On prostitution

TALI ARTMAN-PARTOCK: Of prostitutes and prophets. A long discussion in Haaretz of prostitution as a theme in late antique Christian and Jewish literature. Excerpts:

Feminine monasticism and following in the footsteps of Jesus enabled women in Christianity to have freedoms that life in a family framework would have denied them. They became leaders, miracle workers, independent; they gained recognition as significant active subjects, and even as saints. Yet this "liberation" exacted a price: It required the woman to forfeit a family life, which also perpetuated the view that a woman is defined by her sexual function. The monastic option transforms the woman into a "non-woman," and therefore into a person capable of carrying out masculine tasks and climbing to the heights of thought and belief. The woman can become a saint only when she is essentially a man.

The moral of the story is obvious: Even a prostitute, who serves the devil, can repent, particularly in light of her special skills. The monastic lesson is, of course, that we should learn humility, and that only he who is capable of seeing beyond the flesh, like Nonnus, is a true saint.

[...]

The discussion of prostitution and monasticism, then, is not merely a debate held at the upper and lower margins of society, but one that is at its very foundations - its understanding of what closeness to God is and what femininity is.

The Christian model, which views femininity as an obstacle to holiness, since it alone is the embodiment of sexuality, converts the prostitute into a nun.

The Jewish model is different. In it, sexuality does not possess the same negative value, and the desire to sin is located in the man. The Talmudic story has no need for either a female or a male monasticism, because holiness is found everywhere, even in sex, which is embodied here in the ultimate form of the harlot. The process of consciousness, which maintains that sin - like salvation - is found deep in the soul, and is not dependent on any institution or any encounter with a saintly figure, is another conclusion to be drawn from the Talmudic story, which symbolizes the widening gap between the two religions in late antiquity.