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that the admonition to avoid any “evil thing” – which from the juxta-
position of these two pesukim Chazal derive refers to emitting semen
for naught – applies only to impurity that is subject to the warning
“he shall leave the camp,” meaning, only if it was emitted with sen-
sation [for only then it confers impurity]. However, an emission
that involves no sensation and that confers no impurity may not be
prohibited. [In Tosfos’s opinion (Sanhedrin 59b), even such an emis-
sion is prohibited, either under because it is included in the general
prohibition of “Do not destroy” (Devarim 20:19) or because it nullifies
the positive precept of procreation, or by Halachah L’Moshe Mi’Sinai
i.e. a halachah carrying the same weight as a Torah commandment,
not written in the Torah but communicated orally to Moshe when
the Torah was given.]

Slight proof to the Achiezer’s contention -- that an emission with-
out sensation is not prohibited – can be adduced from the comments
of the Imrei Binah (Vol. IV, 8), who writes, “It appears that even a
man who cannot sire children, if he feels either his semen’s displace-
ment or its emission, becomes impure and is prohibited from its
emission for naught, despite his being unable to impregnate his wife.
That is why a eunuch or sterile man is also forbidden to emit semen
for naught” (cited in Otzar Haposkim, Vol. IX p.83). This implies that
if he experiences no sensation, either upon the semen’s displacement
or its emission, he is not forbidden to emit semen for naught.

However, two objections can be raised with this argument:

1. We have been assuming that since a paraplegic feels no sensation
upon the emission of semen his semen does not confer impurity,
however this can be challenged. Perhaps the gemara in Niddah (ibid.)
[which distinguishes between an emission that is felt and one that
is not felt] refers to a lack of sensation owing to an illness such as
diabetes, which affects the reproductive organs since blood cannot
flow through small capillaries. This results in failure to feel the emis-
sion of semen, possibly because the quality of the sperm has been
compromised. Alternatively, there may be a different reason for the
lack of sensation, which indicates that the sperm is of inferior quality.
However, if the reproductive organs are normal and the sperm has

Semen from a Paraplegic 2 27