Halachot and Customs
What is more severe: emitting seed in vain or violating niddah?
Question
What is more severe: emitting seed in vain or violating niddah?! [I am aware that both are forbidden by a severe prohibition.] I had a discussion with a friend, and he said that niddah carries karet and that is the most severe, but then he sent me a page that said one of the admorim said it is better to commit forbidden acts of intimacy than to emit seed in vain, so which is more severe?!
Answer
Greetings and blessings,
Sefer Chassidim, siman 176, records the following incident: There was one who asked, when his evil inclination overcomes him and he fears that he may sin by lying with a married woman, or with his own wife in niddah, or with any other prohibited arayot, whether he may emit his seed so that he will not sin. He was answered that at that moment he should emit it, for if that is not possible, it is better that he emit seed and not sin with a woman.
However, he requires atonement: he should sit in ice during the winter days or fast forty days during the summer days.
With blessings - Binyamin Shmueli
