Q&A: Emitting Semen Instead of Adultery with a Menstruant
Emitting Semen Instead of Adultery with a Menstruant
Question
What is preferable from a halakhic standpoint?
And if emitting semen is preferable — is it permitted to watch obscene content in order to speed things up and avoid neglecting Torah study? And is there a distinction between an unmarried man and a married man?
Answer
I don’t answer questions like these. Consult a certified sin advisor.
Discussion on Answer
This is not a learned question and not even a halakhic question. See, for example, here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/0BwJAdMjYRm7IdnB5dUZXMUNXcDg/edit?resourcekey=0-nIxR4i-Q_nDI-vg53BQbQg
And also here: https://mikyab.net/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%91%D7%A2%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9F-%D7%A2%D7%91%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%94-%D7%9C%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%94/
1. This is what Joseph did in order to overcome his impulse and avoid sleeping with Potiphar’s wife when she tried to seduce him. From here it follows that it is advisable to masturbate in order not to have forbidden intercourse.
2. In intercourse with a menstruant there is no wasting of seed, as Maimonides wrote that a man may have intercourse with his wife in the usual manner and in an unusual manner, and as Tosafot Rid wrote as well, that even if his semen is emitted outside during intercourse, if the purpose is not to prevent pregnancy so that the woman’s beauty should not be diminished, there is no prohibition in this at all. One may even infer a hint from Tosafot Rid’s words that there is no prohibition at all of wasting seed merely for pleasure, but only when it is done to prevent pregnancy, and only because of diminishing the woman’s beauty. True, the Sages learned in their own acrobatic way even “commits adultery with hand and foot”; it seems they were looking for a way to hang a new prohibition on something that has not the slightest trace in the Torah.
As an aside, I’ll note that it’s fairly dangerous to throw sand in people’s eyes. It might start growing there and block our vision.
Words as plentiful as sand, and the Rabbi won’t let us eat (the Israeli expression for “here is a table, here is meat, here is a knife, and yet we have nothing to eat”).
Is anything I wrote incorrect, and if so, why?
This is a learned question, because with a menstruant in any case one is either wasting seed onto the ground or into a condom or onto her face, so that too is emission of semen. The question is whether one may commit one transgression in order to avoid a greater transgression. You can’t get away with nothing.