הלכה על איוב 31:47

The main strength of piety from beginning to end is that although they scoff at him he does not forsake his piety, his intent is for heaven’s sake and he does not look at the countenances of women: especially so among other men where women are customarily seen, for example, if he has been in the wedding hall where the women were garbed in choicest ornaments and all were gazing but he did not stare, for that will he merit the great good that is laid up, as it is written, “which thou hast laid up for those that fear thee” (Ps. 31:20). And his eye will be satiated with the Divine Glory: “Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty” (Isa. 33:17). For this reason it is best for the individual when he meets a woman, whether single or married, whether a gentile woman or Jewish, whether she be of age or a minor, to turn his face aside from looking at her. Thus do we find in Job (31:1), “I made a covenant with mine eyes; how then should I look upon a maid.” And thus is it written in the book of Ben Sira, “Avert your eyes from a beautiful woman, lest you stumble and incur penalties for her.” ¹Ben Sira 9:5. (So Isa. 33:15) “And shutteth his eyes from looking upon evil” refers to him who gazes not upon women at the time when they stand by their wash.²Baba Bathra 57b. When they wash their garments and lift their skirts so as not to soil them, they uncover their legs, and we know a woman’s leg is a sexual incitement³Berakoth 24a.
/4/ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Choice of Pearls, ed. Zvi Phillipawski (Warsaw: J. Lebenson, 1863), p. 9; also Jerusalem Talmud Berakoth 1:5. All future references to the Jerusalem Talmud will be designated J. T. and so said the sage, “nothing interposes better before desire, than closing one’s eyes.”

It is permissible to gaze at an unmarried woman to determine if she is attractive, in order [to decide whether] to marry her, whether she is a virgin or not, and moreover it is fitting to do so. But he may not look at her in a promiscuous way, and about this it is said (Job 31:1): "I made a covenant with my eyes, and how can I look upon a virgin?"