Q&A: What Is Included in Forbidden Sexual Relations About Which It Is Said: Be Killed Rather Than Transgress
What Is Included in Forbidden Sexual Relations About Which It Is Said: Be Killed Rather Than Transgress
Question
This is a continuation of a previous question I asked, but it seems to me that this is really a separate question.
In the original source for the rule of “be killed rather than transgress” (Babylonian Talmud, Pesachim 25 and Sanhedrin 74), the Talmud draws an analogy from a murderer to the rape of a betrothed young woman. I did not understand how we learn from there about all the other forbidden sexual relations, that one must be killed rather than transgress. Because seemingly the analogy from a murderer applies only to the rape of a betrothed young woman.
Answer
You are assuming that the discussion here is about rape, but in the straightforward reading the problem is the act of intercourse, not the coercion. If so, there is no difference between a betrothed young woman and the other forbidden sexual relations.