Selected Reform Responsa 207

73ff). Ben Azzai considered marriage a divine institution and recognized the obligation of propagating the race as a religious duty. But he believed that he was exempted from this duty in consideration of the fact that it might interfere with another religious duty, e.g., the study of the Torah in which he was engaged. Of course the same right would, according to Ben Azzai , be given to others in a similar position, i.e., to those pursuing studies or being engaged in any other moral religious activities which might be interfered with by the taking on of the obligation of having children. We have seen that the medieval Rabbinic authorities have concurred in the opinion of Ben Azzai and allowed a man engaged in a religious pursuit, such as the study of the Torah , to delay— or even altogether neglect— fulfilling the commandment of“Be fruitful and multiply.” And we have also found that no distinction can be made between neglecting this duty by abstaining from marriage and neglecting it by practicing birth control.

The above represents the logical conclusion which one must draw from a correct understanding and a sound interpretation of the halachic statements in the Talmud touching this question, disregarding the ideas expressed in the Agadic literature as to the advisability of having many children.

The later Jewish mystics emphasized these Agadic sayings, as well as the Agadic condemnations of the evil practices of hotsa-at shichvat zera levatala. They came to regard any discharge of semen which might have resulted in conception but did not, almost like hotsaat shichvat zera levatala. Nay, even an unconscious seminal emission is regarded as a sin against which one must take all possible precautions and for which one must repent and make atonement. But even the mystics permit intercourse with one's wife even when she 1s incapable of having children(see Zohar , Emor 90b).:

Some Rabbinic authorities of the 18th and 19th centuries— under the spell of the Agadic sayings of the Talmud and more or less influenced by the mystic literature— are loath to permit birth control. But even these authorities do not altogether prohibit the practice when