A woman once approached Rabbi Akiva with a question: I had sex while still a girl under the age of three. May I marry a cohen? What are the issues under debate? On one hand I has sexual relations, and anyone who has sexual relations is a harlot — according to the laws of the Torah a harlot is forbidden to marry a cohen. On the other hand, since I had sexual relations before the age of three I am not considered a harlot. Rabbi Akiva answered her: You are not a harlot and you are permitted to a cohen since you had sexual relations under the age of three. She told Rabbi Akiva: Rabbi, I had sex many times before I reached the age of three and I even enjoyed it, like an infant whose finger you put in a plate of honey; the first time he objects, the second time he objects, but after he gets used to the sweet taste, the third time he licks his finger willingly. Thus, I too tasted of sexual relations and am to be considered a harlot. Rabbi Akiva answered her: If so, you are considered a harlot and are forbidden to marry a cohen. The scholars questioned this ruling and asked Rabbi Akiva: Since it has been established from the days of Moses our teacher, as tradition, that a girl under the age of three who had sexual relations is permitted to marry a cohen and is not considered a harlot, we should not draw a distinction between one who has had sex once and one who has had sex many times, and even one who enjoyed it is not considered a harlot. The scholars’ argument was correct and Rabbi Akiva gave an incorrect ruling to sharpen the scholars’ wits and test their attentiveness.
\n(Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Niddah 45a)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A woman once approached Rabbi Akiva with a question: I had sex while still a girl under the age of three. May I marry a cohen? What are the issues under debate? On one hand I has sexual relations, and anyone who has sexual relations is a harlot — according to the laws of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2610,"featured_media":20953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[358],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-peppers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daatemet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daatemet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daatemet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daatemet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daatemet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12932"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/daatemet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21988,"href":"https:\/\/daatemet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12932\/revisions\/21988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daatemet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daatemet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daatemet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daatemet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}