Q&A: A Halakhic Analysis of Wasting Seed
A Halakhic Analysis of Wasting Seed
Question
Hello Rabbi, during my years in yeshiva I came across many lectures about the “blemish of the covenant,” but none of them were halakhic, and certainly not analytical. Beyond the fact that in yeshivot they relate to this only on the faith-oriented side and so on, I’m not even speaking only about a halakhic discussion of the question of what the source of the prohibition is. My question is whether there are good sources for Talmudic analysis on this topic. One question that occurred to me in the past, for example, is whether a married man who fantasizes about his wife, and even ejaculates in vain because of that, transgresses a prohibition. Is that more severe than the prohibition of spilling outside the body during intercourse? And if it is forbidden, is this prohibition similar to fantasizing about other women? And perhaps one could also distinguish between whether his wife is menstruating or not at the time of the fantasy, and so on. I’d be happy to hear your thoughts.
Answer
The very concept of the “blemish of the covenant” is not itself a halakhic concept. In my view, people have made far more of it than it is, and it has turned into a frightening taboo. It is of course a halakhic prohibition; some say it is only rabbinic, and that’s all. There is no reason to panic about it or to despair because of the difficulty of coping with it. That is how it is for all people your age. I very strongly suggest leaving aside all the lectures about the faith-oriented side and so on. They are not helpful. This has roots in the Zohar, but it is not clear what the status of those statements is. There is a lot of nonsense here, and inventions by hysterical people, usually ignoramuses.
See Rabbi Melamed for a fairly balanced overview: https://ph.yhb.org.il/14-04-02/
There is even a nice overview on Wikipedia: https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%94%D7%95%D7%A6%D7%90%D7%AA_%D7%96%D7%A8%D7%A2_%D7%9C%D7%91%D7%98%D7%9C%D7%94
Another article: https://asif.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/1-33-40.pdf
There is one by Rabbi Yitzhak Rons (a former student of mine) with responses: https://asif.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/zhr-21-19.pdf