“Gedolah Aveirah Lishmah”: Mothers of the Davidic Dynasty, Feminine Seduction and the Development of Messianic Thought, from Rabbinic Literature to R. Moshe Haim Luzzatto

The unique and radical statement Gedolah averah lishmah mimitzvah shelo lishmah appears in the Babylonian Talmud just twice, in Tractate Nazir and in a parallel text in Tractate Horayot. Scholars and commentators have suggested different interpretations of the enigmatic term averah lishmah. Legal readings tend to explicate it as "permission to perform a transgression out of a positive motive," "rejection of one norm in favor of a loftier one," or "violation of the law in order to preserve it." Another reading of the term, in the spirit of Rashi and the Tosafists, takes it as a "transgression committed for the sake of a commandment" or "for the sake of God." In this article, I will suggest that the precise meaning of the term is "transgression with good intention," or "a sin done for its own sake," an interpretation that takes into consideration the direct literary and gender context of this talmudic statement.