Can A Noahide Use Contraception?
The Divine Code for December 31, 2022
Today: Page 381
Topic Chapter 9:3 - 9:7
It is permitted for a woman to do an act that prevents pregnancy. For example to insert IUD or using - after the relation - a liquid douche. It is forbidden to take any action the will cause a fetus, or an implanted fertilized egg to abort. See topic 1:1-10 on page 315-316 of the 4e Edition.
The Rabbinic authorities debates as the whether a Gentile man is allowed to spill his seed "in vain". So there is also the discussion of a Gentile man is allowed to use a condom.
Using a condom could be a form of wasted seed. However, on the other hand, the use of a condom could be permissible because the expulsion of semen is allowed within a marital intimate relationship and the semen is not expelled outside the woman's body. In that light, a condom could be equated to the use of an IUD on the woman, which is permitted.
However it is an act that degrades the man's health for no constructive purpose. In contrast, permitted marital intercourse between a husband and a wife, even if there is no possibility of conception, is considered to be a constructive purpose for the man's emission of his semen.
It should be noted that "creating" a child involves 3 parties. The man, the woman and HaShem. Whereby it is HaShem who determines whether a child is ultimately born or not. It is what we are in practice. People who use contraceptives and get pregnant, and people who try everything and sadly find that it doesn't work out. Transgender operations are forbidden, at least on the grounds that this is a destruction of the body. The body of a person is not self-possessed.
Reading schedule of the Divine Code
Yesterday's Study Topic: 8:13 -- 9:1
Tomorrow's Study Topic: 9:8 -- 9:2
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Angelique Sijbolts is one of the main writers for the Noahide Academy. She has been an observant Noahide for many years. She studies Torah with Rabbi Perets every week. Angelique invests much of her time in editing video-lectures for the Rabbis of the Academy and contributes in administrating the Academy's website in English and Dutch. She lives in the north of the Netherlands. Married and mother of two sons. She works as a teacher in a school with students with special needs. And is a Hebrew Teacher for the levels beginners and intermediate. She likes to walk, to read and play the piano.
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Sources:
The Divine Code (4e edition) by rabbi Moshe Weiner
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