Home / Essays / Masturbation in the Kabbalah

Masturbation in the Kabbalah

By on March 20, 2013
Prev3 of 4Next
Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse

A123 kabbalah3

In the Zohar

The Zohar takes this whole theme one step further, exacerbating the extent of the transgression. According to particular parts of the Zohar (the Zohar is not written as one unit, with research suggesting that different parts were written by different men and different times, without complete consistency), masturbation is worse than murder, for murderers “kill others, but this is killing your own children, and a massacre at that.” Therefore, “There is no sin in the world for which there is not repentance – except this.” (Targum 41, 219b).

One who wastes his seed is like a father who murders his own children, and this is the only sin in the world for which there is no repentance! In another section of the Zohar, we’ll see clearly an approach that treats semen itself as holy, leaving any misuse squandering of it into a sin – with the actual intent of the Jewish man involved fully irrelevant:

“Anyone who ejaculates in vain will not merit to see the face of the Shechina (Divine Presence) and is called evil . . .” – this refers to someone who ejaculates by use of his hand or some other way . . . Therefore, a man must petition God that He will prepare for him a “kosher vessel”, so that he will not cause injury to his descendants – for one who ejaculates with an “unkosher vessel” will injure his descendants. Woe to someone who injures his own descendants!

Now pay attention: According to this text, even those who ejaculate during intercourse with a woman still retain the stigma of “ejaculating in vain.” In other words, what is significant is the semen itself, and not the intent of the person, for we are not speaking here at all of actual masturbation.

But despite this citation, most statements in the Zohar do deal with the intent of the person. Thus, when the Zohar decides that a person who awakens out of a sexual desire for Naama (the name of a particular demoness – i.e. he wakes up from an erotic dream) and sleeps with his wife, the child thereby born will belong to the Impure Side. In other words, the impure desire is determinant, and not the action itself (for it was sex with his perfectly fine wife).

Unlike its treatment of other mitzvot, the Zohar does not engage with the question of how masturbation affects the Sefirot, leaving it unclear how the upper realms are affected by this sin. It is perhaps for this reason the status of this sin in the Zohar’s system remains unclear. It is only with the Arizal that a complete connection is made between semen itself and divinity.

Continue reading…

Prev3 of 4Next
Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse

Jewrotica is a spankin' new project with the power to provide a voice for Jewish sexual expression and meaningful conversation. Jewrotica is an online community-in-the-making and a database of delicious and grin-inducing Jewish stories and confessions. Join us!
Related Items