Prostitutes & Harlots: Marginalized Mainstays of Rabbinic Societies

(1) Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, reconnoiter the region of Jericho.” So they set out, and they came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there. (2) The king of Jericho was told, “Some men have come here tonight, Israelites, to spy out the country.” (3) The king of Jericho thereupon sent orders to Rahab: “Produce the men who came to you and entered your house, for they have come to spy out the whole country.” (4) The woman, however, had taken the two men and hidden them. “It is true,” she said, “the men did come to me, but I didn’t know where they were from. (5) And at dark, when the gate was about to be closed, the men left; and I don’t know where the men went. Quick, go after them, for you can overtake them.”— (6) Now she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under some stalks of flax which she had lying on the roof.— (7) So the men pursued them in the direction of the Jordan down to the fords; and no sooner had the pursuers gone out than the gate was shut behind them. (8) The spies^-a had not yet gone to sleep when she came up to them on the roof. (9) She said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given the country to you, because dread of you has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land are quaking before you. (10) For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Sea of Reeds for you when you left Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings across the Jordan, whom you doomed. (11) When we heard about it, we lost heart, and no man had any more spirit left because of you; for the LORD your God is the only God in heaven above and on earth below. (12) Now, since I have shown loyalty to you, swear to me by the LORD that you in turn will show loyalty to my family. Provide me with a reliable sign (13) that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and save us from death.” (14) The men answered her, “Our persons are pledged for yours, even to death! If you do not disclose this mission of ours, we will show you true loyalty when the LORD gives us the land.” (15) She let them down by a rope through the window—for her dwelling was at the outer side of the city wall and she lived in the actual wall. (16) She said to them, “Make for the hills, so that the pursuers may not come upon you. Stay there in hiding three days, until the pursuers return; then go your way.”

(1) 1) (Vayikra 19:29) ("Do not profane your daughter to make her a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry and the land be filled with lewdness.") "Do not profane your daughter to make her a harlot": I might think that (this means that) he (a Cohein) should not give her to a Levite or to an Israelite (in marriage, this being regarded as "profanation" in that she thus becomes unfit to eat terumah); it is, therefore, written "to make her a harlot." Scripture is speaking only of the "profanation" of harlotry.

(2) 2) And what is that? One's giving his single daughter to his neighbor, not for the sake of marriage, and, similarly, her giving herself, to this end.

(3) 3) "lest the land fall into harlotry": by withholding its fruit. I might think (that this occurs even) if individuals (sin in this regard); it is, therefore, written "and the land be filled with lewdness," and not if individuals (alone sin).

(4) 4) R. Yehudah says: It is written (Jeremiah 3:23) "And you have polluted the land with your harlotries and with your wickedness. Therefore, the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; and you had a harlot's forehead; you refused to be ashamed."

(5) 5) R. Eliezer b. Yaakov says: Because he (thereby) lives with many women, without remembering which, and she conceived from many men, without remembering which, he may mistakenly marry his own daughter or marry her to his son — so that he is married to his daughter, and his son, to his sister — so that the world is filled with mamzerim (bastards), this being the thrust of "lewdness," "zimah," acronymically "zo mah hi" ("This one — what is it?" [i.e., What is its parentage?])

Upon hearing this, Elisha ben Avuya said: Since that man, meaning himself, has been banished from that world, let him go out and enjoy this world. Aḥer went astray. He went and found a prostitute and solicited her for intercourse. She said to him: And are you not Elisha ben Avuya? Shall a person of your stature perform such an act? He uprooted a radish from a patch of radishes on Shabbat and gave it to her, to demonstrate that he no longer observed the Torah. The prostitute said: He is other than he was. He is not the same Elisha ben Avuya, he is Aḥer, other.

There was an incident involving a certain man who was diligent about the mitzva of ritual fringes. This man heard that there was a prostitute in one of the cities overseas who took four hundred gold coins as her payment. He sent her four hundred gold coins and fixed a time to meet with her. When his time came, he came and sat at the entrance to her house. The maidservant of that prostitute entered and said to her: That man who sent you four hundred gold coins came and sat at the entrance. She said: Let him enter. He entered. She arranged seven beds for him, six of silver and one of gold. Between each and every one of them there was a ladder made of silver, and the top bed was the one that was made of gold. She went up and sat naked on the top bed, and he too went up in order to sit naked facing her. In the meantime, his four ritual fringes came and slapped him on his face. He dropped down and sat himself on the ground, and she also dropped down and sat on the ground. She said to him: I take an oath by the gappa of Rome that I will not allow you to go until you tell me what defect you saw in me. He said to her: I take an oath by the Temple service that I never saw a woman as beautiful as you. But there is one mitzva that the Lord, our God, commanded us, and its name is ritual fringes, and in the passage where it is commanded, it is written twice: “I am the Lord your God” (Numbers 15:41). The doubling of this phrase indicates: I am the one who will punish those who transgress My mitzvot, and I am the one who will reward those who fulfill them. Now, said the man, the four sets of ritual fringes appeared to me as if they were four witnesses who will testify against me. She said to him: I will not allow you to go until you tell me: What is your name, and what is the name of your city, and what is the name of your teacher, and what is the name of the study hall in which you studied Torah? He wrote the information and placed it in her hand. She arose and divided all of her property, giving one-third as a bribe to the government, one-third to the poor, and she took one-third with her in her possession, in addition to those beds of gold and silver. She came to the study hall of Rabbi Ḥiyya and said to him: My teacher, instruct your students concerning me and have them make me a convert. Rabbi Ḥiyya said to her: My daughter, perhaps you set your sights on one of the students and that is why you want to convert? She took the note the student had given her from her hand and gave it to Rabbi Ḥiyya. He said to her: Go take possession of your purchase. Those beds that she had arranged for him in a prohibited fashion, she now arranged for him in a permitted fashion. The Gemara completes its point about the reward of mitzvot and points out how this story illustrates the concept: This is the reward given to him in this world, and with regard to the World-to-Come, I do not know how much reward he will be given.