Avodah Zarah, Daf Lamed Vav, Part 4
Introduction
The previous sugya presented the prohibition of having relations with Gentiles as being a rabbinic decree. Our sugya asks if it s actually from the Torah.
I should emphasize that the rabbis seem to have taken it for granted that Jews were not supposed to marry or have sex with non-Jews. The question they are more interested in is where does this prohibition come from? Is it from the Torah, in which case it seems to be inherent in Judaism? Or was it decreed upon by the rabbis, in order to prevent a particular problem from occurring?
בנותיהן דאורייתא היא דכתיב (דברים ז, ג) לא תתחתן בם דאורייתא ז’ אומות אבל שאר עובדי כוכבים לא ואתו אינהו וגזור אפילו דשאר עובדי כוכבים
But the prohibition against marrying their daughters is a Biblical law, for it is written, Do not marry them (Deuteronomy 7:3)!
It is forbidden from the Torah to marry one from the seven nations [of Canaan] but this does not include other non-Jews; and they [the Schools of Hillel and Shammai] came and decreed against these also.
The Torah prohibits intermarriage explicitly but only with the seven nations that inhabited Canaan when Joshua conquered the land. The rabbis extended this prohibition to cover all non-Jews.
ולר"ש בן יוחי דאמר (דברים ז, ד) כי יסיר את בנך מאחרי לרבות כל המסירות מאי איכא למימר?
But according to R. Shimon b. Yohai who said that the words, For he will turn away your son from following Me, (Deuteronomy 7:4) include all women who would turn [their husbands aside from the worship of God], what is there to say?
R. Shimon b. Yohai says that the Torah already prohibits a Jew from having relations with any non-Jewish women, for any such woman could end up turning the Jew away from God. So then what did Hillel and Shammai s students do?
אלא דאורייתא אישות דרך חתנות ואתו אינהו גזור אפילו דרך זנות
Rather, the Torah prohibits marital intercourse, and they came and decreed even against non-marital intercourse.
The Torah prohibited marriage with a non-Jewish woman. Marriage leads to the highest level of cultural assimilation, and therefore it was prohibited. The rabbis added that even non-marital sex is prohibited, also for fear of this leading to idol worship.
זנות נמי בבית דינו של שם גזרו דכתיב (בראשית לח, כד) ויאמר יהודה הוציאוה ותשרף
But non-marital sex had already been decreed against by the Court of Shem, for it is written, And Judah said, Bring her forth and let her be burned (Genesis 38:24).
In Genesis 38 Judah suspects that Tamar has had sex outside the framework of marriage. The simple reading of this chapter is that Judah is accusing her of quasi-adultery, but the rabbis read it as non-marital sex. The fact that he states that she is to be penalized for this, implies that sex with a non-Jew is prohibited (he assumes that she had sex with a non-Jew because there were not really that many Israelites around then). So how can we say that the students of Shammai and Hillel initiated this prohibition?
אלא דאורייתא עובד כוכבים הבא על בת ישראל דמשכה בתריה אבל ישראל הבא על העובדת כוכבים לא ואתו אינהו גזור אפי’ ישראל הבא על העובדת כוכבים ישראל
Rather the Torah prohibits a non-Jew from having sex with a Jewish woman since she would be drawn after him but an Israelite who has sex with a non-Jewish woman is not prohibited [by the Torah], and they decreed even against a Jew who has sex with a non-Jewish woman.
Perhaps the Torah prohibited a Jewish woman from having sex with a non-Jewish man, for in a patriarchal society she would be drawn into his family. But Jewish men could have sex with non-Jewish women, for these women would be assimilated into Jewish society. Indeed, most Israelite men in the Bible do indeed marry foreign women. Then the later sages prohibited even Jewish men from having sex with non-Jewish women, because after all, this too can frequently lead to assimilation.
הבא על העובדת כוכבים הלכה למשה מסיני היא דאמר מר הבועל ארמית קנאין פוגעין בו
א"ל דאורייתא בפרהסיא וכמעשה שהיה ואתו אינהו גזור אפילו בצינעא
But [the prohibition against] an Israelite having intercourse with a non-Jewish woman is a halakhah from Moses from Sinai, for a Master has said: If [an Israelite] has intercourse with an Aramean woman, zealots may attack him!
He said to him: From the Torah a public act is prohibited, as the incident that had happened; but they came and decreed even against a private act.
The final resolution is that there is an ancient law from Sinai that prohibits an Israelite man from having sex with a non-Jewish woman. We can see this from the story about Zimri in Numbers 25:6-8. But that was only in public, an act of open rebellion. In private this was not prohibited, until the rabbis came along and prohibited it there as well.