A question about פצוע דכא

 

Question:

Kvod Harav,

My five year old son was born with an ectopic testicle (a perineal ectopic testis, to be exact). That is – although both testicles were fully formed and descended, one testicle descended into the wrong place (right behind the scrotum) instead of inside the scrotum.

We did not know that there were possible halachic concerns involved and he had surgery to correct this when he was 5 months old. The surgeon made an incision into the groin in order to be able to extract the blood vessels and testicle and then reinsert it into the correct location. An incision was also made in the scrotum to ensure that the testicle was placed properly. Two urologists explained to me that although an ectopic testicle is a pretty rare condition, the surgery is straightforward and much easier than many surgeries for undescended testis – because often when the testicle is undescended it is a result of the blood vessels being too short, which is very complicated; whereas in my son’s case the blood vessels were long enough and it just needed to be repositioned.

I was made aware yesterday that this may be a concern of פצוע דכא and a question over whether he can marry.

Please advise,
Thank you,

 

Answer:

After speaking to Rabbonim and looking into the subject, there is absolutely no problem for your son to get married, and he is not a פצוע דכא.

Let me explain: In general, there are two concerns when it comes to procedures that involve the testicular area:

  1. The prohibition of Sirus – ובארצכם לא תעשו. You may not make a man sterile.
  2. The prohibition of a man who is a פצוע דכא or כרות שפכה, has a damaged testicle or organ to get married.

In this case, both issues do not apply as

  1. It does not cause the child to be sterile even for a small amount of time.
  2. There is no issue with Pzua Daka. Making an incision in the groin to find the testis and making an incision in the scrotal wall to place the testis into the scrotal sac does not do any damage to the testes itself or the chutei beitzim, and thus there is no shaila at all. The only issue is that to secure the testis to the scrotal wall, a suture is placed in the tunica albuginea, the tissue covering the testis. Since the suture does not penetrate the testis itself but rather in the covering of the testis, the consensus of poskim is that this is not an issue.

May you have much Nachas from your son, and may you bring him up to Torah Chupa and Maasim Tovim.

 

Sources:

בשו”ע אבה”ע סי’ ה ס”ב שפצוע דכא היינו מי שנפצעו הביצים שלו. ובנדו”ד השאלה הוא רק גבי מה שכתוב שם ס”ה שניקבה וברמ”א שם דהיינו נקב מפולש שזה ודאי אינו בנדו”ד ואפילו להחולקים שנקב כל שהוא ג”כ פוסל, עפ”י עדות הרופאים אינם נוקבים בגוף הביצה אלא ברקמה המכסה את הביצה, וזה אינו פוסל, וראה לקמן עוד סברא להתיר. ויש להוסיף עוד סניף להיתר שאפילו אם נקבו בביצה עצמה או אם שע”י הנקב חסר משהו, ג”כ יש להתיר לבוא בקהל לאחר שנתרפא (שעפ”י הרופאים מתרפא בכמה ימים) כמ”ש הב”י שפצוע דכא הוא פסול שחוזר לכשרותו.

 

 

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