“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both.” So begins Robert Frost’s oft-quoted, and sometimes misunderstood poem, “The Road Not Taken.” On today’s daf, Rabbi Hanina and Rabbi Yonatan also find themselves at a fork in the road, yet unlike Frost’s solitary traveller, they do not wax poetic as they decide which path to take. Rather, they launch into a talmudic dispute:
Rabbi Hanina and Rabbi Yonatan were once walking along the road when they came to a certain two paths, one of which branched off toward the entrance of a place of idol worship, and the other one branched off toward the entrance of a brothel. One said to the other: Let us go by the entrance of idol worship, as the inclination (to idol worship) has been slaughtered. The other said to him: Let us go by the entrance of the brothel and overpower our inclination and receive a reward.
Whichever path they take, the rabbis face risk. The path of idol worship is the lesser one, as the inclination to worship idols has been eradicated (according to the amazing legend told in Sanhedrin 64) and they are unlikely to be tempted. Should they take the path that leads to a brothel, on the other hand, the risk that they might succumb to sexual temptation is high — but so, they imagine, is the reward for overcoming it. So the rabbis choose the more dangerous path.
When they arrived there, they saw that the prostitutes yielded before their presence. One said to the other: From where did you know this would happen? The other responded: It is written: “From lewdness it shall watch over you; discernment shall guard you” (Proverbs 2:11).
As it turns out, the road to the brothel is not as dangerous as it could have been. When the women of the house see Rabbi Haninana and Rabbi Yonatan coming, they retreat indoors, removing temptation from their path. And as we discover, whichever rabbi recommended this path had the foresight that something like this would happen. As Proverbs 2:11 relates, it (i.e., the Torah) provides protection from lewdness. The merit the sages earned from their study of Torah ensured they would not give in to temptation.
And now, ages and ages hence, the Talmud shares with us this tale of two rabbis who stood in a place where two roads diverged. Although each path came with its own temptation, the risk turned out to be very much the same. That is because the rabbis had studied Torah, and that made all the difference.
Read all of Avodah Zarah 17 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on July 5, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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