

said

Rav Hisda.

As Rav Hisda said: Every prostitute who is hired, in the end

becomes despised in everyone’s eyes, and then they refuse to hire her. And since she has become accustomed to prostitution and does not find people who will hire her,

she hires

men and pays them money so that they will engage in intercourse with her—

And as

it is stated

in Ezekiel 16 [where the prophet compares Israel to a prostitute and says]: “

And when you gave payment

after you had become accustomed to being given payment, and afterward,

and payment was not given to you, and you became the opposite

you became one who gives payment to men, instead of their giving it to you] .”

And accordingly, this is the meaning of the verse “For she gathered it from the payment of a prostitute”—the wealth that the prostitute gathered through her payment—“and to the payment of a prostitute shall they return”: in the end, she is destined to return it, to give it to others, in exchange for the fulfillment of her desires.

And

the distancing from the entrance of the prostitute’s house, which Rav Hisda established as a measure of four cubits,

disagrees—

he disagrees in this with

Rabbi Padda —

For Rabbi Padda said: The Torah prohibited

with regard to forbidden sexual relations any other approach

only an approach for the purpose of uncovering nakedness. As it is stated

Leviticus 18:

“Each man: to all the flesh of his flesh you shall not come near, to uncover nakedness.”

Thus, the Torah prohibited only an approach for actual uncovering of nakedness, and there is no obligation to distance oneself from her four cubits. Were it not for Rav Hisda’s words, it would have been possible to explain the verse “Keep your way far from her, and do not come near the entrance of her house” as an instruction to refrain from having intercourse with her, and not as a requirement of distancing, in accordance with Rav Hisda.

When Ulla would come from the house of Rav,

when he would come home from his study in the academy,

he would kiss his sisters

his sisters

on the sleeves of their hands,

on their arms.

And some say,

there are those who say that Ulla kissed them

on their breasts,

on their chests. And this was a kiss of “inquiring after peace,” for that was the practice in their times.

And his statement disagrees with his own statement.

Ulla’s words here disagree with his own words, as he said elsewhere —

For Ulla said:

Even

mere approach

to a forbidden relation

is prohibited, because of

the principle: “

Go away, go away, they say to a nazirite,

they say to a nazirite passing beside a vineyard: Go away from here, and refrain from passing through it. Rather,

go around, go around,

around the vineyard—

to the vineyard do not come near!”

And the Gemara continues concerning “heresy and the authority.” It is stated in the Book of Proverbs [chapter 30]: “

The leech has two daughters: Give, give” .

The leech has two daughters: ‘Give, give.’”

What

is the meaning of

“Give, give”?

Mar Ukva said:

The voice of

two daughters crying out from Gehinnom

from the intensity of their suffering

and saying in this world, “Bring, bring.”

And who are they?

Who are those daughters?

Heresy

which cries out in this world, “Bring an offering to idols,”

and the authority

which cries out in this world, “Bring money, gifts, and taxes to the authorities.”

And according to this interpretation, the daughters cry out in Gehinnom from the intensity of their suffering because they said, “Bring, bring.”

Some say

the Gemara brings another interpretation, that Gehinnom cries out and says, “Bring, bring into me the heresy and the authority,” in order to punish them for saying, “Bring, bring”:

Rav Hisda said in the name of Mar Ukva: The voice of Gehinnom cries out and says, “Bring me two daughters who cry out and say in this world

the version of Ein Yaakov:

who say in this world

‘Bring, bring.’”

The Gemara continues to expound another verse concerning “heresy.”

It is stated in the Book of Proverbs [chapter 2] that the Torah saves one from a strange, foreign woman, and this is heresy. There it explains her disgrace: she abandons the guide of her youth, forgets the covenant of her God, her house sinks down to death, and her paths lead to Gehinnom.

And it is stated there: “

None who enter her return, nor do they attain the paths of life.”

And we raise a difficulty:

And since they do not return

that they do not repent—

where will they attain

the paths of life?!

And we answer:

This is what it says:

Thus says King Solomon: “None who enter her return”—whoever enters her house and apostatizes does not return, for it is very difficult to return—

and if they return—

they will not attain the paths of life,

meaning, he hastens to die out of distress. And this is the decree of the Holy One, blessed is He, who decreed death upon him.

And we raise a difficulty:

Does this mean

that it is saying

that anyone who separates from heresy dies

dies?!

But

there was an incident:

a certain

woman

who came

who came

before

before

Rav Hisda

and came to repent and accept punishment upon herself.

And she said to him: My sins are exceedingly numerous, to the point that

even

the lightest of the lightest

among them is that she

made

gave birth to

her younger son from

the intercourse of

her older son. And Rav Hisda said to her, “Prepare provisions for her!”

Prepare provisions for her journey! That is, her shrouds.

And she did not die!!

And now one must infer:

From her saying, “the lightest of the lightest, she committed”

and so on, it follows

by implication

from her words

that heresy

also

was in her.

That she had also transgressed through heresy.

And why did she not die? After all, she came to separate herself also from heresy.

And we answer: The incident

that

occurred was because

she did not properly repent!

She did not repent adequately,

and therefore she did not die.

Some say

there is one who transmitted the difficulty and the answer in another manner:

Is it

from heresy—

yes,

indeed they die—

and from a transgression,

which is prostitution—

no,

they do not die?!

But there was that woman who came before Rav Hisda

and said to him: “The lightest of the lightest,” and so on.

And he said to her

[Rav Hisda: “Prepare provisions for her”

“Equip her with provisions for the journey”!]

And she died!!

And it is difficult: after all, one who separates from the transgression of prostitution also dies?

And we answer: She did not separate only from prostitution, but also from heresy; and the proof is:

From

what

she said: “The lightest of the lightest”

was uncovering of nakedness, it follows

by implication

from her words

that heresy also was in her.

And therefore she indeed died, because she separated also from heresy.

The Gemara raises a difficulty from an incident concerning one who separated from the transgression of prostitution and died.

And

does one who separates

from the transgression

of prostitution—

not die?!

But it was taught in a beraita

we learned a beraita:

They said concerning

Rabbi

Elazar ben Durdayya that he did not leave a single prostitute

whom he knew

in the world—

without having intercourse with her!

Once, he heard that there was a certain prostitute in the cities of the sea

in a distant country,

and she would take a purse of dinars as her fee. He took a purse of dinars and crossed seven rivers to her.

At the time of the act

at the beginning of the transgression—

she passed wind

wind.

She said: “

Just as this wind does not return to its place—

so Elazar ben Durdayya will not be accepted in repentance.”

Elazar ben Durdayya went

Elazar ben Durdayya

and sat between two mountains and hills, saying: “Mountains and hills, ask mercy for me!

That they should accept me in repentance!

They said to him “

Before we ask mercy for you—

let us ask mercy for ourselves,”

for we too require mercy.

As it is stated

Isaiah 54: “

For the mountains may move and the hills may totter.”

He said: “Heavens and earth, ask mercy for me!”

They said: “Before we ask mercy for you—

let us ask mercy for ourselves.” As it is stated

Isaiah 51: “

‘For the heavens shall be dissolved like smoke, and the earth shall wear out like a garment.’”

He said: “Sun and moon, ask mercy for me!”

They said to him: “Before we ask mercy for you—

let us ask mercy for ourselves.” As it is stated

Isaiah 24: “

And the moon shall be ashamed and the sun shall be embarrassed.”

He said: “Stars and constellations, ask mercy for me!”

They said to him: “Before we ask mercy for you—

let us ask mercy for ourselves.” As it is stated

Isaiah 34: “

And all the host of the heavens shall waste away.”

Elazar ben Durdayya said: If there is no one who will ask mercy for me—

“the matter does not depend

on others

but on me”

and I myself must ask mercy for myself!

and I myself must plead for mercy on my own behalf!

He placed his head between his knees and cried out in weeping until his soul departed!

A heavenly voice emerged and said: “Rabbi Elazar ben Durdayya

his repentance has been accepted, and he is

destined for the life of the World to Come!”

And we raise a difficulty:

But here he was involved in a transgression

his separation was from prostitution—

and he died?

And we answer:

There

in the case of Rabbi Elazar ben Durdayya

also, since he was deeply attached to it

since he was very strongly attached to the transgression—

it is comparable to heresy

he is like heresy; and just as one who separates from heresy dies, so one who separates from a powerful attachment to prostitution dies.

When they told the matter before Rabbi—

Rabbi wept. And he said: There is one who acquires his world

the World to Come

through many years, and there is one who acquires his world in a single hour

of repentance.

And

further

Rabbi said: It is not enough

it is not sufficient

for penitents that they are accepted

in repentance,

but they are even called “Rabbi.”

For the heavenly voice said, “Rabbi” Elazar ben Durdayya.

The Gemara continues to relate concerning distancing oneself from heresy and prostitution.

Rabbi Hanina and Rabbi Yonatan were walking along the road

they went on their way.

They reached

they arrived

at two paths

two diverging paths, one path

one—

was open

it was open

to the entrance

to the entrance

of idolatry, and

the other path

one—

was open

it was open

to the entrance

to the entrance

of prostitutes.

And they debated between themselves: which of them was preferable to avoid passing through?