Our Gemara on Amud Beis discusses the prohibition of Esnan Zonah, the object used to pay for a prostitute. This object has a negative spiritual halo that makes it forever prohibited for use in sacrifices, and may even extend to other sacred objects (see Shulchan Aruch OC 153:21). Our Gemara explores the moment the object becomes forbidden, which depends on when the transaction is finalized.
There is a fascinating Aggadah (Avodah Zara 16b–17a) involving a Tanna, his encounter with an early Christian, and the consequences he suffered for apparently being impressed by a derash made by none other than Yesh”u (Yemach Shemo V’zichro) regarding the permissible use of the esnan object.
When Rabbi Eliezer was arrested and charged with heresy by the authorities, they brought him before a tribunal to be judged. Rabbi Eliezer said to them: “The Judge is trusted by me to rule correctly.” The officer of the court thought Rabbi Eliezer was speaking about him; in fact, Rabbi Eliezer meant only his Father in Heaven. He accepted God’s judgment — that if he was charged, he must have sinned to God in some manner. The officer said: “Since you put your trust in me, you are acquitted [dimos]; you are exempt.”
When Rabbi Eliezer came home, his students entered to console him for being accused of heresy, which he took as a sign of sin. He did not accept their words of consolation. Rabbi Akiva said: “My teacher, perhaps some statement of heresy came before you and you derived pleasure from it, and because of this you were held responsible by Heaven.”
Rabbi Eliezer admitted this was the case. He recalled meeting Ya’akov of Kefar Sekhanya, one of the students of Yesh”u the Nazarene, who asked: Is it permitted to use payment to a prostitute to build a bathroom for the Kohen Gadol in the Beis HaMikdash? Rabbi Eliezer had no answer. Ya’akov said that Yesh”u taught: “Since the coins came from a place of filth, let them go to a place of filth” (Micah 1:7). Rabbi Eliezer confessed that he derived pleasure from this cleverness — and for that, he was punished.
This Aggadah is difficult. Was Rabbi Eliezer’s sin merely being impressed by something from a heretic? The Minchas Kenaos (Letter 58) says yes — contact with heretical material is inherently dangerous, even if its content is not overtly problematic. We also know the principle that God holds the righteous to a higher standard (Bava Kamma 50a).
Yet Rambam, in his introduction to Shemoneh Perakim, famously says: “Hear the truth from whomever states it.” So why the punishment?
Perhaps the issue was that the conversation itself, involving Yesh”u’s teaching, was not only theologically risky but also politically dangerous under Roman rule. Such matters were often discussed in code — as in the exchanges between Antoninus and Rebbe (Avodah Zara 10a–b) and Rambam’s comment to Mishnah Sotah 9:14.
The coded imagery here — a Kohen Gadol’s bathroom — evokes excrement as the byproduct of separating the pure from the impure. The Gemara (Eiruvin 21b) warns that those who mock the Sages will be sentenced to “boiling excrement,” symbolizing the corruption of intellect. This is certainly a fate awaiting a heretic such as Yesh”u. Yesh”u’s hidden message may have been that sexual urges, like waste, can be redeemed toward holiness. Certainly, sexuality as an expression of longing, an attachment to God is found in Jewish mystical literature (e.g., the cherubim’s embrace, Yoma 54a; Arizal’s Askinu Seudasa, especially the line, “Her husband will embrace her. And in her foundation, which brings her pleasure, he will be as one who crushes finely (like making olive oil).”)
Rabbi Eliezer recognized the partial truth — but Yesh”u’s version was a distortion, promoting a softened moral code that reduced personal responsibility. In the first-century context, such an alternative theology posed a grave threat to Jewish continuity. Rabbi Eliezer’s fault was not in the surface idea but in allowing himself to be impressed enough to give it any credence at all.
Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation
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Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, LCSW-R, LMFT, DHL is a psychotherapist who works with high conflict couples and families. He can be reached via email at simchafeuerman@gmail.com