A husband who causes his wife harm is required by Jewish law to compensate her for the damage. One sage asked: What is the rule if the husband injures his wife during conjugal relations? What are the issues under debate? On one hand he should be exempt because he penetrated her with her consent and permission. On the other hand, he should be liable because he should have been careful and cautious in his actions to keep from harming her. The sage Rav Huna answered that the husband is exempt from paying! The case is like one in which a person is carrying a beam and another is carrying a jug, and the jug was accidentally broken by the beam. It is accepted that the man carrying the beam is exempt, since both had the right to walk where they were and to carry their burdens. This is the case here, too: the husband had the right and permission to penetrate the woman. A different sage, Rava, thought that the husband is liable for the damage caused during sexual relations, like in a case where a person holding a jug is standing still and a person holding a beam is walking and breaks the jug. It is accepted law that the person walking with the beam is liable, and so, too, the husband, who is actively penetrating while the woman is lying passively. The scholars asked: If so, if the woman does nothing during sexual intercourse, why does Torah law judge her liable to the death penalty for an adulterous relationship? She did nothing, and it is a known principle that Torah law only judges a person as liable if he is active. Answer: The punishment meted out to the adulterous woman is because of her enjoyment of the act, despite her passivity in the sexual act, as the sages put it, “women are merely natural soil.”
(Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Bava Kamma 32a)