Q&A: Judah, Prostitution, and Kant
Judah, Prostitution, and Kant
Question
Good afternoon!
According to Kant (at least according to one formulation of the categorical imperative), a person is forbidden to use prostitution services, and a woman is even forbidden to be such a person, since one is using someone as a means and not as an end.
If so, how could Judah have been with Tamar by the roadside? He would seem to have done something immoral. I have no problem with a person who sinned, as with David, but why doesn’t it say about this that he repented?
Thank you very much!
Answer
Are you setting one man against another? Are you challenging Judah based on Kant, or the Holy One, blessed be He? Allow me not to interrupt my Passover preparations for this homily.
Discussion on Answer
By the norms of those days, this was a reasonable and accepted act. Beyond that, there is no moral problem at all with a transaction between two adults to have sexual relations. And finally, the fact that I accept his categorical imperative does not mean I sign off on every sentence he writes. Even regarding his interpretation of the categorical imperative, in my opinion he says nonsense. For example, when he writes that lying is forbidden at any price and in any situation, even when lives are at stake.
I’m not challenging from Kant himself, but from his moral conception (which, if I’m not mistaken, the Rabbi also holds by). Can it be inferred that the Torah does not recognize this conception?