Is masturbation a sin in Judaism?

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I know there's something called "spilling semen in vain," but is it a sin? And if it is technically a sin, is it still a sin in the modern age? I know that in Islam, the ruling in many denominations was that if you had so much lust that you were on the verge of fornicating, you should masturbate..... is it a sin? I know of the story of Onan, who G-d killed because he spilled semen in vain, but wasnt that because he disobeyed G-d's instructions to procreate?

This is something you should talk to a rabbi about, and yes you can ask them.

It may be. I think it more so when you are married.

The Onan story is ambiguous and has been exploited over the centuries by individual Christian and Jewish theologians to justify banning masturbation, and banning contraception (this by the Catholic Church especially).
But over the same many centuries both theologians and secular scholars have interpreted it as having nothing to do with either of those things.

In the context of the actual narrative in the bible his actual "Crime" was not clearly masturbation, but seems to have been coitus interruptus. He pulled out of the lady and then spilled it on the ground.

His brother had just been killed by God. So God ordered him to impregnate his late brothers wife (which was not only legal but a necessary duty according to leverite marriage) so the lineage could keep on going.

And he didnt go through with it. And God made him pay a substantial penalty for early withdrawal! (sorry. Couldnt resist).

If Onan HAD knocked up his sister-in-law and produced a son that son would have inherited some of Onan's Father's estate.

Leaving his sister-in-law sonless would mean Onan would get all of it. So there may have been a financial motive for Onan... to make his early withdrawal.

Early theologians, as well as modern secular scholars, have also seen the obvious- that Onan committed coitus interruptous and not masturbation. So you have conflicting interpretations. But it seems to me that (a) he did not commit masturbation,but the other thing. (b) He was punished for disobeying God in a specific order, and was not punished for the act per se. So which ever thing he did it was not per se a sin. It was disobeying God's order that was a sin.

Masturbation is no sin. If only it were practiced more!

Creating more than one thread a day and more than three a week is a great sin in Judaism.

Rabbi Boo,

I don't think the tale of Onan is ambiguous at all. It's clear that he was practicing coitus interruptus.

Also, as i understand it, in the talmudic version of the story, it isn't God that strikes him down - it's his in-laws.

Even leaving aside the details of levirate marriage, just consider - if your sister's husband died, and your tradition was that his brother should step up and be the man, and you found out that he was using her for sexual gratification but in every other way disrespecting his responsibility to her, wouldn't you pretty much want to kill the guy?

So you want to convert just to jack off? Thats hilarious

Possibly a ritual uncleanness, like the menstrual cycle, but never is it indicated in the Bible to be a sin.
The accompanying looking at pictures of naked women however might be serious enough to break one of the Ten Commandments, "Thou must not Covert".

But if Onan's alleged sin was wasting sperm by masturbation, how is it a sin when women masturbate?

Generally it's considered wrong by religious people.

Well, their explanation is that semen should only be "spilled" for procreation purposes.

I'm willing to bet most do it.

Can't waste that sperm!

Maybe it has something to do with the commandment to "be fruitful and multiply, and populate the Earth" given to Noah's crew after the flood.

Folks assume that that command was like one of the ten commandments -something we are supposed to do in perpetuity (like not stealing, not killing etc), when in fact it was just a one time directive for the survivors of the flood to repopulate the then depopulated world. The religious dont grasp that we have finished the job (of being fruitful and multiplying). There are seven billion of us. The task was more than completed already. We can go back to fapping now...for chrissakes!