Some rabbinic authorities consider Onan’s sin to have been disobedience, rather than wasted sperm, and see the source of the masturbation ban in concerns about ritual purity. The Talmud referred to male masturbation as adultery with one’s hand. The Shulchan Aruch rules that it is forbidden to spill seed needlessly, calling it a sin more severe than any other in the Torah and tantamount to murder. Many commentators subsequently understood the prohibition on masturbation as a prohibition on the spilling (or wasting) of sperm. The source of this prohibition is sometimes attributed to the biblical figure Onan who, charged with propagating the family line by fathering children with his brother’s widow Tamar, instead withdrew from her and ejaculated on the ground - a crime for which God took his life. Traditionally, masturbation is strictly prohibited for men. While officially maintaining that marriage is the only appropriate context for sex and firmly rejecting adultery, incest and general promiscuity, the movement has acknowledged that “a measure of morality” can be found in non-marital sexual relationships provided they comport with Jewish sexual values, including mutual respect, honesty, health and monogamy.īoth the Reform and Conservative movements have affirmed that their attitude toward sexual ethics applies equally to heterosexual and homosexual relationships. The Conservative movement has taken a similar line. The committee issued a separate statement on adultery that described extramarital affairs - whether conducted in secret or with a spouse’s consent - as sinful and forbidden. A 1979 Reform movement responsum declared “premarital and extramarital chastity to be our ideal.” Even in 2001, when a committee of Reform rabbis published a report on sexual ethics that dropped references to marriage as the sole appropriate context for sexual activity, the movement continued to urge fidelity and exclusivity in sexual relations. Though there is no such gender separation in more liberal Jewish communities, even contemporary Reform and Conservative rabbis have upheld Judaism’s traditional preference that sex be reserved for marriage. Many ultra-Orthodox communities are stringent about separating males and females in large part to reduce the likelihood of romantic encounters between the unmarried. Traditionally, premarital sex has been discouraged if not taboo, and in the contemporary Orthodox world it is strictly forbidden. However, the practice of Jewish men having multiple sexual partners, whether multiple wives or concubines, has not been common for centuries. The Torah and later rabbinic writings also recognize the category of concubine ( pilegesh in Hebrew). Indeed several of the key figures in the Bible engaged in sexual relationships and fathered children with women who were not their wives, including the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob. But there is no universal prohibition on men having sexual relations out of wedlock, an allowance that is believed to stem at least in part from concerns about paternity - a women with multiple partners raises doubts about a child’s parentage. Does Judaism allow extramarital sex?Īdultery - traditionally defined as sexual intercourse between a married woman and a man who is not her husband - is forbidden in the seventh of the Ten Commandments and is among the most serious infractions in Judaism. And while Judaism is broadly permissive when it comes to sex between married adults, the same is not true for sexual activity outside of a committed relationship. Traditional Jewish law not only prohibits many types of sexual relationships, but it also dictates specific parameters even for permitted ones. Instead, sexual activity is highly circumscribed in Jewish tradition, as the rabbis of the Talmud sought to use the human libido as a tool for increasing the population and strengthening marriage. Nonetheless, Judaism doesn’t exactly take an anything goes approach to sex. So vital is sexual activity considered to Judaism that celibacy, even for those so devoted to spiritual life that they feel they don’t have energy left for marriage and children, is frowned upon. The Talmud specifies not merely that a husband is required to be intimate with his wife, but sources also indicate that he is obliged to sexually satisfy her.
Judaism is generally very positive about sex, regarding it as a divine gift and a holy obligation - both for the purposes of procreation and for pleasure and intimacy. My Jewish Learning is a not-for-profit and relies on your help Donate