Rambam's Opinion and the Mysterious New Phrase

 I have already described the opinion of the Rambam in this post here.  However, that was several years ago, and I need to do a better job. The big surprise of this post is at the end, so it will be a reward for those who are patient enough to read the whole post! Warning: you will not understand the surprise if you skip to the end without reading the lead-up. 

Understanding the Rambam properly is a crucial step before we begin to describe the opinions of the standard Rishonim (The Rabbinic literature from roughly the 11th century through the 16th century), as the Rambam is vastly different from what we find in the other Rishonim.

The Rambam's opinion on this matter can best be understood by dividing his ideas regarding masturbation into three categories.  1) Health reasons, 2) ejaculation to avoid fulfilling the obligation of having children, 3) deliberate stimulation of sexual desire in inappropriate contexts, which often includes masturbation can lead to sexual immorality.

Health Concerns

The Rambam states as follows:

"Semen is the vigor of the body, its very life, and the light of the eyes, and it’s too frequent emission sets decay in the body, wastes its strength, and ends life itself, which is as Solomon in his wisdom said: "Give not unto women thy vigor" (Prov. 31.3). Whosoever indulges in sensuality ages before his time, his strength fails him, his eyes become dim, a foul odor issues from his mouth and from underneath his arms, the hair of his head, eye-brows, and eye-lids fall out; the hair of his beard, under his arms and his feet grow heavier, his teeth fall out, and many more ailments besides these come upon him. Doctors of medicine said: "One in a thousand die of other diseases, and the rest of the thousand from overindulgence of sex. Therefore, must man be careful in this matter, if he desires to lead a good life. He should not yield to an urge save if his body be in good health and exceedingly vigorous, with involuntary erection despite diversion, and a pressure on the genitocrural arteries accompanied by warm wave over his body, when there is a hygienic need of relief. But he should not still an urge when sated and not when hungry, but after the food in his bowels be digested. Care should be taken, before and after, whether there is a need of elimination. Neither standing nor sitting; neither in the bath-house nor on the day of bathing; neither on the day of blood-letting nor on the day of departing for or returning from a journey; neither preceding nor following all these.(Rambam, Mishna Torah Hilchot De'ot 4:19)"

In this passage the Rambam is quoting from his medical knowledge.  This was the accepted view of the time amongst the medical world, mostly influenced by Plato, Aristotle, Galen and others.  That excessive ejaculation deprived the body of its strength and caused illness, but that holding on to too much semen without ejaculation was unhealthy as well.  The relationship between eyesight and the "male seed" was also widespread in the ancient world.  So, one reason to avoid masturbation was health related, which according to Maimonides, is therefore also a binding religious precept.  Therefore it is included in his book of Halacha, the Mishna Torah.

Interestingly, the Rambam's concern for health may also sometimes require that one ejaculate. As he states:

"Likewise, in sexual relation there shall be no intercourse save when it is of benefit to health, or to sustain species. One should, therefore, not yield to every urge, save when knowing that emission of semen is a helpful means medically or to sustain species. (Rambam, Mishna Torah Hilchot De'ot 3:2)"

In the Rambam's medical writings he describes how semen retained for too long can be dangerous, and sometimes must be ejaculated for health reasons, in this he echoes the words of Galen and others.

Avoiding Procreation

The second reason why the Rambam holds that masturbation is problematic is when it is done for the purpose of preventing the fulfillment of the obligation of having children.  The origin of this is obviously the story of Onan in the Torah.  See our discussion here regarding the details of the Biblical account.

When the Rambam introduces the prohibition of masturbation itself, it is in this context of sexual relations when done as part of a person’s intent to avoid having children to fulfill the Mitzvah of P'ru U'rvu (building a family).  This is clearly because the Biblical origin of the idea is from the story of Onan, as we described in our previous post on this topic.  Here is how the Rambam himself introduces the topic:

It is prohibited to ejaculate semen for naught, therefore a person should not have intercourse and then withdraw to ejaculate, one should also not marry a woman too young to give birth to a child. However, those who have sexual relations with their hands and thus ejaculate (outside of a woman's body) not only are they committing a prohibited act, but one who does should be isolated (from the community) and regarding such people it is said (Isaiah 1:15) "Their hands are stained with blood" and it is as if he is guilty of murder.  (Rambam, Laws of Forbidden Relations 21:18)

Similarly, the Rambam states in his discussion of the laws of marriage and the mitzvah of raising a family:

A man should not marry a woman (known to be) infertile, or postmenopausal, or an aylonit (a woman who due to an endocrine disorder does not ever develop feminine characteristics) or a woman too young to carry a child unless he has already fulfilled the mitzvah of having children or if he has another wife from whom he will fulfill this mitzvah (Rambam, Mishna Torah, Laws of Marriage 15:7)

When the Rambam writes, "having sexual relations with their hands" he is translating the term in the gemara "Niuf Beyad U'beregel" that is used by the Talmud.  While others understood this to be masturbation, the Rambam did not, he understood that this meant sexual practices that caused ejaculation by contact with other body parts like the hands and legs of another person.  This would be another sexual practice that the Rambam would disapprove of when done in the context of trying to prevent pregnancy, when someone has not yet fulfilled the mitzvah of having children.  The Rambam states this definition clearly when listing prohibited sexual acts:

One who has sexual intercourse with one of the prohibited relations, or embraces her, or even touches a part of her body in order to derive pleasure, regardless of which part of her body, such as when (people rub each other) with their hands or legs, and this is the type of abomination that the Sages call those who commit adultery with their hand or foot (Mna'afin beyad U'beregel) (Rambam Pirush Hamishnayot, Sanhedrin 7:4) 

I quoted these three passages in succession so that you can fully understand Maimonides reasoning.  The progression of his reasoning is as follows: 

1. The origin of the prohibition is the Biblical story of Onan
2. In this story, the prohibition was because Onan engaged in sexual activity with his wife by ejaculating after withdrawal and thus refused to fulfill the mitzvah of having children
3. Therefore, any type of intercourse, including marrying a woman too young to have children, which is meant to allow for sex while avoiding one's obligation to procreate is forbidden.
4. this includes sexual practices such as mutual masturbation and causing ejaculation with your hand, when done to prevent the fulfillment of the mitzvah of procreation, is akin to murder
5. It should be obvious that the comparison to murder is because the person is guilty of not populating the world as God intended.
6. however, if one has already had children, this prohibition does not apply

Leading to Sexual Immorality

Item number 6 in the previous list leads us to the third reason that Maimonides has a problem with the practice.  Maimonides is concerned that when one intentionally arouses oneself and thus brings himself to eventually satisfy his sexual urges and he ejaculates not in the context of having sex.  In the Rambam's discussions of these topics, masturbation is almost always discussed in the context of other sins which are not necessarily prohibitions but are very much discouraged by the Rambam due to concern for general immorality and where these practices may ultimately lead.  After discussing the laws mentioned above, the Rambam takes the opportunity to spend the remainder of the chapter to explain this idea.

He goes on to discuss not engaging in practices that are meant to arouse oneself, but rather one should spend his time with holier pursuits.  He discusses needless flirting with the opposite sex, watching women when they are engaged in private activities, even observing women's clothing in such a way that it arouses oneself.  He discusses not following women around the market or hanging out near places of ill repute. Maimonides then describes that for someone single and not in a proper relationship, these activities can lead to illicit behavior.  I am not quoting this directly because it is long, but you can read it yourself in Rambam Mishna Torah Laws of Forbidden Relations 21:19 - 32).  In this respect, Maimonides groups masturbation along with the activities that one engages in that can lead him down a bad path.  Instead he recommends that we spend our time in appropriate activities.

Nowhere in any of the writings of the Rambam do we ever find a reference to "wasting seed" as if there is an inherent problem with ejaculating outside the body of a woman in and of itself. It is always a problem only because it is either part of a practice that can lead one astray, or because one is not in a healthy and proper sexual relationship so that he could go down a bad path, or because he is deliberately not fulfilling the mitzvah of procreation.

This leads to one last fascinating statement of the Rambam.  That is that when one IS in a healthy appropriate relationship, and one has fulfilled the mitzvah of having children, he states as follows:

"A person’s spouse is permitted to him, therefore any (sexual) activity that he desires to engage in with her, he may engage in it. He may have sexual relations with her at any time he desires, and he may kiss her on any part of her body that he desires, he may have sex with her in the normal way (vaginal) or not in the normal way (anal), he may have sex by using the (normal) limbs of the body or even not the (normal) limbs (Rambam, Mishna Torah, Laws of Forbidden Relations 21:9)"

If you have been following me until now, you would see clearly that the Rambam almost certainly wrote this specifically to permit any activity including not only anal intercourse, but even using other limbs, even if such practices result in ejaculation outside of a woman's body!  This is what the Rambam prohibited when done for the purpose of avoiding the mitzvah of procreation, or in a context outside of marriage when it leads to promiscuity.  But in the context pf marriage it is completely permissible!

For the first 150 years or so, this is exactly how every single manuscript of the Mishna Torah read.  However, suddenly, at some point during the 13th century, a phrase was appended at the end of the paragraph I just quoted which reads as follows:

.... he may have sex by using the (normal) limbs of the body or even not the (normal) limbs as long as he does not spill seed for naught!

Perhaps the two most authoritative versions of Mishna Torah available today, The Frankel edition of the Rambam, and R' Kapach's edition BOTH point out that this phrase was a later addition.  This phrase turns the Rambam completely upside down, and makes itself contradictory.  It also has been used by Halachic texts from the 13th century onward to lend support to the MUCH later idea that the prohibition of masturbation was a problem of "spilling seed" and "wasting seed".  The later authorities almost all pointed to this Maimonidean text that was never really written by Maimonides, and in fact was contrary to what he was trying to teach.

Even if this text was authentic, which it is almost certainly not, the only way to understand it would be to say that the Rambam meant "as long as he doesn't spill seed for naught ... as Onan did, to avoid pregnancy when one is still obligated to have children."  But if you do not like my potential explanation, it does not matter, because we don’t need to explain the intent of this passage as Maimonides did not write it.

So why did this text land in the middle of the Rambam? While I cannot answer that for sure, it certainly is not coincidental that the entire tide of halachic discourse on this subject changed dramatically during the years after the Rambam.  In my next post, I will start with the opinions of Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam and continue from there. After that I plan on taking you through the very heavy influence of the Kabballah on this issue, and the influence of the science of the day, and of Christianity.