When it comes to certain sins or desires, humans are ingenious and relentless in achieving their goals. An addict could spend hours, overcoming great adversity, planning and plotting to get his or her fix. Halakha recognizes this as well.

Our Gemara on Amud Aleph raises a contradiction between our Mishna’s case and a Mishna in Avoda Zara (70b).  Our Mishna teaches us if a city was invaded by a marauding army, women who were married to cohanim would need to bring proof that they were not raped.  (The rabbis were lenient on the form of proof, even relying on weak testimony usually not accepted in court.). Yet, in Avoda Zara, it is noted that if a city was invaded during war time, even the open barrels of wine are permitted.  There is no fear that the soldiers had time to pour the wine as an idolatrous libation.  (I guess even though there are no atheists in foxholes, the idolaters were not as devoted to worship during the heat of battle.) 

Be that as it may, there is a logical contradiction between these two Mishnayos,  We consider the heat of battle a good enough distraction so that the soldiers would not have time to make a libation, which should only take a moment, but yet there is fear that the invading soldiers would have had time to rape women?  The Gemara answers with a quip, “To engage in sexuality there is time enough, but to make libations there is not enough time.”  

This aspect of human nature is not limited to the impious. The Gemara Kiddushin (81a) tells us a story about a great sage, who was brought face to face with the power of his own lusts and the insane lengths his desire would drive him to commit:

הָנָךְ שְׁבוּיָיתָא דַּאֲתַאי לִנְהַרְדְּעָא אַסְּקִינְהוּ לְבֵי רַב עַמְרָם חֲסִידָא אַשְׁקוּלוּ דַּרְגָּא מִקַּמַּיְיהוּ בַּהֲדֵי דְּקָא חָלְפָה חֲדָא מִנַּיְיהוּ נְפַל נְהוֹרָא בְּאִיפּוּמָּא שַׁקְלֵיהּ רַב עַמְרָם לְדַרְגָּא דְּלָא הֲווֹ יָכְלִין בֵּי עַשְׂרָה לְמִדְלְיֵיהּ דַּלְיֵיהּ לְחוֹדֵיהּ סָלֵיק וְאָזֵיל

The Gemara relates: Those captive women who were brought to Neharde’a, where they were redeemed, and were brought up to the house of Rav Amram the Pious. They removed the ladder from before them to prevent men from climbing up after them to the attic where they were to sleep. When one of them passed by the entrance to the upper chamber, it was as though a light shone in the aperture due to her great beauty. Out of his desire for her, Rav Amram grabbed a ladder that ten men together could not lift, lifted it on his own and began climbing.

כִּי מְטָא לְפַלְגָא [דְּ]דַרְגָּא אִיפְּשַׁח רְמָא קָלָא נוּרָא בֵּי עַמְרָם אֲתוֹ רַבָּנַן אֲמַרוּ לֵיהּ כַּסֵּיפְתִּינַן אֲמַר לְהוּ מוּטָב תִּיכַּסְפוּ בֵּי עַמְרָם בְּעָלְמָא הָדֵין וְלָא תִּיכַּסְפוּ מִינֵּיהּ לְעָלְמָא דְּאָתֵי אַשְׁבְּעֵיהּ דְּיִנְפַּק מִינֵּיהּ נְפַק מִינֵּיהּ כִּי עַמּוּדָא דְנוּרָא אֲמַר לֵיהּ חֲזִי דְּאַתְּ נוּרָא וַאֲנָא בִּישְׂרָא וַאֲנָא עֲדִיפְנָא מִינָּךְ

When he was halfway up the ladder, he strengthened his legs against the sides of the ladder to stop himself from climbing further, raised his voice, and cried out: There is a fire in the house of Amram. Upon hearing this, the Sages came and found him in that position. They said to him: You have embarrassed us, since everyone sees what you had intended to do. Rav Amram said to them: It is better that you be shamed in Amram’s house in this world, and not be ashamed of him in the World-to-Come. 

In the recovery community, addiction is sometimes described as a “cunning and baffling disease.”  Indeed, none of us can be too smart or too wary when it comes to the cunning and baffling extent that humans may engage in to fulfill their lusts.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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