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a destructive manner. This is evident from the great severity with
which Chazal view this sin, prohibiting looking at colored women’s
clothing, lying supine or watching animals or birds copulate. The
gemara relates harshly to the severity of this prohibition in maseches
Niddah (13a). Likewise, the Divrei Malkiel (Vol. V, 157) and the sefer
Zichron Yosef both write at length to refute this thinking.

In the case discussed by the Kol Yehudah, he advances another
reason for permitting it, based upon Chazal’s statement (see maseches
Shabbos 116a), “Great is peace, for Hashem’s Name, which is written
in holiness, is erased into water [in the case of an ishah sotah, who, in
order to allay her husband’s suspicions that she may have committed
adultery, is made to drink water into which the text of the section of
the Torah dealing with this topic has been erased], in order to restore
peace between man and wife.

The sefer Chedvas Yaakov (Tinyana, 110) also writes about a couple
who were married for thirteen years without children, and the physi-
cians said that the wife was healthy and that if there was a problem it
was with the husband, whose semen they recommended testing. The
Chedvas Yaakov permitted this based on the gemara in Yevamos, ex-
plaining that it permits the emission of semen because it is a mitzvah
to enable him to marry a Jewess, and therefore in this case too, since
it is a mitzvah that they should not quarrel, it is permitted to obtain
sperm.

It should be noted though that the importance of maintaining peace
cannot be invoked in permitting the emission of semen for testing in
every situation. In the sefer Kovetz Hanesher (Vol. XI, 2) an incident
is mentioned where a man became engaged to his first cousin. The
authorities in that country enacted a law requiring anyone marrying
the daughter of an uncle or of an aunt to obtain a special permit from
a physician after the man’s semen had been tested.3 The question

3. On the topic of how halachah views cousins marrying and whether genetic
disease should be a concern see earlier siman 229 (section entitled ‘Marriage of
First Cousins or of a Couple Carrying a Defective Gene’) for our explanation of
the comments of Sefer Chasidim.

14 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein