GEN140 Sex has two goals, the pleasurable bonding of the couple and procreation. The Torah includes a number of sexual prohibitions regarding with whom one may have sex [for example, Leviticus 18, 20] and at what times during a woman's menstrual cycle [See Leviticus 15:19-32, esp. 19–24], but it also includes two positive commandments. One, the very first commandment mentioned in the Torah, is "Be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:22,this verse). Although the command is given to both the first man and woman, and although both are clearly necessary to produce children, for exegetical and possibly for moral reasons the Rabbis of the Mishnah and Talmud asserted that only the man was obligated to fulfill this commandment. [Yevamot 65b; Kiddushin 35a; Laws of Marriage 15:2; Shulchan Aruch, Even Ha-Ezer 1:5].  Among the moral concerns were the facts that the man was going to have to support his children and so he had to be commanded to procreate against his economic self-interest, and that pregnancy endangers a woman and so it would not be fair to command her to have children.  In any case, this rabbinic decision has important consequences for the use of contraceptives, for it makes it much easier to allow women, who have no duty to procreate, to use them that it is to justify their use by men. (By Elliot N. Dorff) OXFORD 314