The Seed of Every Kind: A Scientific Conversation for the Youth

Boys, honor the pregnant woman. Treat her carefully and care for her, for who knows the merit of the essence already formed in the womb?

The greatest individuals on earth, pillars of society, and geniuses of mankind were born this way: Moses, Deborah the prophetess, King David, Judah the Maccabee, Rabbi Hillel, Rabbi Judah the Prince, Maimonides, and Rashi. And these too produced “seed” and they too reared wise and intelligent children in their image and likeness.¹

This is the power of human semen! It is greater than the power of all natural creatures—since it conceives beings imbued with sublime emotions and divine ideas. A wondrous power is ensconced in human semen: the power to sustain the universe.

Thus, we have seen that all creatures—from plants to insects, from animals to humans—were endowed by the Creator with a wondrous power, the power to beget offspring in their image and likeness, and when they copulate, they fulfill the fiat of the Creator, the law of their life and their nature.

However, when creatures are still maturing, they are unable to sprout and produce seed. Before wheat has ripened, when it is still green, it cannot bring forth its seeds. Were we to place it in the ground, it would rot; it would never emerge to see the light. The seeds of an immature apple are incapable of producing numerous branches; they are unfit to become saplings. So too with birds, animals, and humans: when they are young and immature, they can neither produce seed nor offspring. They must first grow, in body and in soul, and only then will the time for copulation arrive, then they can produce semen and father children.

In our land, the precious Land of Israel, our beautiful and hot land, the sun beats down on all beings, plants as well as animals, and the human body continues to grow and develop until the age of twenty or twenty-five. Then a person can father children of physical and spiritual health in his image and likeness, in his spirit and nature.

The men who are healthy in body and in soul are the hope of the entire people. Therefore, our Torah, the Torah of life, presented the commandment to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28) as the most important commandment, for the existence of our people and nation depends upon it.

Therefore, children, be careful with your reproductive organs, the most useful organs for the universe and for all living things. Be careful with them and do not soil them, do not provoke them, do not crush them with hands or anything else [i.e., masturbate], lest they grow weak. Do not arouse desire, do not stimulate imagination before your bodies and souls have fully developed, lest you destroy your futures, your life’s purpose. It is a great gift, an invaluable gift, given to us by the Creator of all things—to perpetuate our existence for generations to come—we must therefore treat this gift carefully, we must cherish it, lest we destroy this preciousness. For just as the seeds of crops and fruits, when they are still unripe, do not produce but only rot, so too does one who emits semen before he has reached the pinnacle of his development weaken his body and disturb his soul—instead of in his maturity producing lasting, healthy seed in material and spirit.

And the people who are healthy in their bodies and pure in their souls are the hope of the nation—they are the hope of all humanity!