So he thought and then related to me how he walked with Reb Shlomo in Manhattan and a group of prostitutes would follow him for blocks. As the storyteller put it "They felt he gave them their souls back."
Yes even prostitutes have souls....
That got me thinking about another prostitute with a soul. Her name was Rachav and we read about her in Sefer Yehoshua. She was so irresistibly attractive that at the mere mention of her name men would feel that they HAVE to do something.... [Megila 15a with Rashi]. She "worked" for forty years and had quite an important clientele [see Zvachim 116b].
This is the kicker. According to the gemara, she did teshuva and married none other than Yehoshua the leader of the Jewish people. Eight נביאים descended from that union.
It would seem that despite her checkered past she was able to rise above it and become a holy woman. I say that DUE to her past she became holy. She just redirected her passion to הקדוש ברוך הוא. And passionate she was. So for everyone struggling with yetzers of different sorts - it's just a matter of redirecting your passions to the right places. [This requires more discussion but I feel this has been too graphic as it is. But it's Torah and this is a place for Torah. Torah talks about everything because Hashem is in everything. אין עוד מלבדו. But I don't want expand more publicly.]
Another contemporary lesson - Don't hold a person's past against him or her. If you hear that a girl wasn't the biggest tzadekes in high school or that a boy was makpid to have "pot" [Aramaic for bread?] with every meal you can still go out with them. IF you want someone with a crystal clear past and a perfect storybook family - you are going to be waiting until loooong after you are pushing daisies.
אריכות ימים sweetest friends!
