2,210. Who Is Not a Zonah

Hilchos Issurei Biah 18:5

We see that a woman being ruled a zonah is not based on forbidden intimacy because when a man is intimate with a niddah or a prostitute, or when a woman performs bestiality, the woman has engaged in forbidden intimacy but she isn’t ruled a zonah. Conversely, if a woman marries a chalal, she engages in permitted intimacy but is ruled a zonah. Rather, it is strictly a spiritual matter that, according to our oral tradition, only comes from a man who is prohibited to this woman or a chalal.

Hilchos Issurei Biah 18:6

If a woman participates in relations that render her a zonah, she becomes disqualified to marry a kohein as soon as the man enters her. This is so regardless of whether she participated willingly or was coerced, whether she violated the prohibition intentionally or unintentionally, and whether she engaged in “regular” (i.e., vaginal) or “irregular” relations. All of this only applies if the female in the relations is at least three years of age and the male is at least nine years old of age. Accordingly, if a married woman engages in extramarital relations, she is disqualified from marrying a kohein regardless of whether she participated willingly or unwillingly.