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with Rashi’s explanation, namely, that the passage discusses a male
organ that had a hole which has now closed [if we are to understand
2 Rashi that way]. However, from the Rambam (Hilchos Issurei Biah
16:5) and the Shulchan Aruch (Even Ha’ezer 5:4) it appears that they
understood the gemara to be discussing a male organ with a hole
without any membrane having formed over it to close it. The pur-
pose of the trial emission of semen is to see whether the is hole large
enough to allow semen to escape through it from the side, in which
case the man is a kerus shufchah, or whether it is to small to allow
semen to escape from the side. From the gemara too it seems that the
topic of discussion is not a hole over which a membrane has grown,
because that is discussed by the gemara further on, as explained by
the Aruch La’ner. The Divrei Malkiel’s approach [that emission is
permitted since until proven otherwise the man is presumed to be a
kerus shufchah and incapable of siring a child,] cannot be reconciled
with this for according to this way of learning the gemara, the trial’s
purpose is to clarify whether or not he is a kerus shufchah to begin
with and since there exists a possibility that he is and always was
fertile, emission would not be permitted.

It also needs to be pointed out that many poskim are of the opinion
that emission of semen for naught is forbidden even for a man whose
sperm is incapable of siring a child. Rav Pe’alim (3, Even Ha’ezer, 2)
was asked by someone who was unable to have children because of the
crooked shape of his organ whether he was allowed to emit semen for
naught. His answer was that even an old man, a eunuch or a person
suffering from impotency whose semen does not“shoot like an arrow,”
is forbidden to emit semen for naught, for the Torah states explicitly,
“For all flesh wasted their intercourse onto the earth” (Bereishis 6:12)
and while there were certainly individuals among who were incapable
of siring children they were all punished for the sin of emitting semen
for naught. [If not for the author’s holy words, perhaps one could say
that in those days they were all born powerful without any blemish,
as per Chazal’s description in the medrash of the wondrous capabil-
ities of those born at that time.] Neither have we ever heard it said
that an old man is allowed to emit semen for naught. Wasting semen

Obtaining Semen 2 17