Study Avodah Zarah folio 17A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
and you derived pleasure from it, and because of this you were held responsible by Heaven. R' Eliezer said to him: Akiva, you are right, as you have reminded me that once I was walking in the upper marketplace of Tzippori, and I found a man who was one of the students of Jesus the Nazarene, and his
He said to me: Jesus the Nazarene taught me the following: It is permitted, as derived from the verse: “For of the payment to a prostitute she has gathered them, and to the payment to a prostitute they shall return” (Micah 1:7). Since the coins came from a place of filth, let them go to a place of
And I derived pleasure from the statement, and due to this, I was arrested for heresy by the authorities, because I transgressed that which is written in the Torah: “Remove your way far from her, and do not come near the entrance of her house” (Proverbs 5:8). “Remove your way far from her,” this i
With regard to the derivation of the verse by Jesus the Nazarene, the Talmud asks: And what do the rabbis derive from this phrase: “Payment to a prostitute”? The Talmud answers: They explain it in accordance with the opinion of Rav Ḥisda, as Rav Ḥisda says: Any prostitute who hires herself out to o
The Talmud comments: And Rav Ḥisda, who stated above that the Torah requires one to maintain a distance of 4 cubits from a prostitute, disagrees with the opinion of R' Pedat. As R' Pedat says: The Torah prohibited only intimacy that involves engaging in prohibited sex, as it is stated: “None of you