Not without flaw in this regard myself, I think that masturbation also takes you away from honoring your responsibility to your spouse through this blessed way of intimate communication and allows you to grow apart beyond simply the procreation issue.

Besides all that is discussed in kabbalah,

Maimonides writes that semen (Zerah) is man's "chayos nafsho" (all his life and strength.) The more that goes out, the more the man weakens. "His hairs turn white, his teeth fall out, he looses his eyesite, a bad stench comes from his mouth and he get's thousands of sicknesses",

(maimonides continues..) "Doctors say: one out of 1000 sicknesses come from other problems and 999 come from emmision of semen".

Maimonides, besides being one of the greatest Torah-scholar's that ever lived, also happened to be one of the greatest doctors of all-time. He wrote all this in his famous "Yad Hachazaka", in a section dedicated to health related issues. (Hilchos Deyos)


P.S. The Alter Rebbe writes in Tanya chapter 7 that masturbation (emmision of semen in vain) is worse [ed. note: in one aspect] than all the other illegal relationships mentioned in the Torah. [See http://www.chabad.org/library/archive/LibraryArchive2.asp?AID=7886].

What about females? Unlike males females will "Waste" an egg every month if we do not have intercourse and concieve a child, likewise, we are only alotted a certain amount of eggs where as men will always produce sperm. Is masturbation forbidden for a female as well, according to scripture?

Editor's Comment

Is masturbation before marriage as serious a sin as masturbation after marriage? Please could the editor provide some useful advice in how to quit masturbation, after a person has been addicted for many years?

Please keep this comment strictly Anonymous

Editor's Comment

I'm a bit confused. Since masturbation is considered a waste of semen and since semen should only be used to procreate, does this mean Jews should not use contraception and only have sex when they want to have children? Sounds more like Catholisism to me. Please help me understand befeore I stop having sex for the rest of my life...

Editor's Comment

What about wet dreams? I understand that one can have control of masturbation, but what about nocturnal emissions? It's not like masturbation where you are fully conscious and forcing it on yourself. When you are asleep, you loose control, and sometimes wet dreams happen. Even if one controls ones thoughts during the day, it can still happen during sleep. How can one really control this?

Editor's Comment

Rav Nachman of Bratslav, a descendant of the Baal Shem Tov said that the greatest force we have to combat today is sexual immorality. I'm guessing this includes Masturbation since the majority of us don't do things so immoral as adultery or homosexuality.

Joe: Maimonides writes, "It is forbidden to expel seed in vain...It is also forbidden for a man to intentionally cause himself an erection or immoral thoughts. Rather, if an immoral thought comes to him, he should remove his thoughts from nonsense to the Torah, which is [deserving of love]." (Laws of forbidden relationships, 21:18-19) A Talmudic rabbi named Amram once had the opportunity to cohabit with a captive woman on the second floor of his house. As he was climbing the ladder, he stopped himself and yelled, "There is a fire in Amram's house!" The neighbors came. Amram explained to them, "It is better for Amram to be embarrassed in this world than to be embarrassed in the next world." (Kiddushin 81a) Lessons: (1) Think about God and the Torah. (2) Try to imagine that other people are watching what you do. That said, no strategy guarantees success. I struggle with this problem.

So, if masturbation is wasting seed. Once a woman is past her child-bearing years, and there is no chance of creating new life via intercourse, does marital sex stop? No new life is being created, seed is essentially wasted....seems kind of frustrating to me. Help me on this.

Editor's Comment

The reason people have such a hard time not masturbating is because they aren't paying attention to some other key laws in the torah, first the torah commands a man not to look at improperly dressed women, which is quite a problem today since you can't walk down the street without seeing some disgusting ad, now all these pictures a man sees all day long be it on Television (and I'm not talking about x rated movies just normal programming) have posioned our souls to the point where peoples sexual urges and fantasies are completley out of control (and they think its normal and healthy haha), I was once a part of the secular world (a guitar player in a punk band) and when I became a yeshiva student I had a year and a half (till I got married) in which I had to deal with this issue. After a few months of learning and keeping my eyes and mind clean of today's "pop culture" I can honestly say the urges simply dissappear, but without censoring what your eyes take in you have no chance.

I just want to point out that masturbation is not immoral. It is unholy.There are three categories of relationships, between man and man, between man and G-d, and between man and himself. Only actions that harm other people can be immoral. However, unholy actions can lead to immorality because without holiness, morality begins to erode. Without any holiness, man is just an animal, and that is why societies like the ancient Romans were nothing more than animals, who raped, murdered, and pillaged during their conquests.My point is, that masturbation would definetly fall under the command to be holy. Now of course someone who does not have a solid foundation of proofs for G-d’s existence will have a harder time worrying about holiness.My recommendation to anyone who doubts that masturbation is unholy is to build a solid foundation of reason and to bring an awareness of G-d into their life through Jewish practice. Anyone who does both of these will undoubtably realize that they should stop

I want to point out that the myth that a person cannot go without ejaculating because of a build-up which causes ejaculation, most likely at night. A guy who goes a week without masturbation, or pornography, and avoids thinking about sexual fantasies will not continue to have an urge to masturbate, though he may have one or two wet dreams in that week. (Of course, a person should sleep on his side as is dictated by halacha, because sleeping facing down or up is an additional factor that causes wet dreams.)The fact is;its not actually that difficult to stop. Although harder than dieting, it is probably easier than quiting smoking. All a person has to do to quit is a) not masturbate for a week b) not look at pornography c) avoid thinking sexual fantasies d) keep himself busy doing work, wether for high school or university or a real job, also, time could be spend reading books such as Permission to Believe, or The Science of G-d by Dr. Gerald Schroeder. One week is all that is neccesary.

so did i understand correctly that for girls it's NOT forbidden? isn't that kind of unfair? I mean also for us girls I'd say it's not good to masturbate because the desire of having sex is getting uncontrolable and well that's actually really forbidden when you're not married...so it also leads to bad stuff..

Editor's Comment