Onan

Onan is a biblical character . Second wire of Juda, brother of er, it must, according to the habits of the Lévirat (that Juda is thus the first biblical character to apply) to take for wife Tamar , the er woman, with died of this one, er not having made of child.
Onan refuses, preferring “to let its seed lose in the ground” (the account resulting from the Genèse -- Vayeshev, does not say how) and is struck of died by YHWH.

The term Onanisme was attached to the Masturbation only in 1712 by John Martin, a Chirurgie N.

Interpretations

The onanism is the representation of all Sex act aiming at not inséminer its seed, but to draw some from the pleasure nevertheless. It is thus of either only about one practical " egoïste" and égocentrée of the pleasure, but not only, of the masturbation.

Jewish interpretation

According to the Wise ones of Israel, it is not a question of the masturbation nor of the Coïtus interruptus: contrary to this one, there is not retention of the seminal Matière but dispersion outside (not adapted a Rachi on Genèse 38: 9).
Les Sages vigorously condemns the onanism, liable to the Capital punishment and insult with the Créateur (treated Nidda 13b, where the episode of Onan is quoted in order to proscribe as well the masturbation as the Coitus interruptus).
Rachi deduces from the account which er probably delivered to the same practices as Onan, in order not to fade the beauty of its wife by the pregnancy, which contributes to accredit the thesis. Nevertheless, Samuel Eidels, the Maharsha, points out that the capital punishment, applied by the divine and nonhuman court, could not have applied to Onan, nor with his/her brother, whose Wise ones calculate that they were rather young (Seder Olam, II) if their father, Juda, had not been guilty on his side to have taken the decision to sell Joseph, causing the affliction and the discord within the house of Jacob.
Cette dead would thus not be the remuneration of a sexual sin but the curse which reaches the culprit until the fourth generation.

Christian interpretation

The catholic commentators medieval also interpreted the divine intervention like a judgment of the masturbation and/or Contraception, and all their interpretations attempted to condemn even more this last point.

The majority of the modern exégètes think that the fault of Onan was especially of enfreindre the rules of the Lévirat and estimate that the passage does not refer to the masturbation but to the coïtus interruptus, both succeed to prevent the design all the same. However, the design being the beginning of the life, Onan prevented the life thus.
Néanmoins, the principal load remains the violation of the laws of the lévirat, which is a divine law, whereas neither the masturbation nor the coïtus interruptus are expressly condemned by the Ecritures.

Source

For Jewish interpretation

Comment of Genesis 38: 7 and 9, in the Voice of the Torah, Elie Munk, Samuel Foundation and Odette Levy, edition February 1998.

See too

  • Onanisme

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