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My question is, since a husband is under obligation to provide
his wife with food, clothing and her conjugal rights, is he obliged to
accept the treatment in order to fulfill the mitzvah of onah?

Dr. Ilan Kisri, Urologist, Tel Aviv

ɳ Response

The Torah states, “Her food, her clothing and her conjugal rights,
he shall not diminish” (Shemos 21:10) and upon marrying, every man
becomes obligated to his wife in these three mitzvos. He is therefore
under obligation to receive the injection in order to fulfill his obliga-
tions to his wife.

Now, the Igros Moshe (Orach Chaim, 3, 90) discusses whether or
not a patient is obligated to receive an injection that will enable him
to fast on Yom Kippur. He concludes that he need not do so since the
Torah places obligations upon him in his present situation and since
at present he is exempt from fasting because it would be dangerous
for him, he is under no obligation to change his physical condition
through injections so that he should be able to fast.

However, a husband’s obligations to his wife are different, for a
husband is considered a ‘debtor’ who owes his wife these obligations
in exchange for his wife’s obligations towards him. He must therefore
inject himself in order to ‘pay’ his debts. Similarly, a man who has lost
his virility owing to weakness and can regain it by taking injections,
vitamins and by fortifying himself is obligated to do so in order to
discharge his obligations to his wife1.

Consider the case of two tailors who have a partnership selling
suits, whereby each of them is under obligation to the other to sew
a certain number of suits every month. If one of them becomes ill
and grows weak and can no longer maintain his undertaking to the
partnership, can he demand that his partner should continue sewing
suits while he does nothing but continues receiving a share of the

1. For further discussion of the parameters of the obligation of onah and the re-
spects in which it differs from the mitzvah of procreation see earlier, siman 225.

132 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein