Талмуд к Бамидбар 31:17

BARAITHA.³⁶K 7. Behold Scripture declares, And we have brought the Lord’s offering … armlets and bracelets, signet rings, ear-rings and girdles to make atonement for our souls before the Lord. ’Eẓadah [armlets] means a garter; ẓamid [bracelets] silk cloaks; ‘agil [ear-rings] a cast of the female breasts and kumaz [girdles] a cast of the womb. For what purpose [are the words added], to make atonement for our souls before the Lord? Moses said, ‘Perhaps you have returned to your former sinful lapse’. They replied to him, ‘There lacketh not one man of us’. ‘If so’, he retorted, ‘why this atonement?’ They answered, ‘We have escaped sin but we have not escaped sinful thoughts’. Hence the Rabbis declared: Whoever touches a woman’s little finger is as though he touched ‘that place’.
GEMARA. When [the Israelites] came to him,³⁷During the war against Midian. Moses said to them, Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.³⁸Num. 31, 17. How would they know [the latter]? Rab said:³⁹Cf. Yeb. 60b (Sonc. ed., p. 403). They were made to pass in front of the ẓiẓ;⁴⁰The gold plate worn by the High Priest on his forehead (Ex. 28, 36ff.). if she was a virgin her face did not turn pale, if not a virgin her face turned pale. Mar said: Dropsy is a sign of sin.⁴¹It may be the effect of a dissolute life.