AlgART / Articles and Books / Tikkun ha-Berit
Hormones and fantasy
Most boys start puberty between 12–14 years of age and end when they are 18–20 years old. As a result of this process, the genitals more intensively produce sperm and male hormones, which leads to a change in the whole chemistry of the body. Sex hormones stimulate the work of hypophysis, and that, in turn, increases the activity of other endocrine glands. The whole body begins to develop more intensively. A good example of this is the muscle mass. The muscle mass of teenagers increases by 12% in two or three years, which is much higher than the rate of muscle growth in previous years.
Changes during puberty affect not only the physiology, but also the psyche of a teenager. Recent scientific studies have shown that sex hormones affect the cell structure of the brain. Hormones also begin to affect the thought process. A boy catches scenes from movies, pictures from magazines, the sayings of “experienced” men — all of which contain intimate details of communicating with women. This information is not simply accumulated, it becomes food for fantasy, for the imaginary erotic scenes in which a boy plays the main male role himself. These fantasies become more and more frequent. By the way, young men, who play sports or participates in different study groups, are less focused on the subject of sex because they have less idle energy and free time.
Imagination requires more and more new food, so the activity level of the eyes continues to rise as it searches for something new. A youth's eyes eagerly catch the contours of a female figure, even if this woman is merely walking down the street or sitting near him on the bus. When describing this look people say, “He is undressing her with his eyes.” There are even a number of anecdotes on this subject. For example, a girl walks up to such a youth and says, “And now please put my cloths back on the the way they were” or, “After what just happened between us, you're obliged to marry me now. ”
Often at this age, especially for those who are easily aroused, involuntary norturnal ejaculation happens. “Nocturnal” because it happens during a night's sleep, and ”involuntary” because, in the opinion of many, a man does not control himself while sleeping. When in fact, ejaculation does not occur without the presence of heightened nerve activity. The whole process looks like this: sex hormones reach the brain in the bloodstream, where they seemingly place an order for dreams with sexual content, the arousal grows, and at some point the brain gives the command to “open the valve.”
Is this good or bad? There are varying opinions on the subject. One of them can be reduced to the following anecdote:
Doctor: “Tell me, do you worry about erotic dreams?”
Patient: “Well, but why ‘worry’?”
Many agree with the modern medical school, not considering the night involuntary ejaculation a pathology. Jewish Law strongly condemns the unavailing ejaculation, even if it occurs unexpectedly, and holds the man responsible for insufficient control over himself. In “Kitzur Shulchan Aruch” a whole chapter (Ch. 151) is devoted to preventing unnecessary ejaculation and how to compensate for its consequences. Here's how it is substantiated. “The sperm is the energy of the body and the light of the eyes. When too much is ejected, the body is destroyed and his life is lost” (Ch. 150:17). The chapter ends with the following words, “The wisest of the doctors said, Only one out of a thousand people die from disease, and a thousand from too much sex. Therefore a person should be careful.”
Note the phrase “the power of the body.” Despite the fact that modern medicine does not use this concept, it's clear to all that, for example, the body loses its vitality with the loss of blood. Intravenous infusion of another liquid never compensates one hundred percent for blood loss. And the reason here is not a chemical composition, but namely the vital energy. (The words “vitality” and “vital energy” are often used as synonyms. To satisfy a more captious reader I'll say: the thing, which is popularly called “the energy of the human body,” better fits the description of the physical concept of a “force field.” For simplicity sake, the term “energy” will be used here.)
The sages of the East believed that one drop of semen is equivalent, by the vital energy, to a hundred drops of blood. I, unfortunately, have no instrument to measure the amount of energy in different liquids, but please think over the fact that one portion of sperm — a few milliliters! — contains about 200 million spermatozoa. Each of them is charged with a reserve of energy, enough to be able to reach an ovum inside the female body, to impregnate it and to initiate the life of another human. Imagine the path of a spermatozoon and mentally multiply it by 200 million! It is a colossal energy, and it is within the body of a man. The organism spends this energy during each ejaculation, and spends it for nothing if there is no intent to conceive a child. Moreover, after each emission of sperm the body automatically produces a new portion. Production begins with the intensive collection of vitamins, minerals, trace elements, hormones, proteins, enzymes and other vital matters, and, most importantly, energy from the entire body. And it is precisely those things which are so necessary for a growing organism.