SELECTED REFORM RESPONSA
and the other teachers in our baraita is correct will be confirmed by our consideration of another baraita dealing with the question of using contraceptives. This other baraita is found in Yevamot 12b, 100b; Ketubot 35b: and Nida 45b. It reads as follows: Tanei rabbi bibi kameih derav nahman: Shalosh nashim meshameshot bemokh- ketana, me-uberet umeinika. Ketana, shema tit-aber vetamut; me-uberet, shema ta-aseh ubarah sandal: meinika, shema tigmol benah veyamut. Ve-eizo hi ketana? Mibat 11 shanim veyom echad ad 12 shanim veyom ehad; pahot mikan veyoter al ken meshameshet kedarkah veholehet. Divrei rabbi me-ir. Vahakhamim omerim: Ahat zo ve-ahat zo meshameshet kedarkah veholecket, umin hashamayim yerahamu, mishum shene-emar Shomer peta-im Adonai.
Before we proceed to interpret this baraita, we must ascertain the correct meaning of the phrase Meshameshot bemokh, as there are different interpretations given to it. According to Rashi(Yevamot 12b), it means putting cotton or other absorbent into the vagina before the cohabitation, so the semen discharged during cohabitation will fall upon the cotton and be absorbed by it and conception will not take place. According to R. Jacob Tam(Tosafot ibid.
s.v. Veshalosh nashim), however it means using the cotton(or the absorbent) after the act of cohabitation in order to remove the semen and thus prevent conception. Whether the latter is, according to modern medical science, an effective contraceptive or not, is not our concern; the Rabbis believed it to be such.
It is evident that according to R. Tam, the use of a douche or any other means of removing or destroying the sperm would be the same as meshameshot bemokh. Likewise, according to Rashi, the use of other contraceptives on the part of the woman would be the same as meshameshot bemokh. Possibly R. Tam would permit the use of chemical contraceptives, even if employed before cohabitation. For his objection to the cotton put in before cohabitation is that when the semen is discharged upon the cotton, it does not touch the mucous membrane of the vagina. This he considers"no real sexual intercourse, but like scattering the semen upon wood and stone" ("De-ein derekh tashmish bekhakh, vaharei hu metil zera al ha-etzim veha-avanim keshemetil al hamokh")- a practice which, according to the
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