JACOB Z. LAUTERBACH

omission but not of commission; for the practice as such is not immoral or against the law.

But- and this is peculiar to the Jewish point of view on this question- the man who practices absolute self-restraint or total abstinence is also guilty of the same sin of omission, for he likewise fails to fulfill the duty of propagation of the race. No distinction can be made, according to Jewish law, between the two ways of avoiding the duty of begetting children, whether by total abstention from sexual intercourse or by being careful not to have intercourse in such a manner as would result in conception. For, as has already been pointed out, the act of having intercourse with one's wife in a manner not effecting conception is in itself not forbidden by Jewish law. If, however, a man has fulfilled the duty of propagation of the race, as when he already has two children(i.e., two boys according to the School of Shammai or a boy and a girl according to the School of Hillel) and is no longer obliged by law to beget more children(Yevamot 61b and Shulhan Arukh, Even Haezer 1.5), there can be no objection at all to the practice of birth control. For while the Rabbis of old, considering children a great blessing, would advise a man to continue to beget children even after he has already fulfilled the duty of propagation of the race, yet they grant that any man has a right to avoid having more children when, for one reason or another, he does not consider it a blessing to have too many children and deems it advisable in his particular case not to have more than the two that the law commands him to have.

But even in the case of one who has not yet fulfilled the duty of propagation of the race(mitzvat periya ureviya) it might, under certain conditions, be permitted to practice birth control, if it is done not for selfish purposes but for the sake of some higher ideal or worthy moral purpose. For the rabbinic law permits a man to delay his marrying and having children or even to remain all his life unmarried(like Ben Azzai ), if he is engaged in study and fears that having a family to take care of would interfere with his work and hinder in the pursuit of his studies(Kiddushin 29b; Maimonides , Yad, Hil. Ishut, XV 2-3; Shulhan Arukh, Even Haezer,1.3-4)

Since, as we have seen, the act of having intercourse with one's

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