A rabbi recently ruled women required to seduce the enemy for the sake of Israeli national security may do so but advised using single women for such tasks.

In a recent article headlined "Adultery for the sake of state security" in a periodical on Jewish law, Rabbi Ari Shvat wrote guidelines for women serving in the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad who may be called upon "to sleep with the enemy" to garner information.

He said he was prompted to write the article after a former female student of his who was recruited by the Mossad asked his opinion on the matter.

Noting it would be preferable for single women to be used in such missions, he wrote: "But if there is a necessity to use a married woman, then her husband should give her a divorce and then afterwards he should be allowed to remarry her," Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

To support his rulings, Shvat cited the biblical cases of Queen Esther, who slept with Persian King Ahasuerus to save her community, and Yael, wife of Heber the Kenite, who seduced and killed the Canaanite general Sisera, Ynetnews.com said.

In summing up his ruling, Shvat said sexual intercourse with a gentile for the sake of a national cause is not only sanctioned but an important mitzvah (good deed), the site said.