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Procreation is a positive precept like all other positive mitzvos. In
the same way that in regard to any other mitzvah even a person who
derives no enjoyment from its fulfillment is nonetheless obligated to
fulfill it, a man who has no enjoyment in marital relations is still obli-
gated to marry a woman and fulfill the mitzvah [of procreation] even
though he doesn’t find marital relations pleasant. It is known that the
author of the Levushim was handsome and that a certain noblewom-
an wanted to sin with him and the only way he could escape from her
was by leaving through a sewage pipe that was full of waste and he
went on to merit being a tremendous source of Torah illumination.
This is all the more applicable to this individual, who is obligated to
fulfill the mitzvah of procreation despite his feelings of revulsion.
Every servant of Hashem experiences spiritual pleasure from the
knowledge that he is fulfilling the will of his Creator even when it
is difficult for him. See also the Ibn Ezra (at the end of megillas Rus)
who writes that the neighbors called the child that Rus bore Boaz,
Oved (servant) (Rus 4:17), because Boaz “had sired the child as an
elderly man and had only married for the sake of Heaven’s glory. The
child’s mother too had abandoned her religion and her country of
birth and sheltered in Hashem’s protection. Their child would there-
fore certainly be a servant of Hashem.” Evidently, if a man marries
solely for Heaven’s sake his child will be a servant of Hashem. In our
case too, if he marries a woman not to satisfy his desire but solely for
Heaven’s sake he will merit a son who serves Hashem.

When is all this relevant? When he does not wrong his wife and
she is aware of his situation, yet she nevertheless agrees [to marry
him] because it is worthwhile for her owing to other considerations
e.g. financial, social etc. or because she wants to bear a child and has
no prospect of marrying a normal man, only this fellow [the homo-
sexual].

Although it is sometimes evident that such a marriage will not en-
dure in the long term and that they will ultimately separate, they will
in the meantime have fulfilled the mitzvah of procreation and when
there is no other possible arrangement this is also considered fulfill-
ment of the mitzvah. Even though their children will be unfortunates

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