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God commanded Moses to attack Midian in revenge for their devastating scheme against the Israelites. The Midianites had used their daughters to lure the Israelite men into worshipping the licentious idolatry of Peor, resulting in Divine anger and a terrible plague.

The war against Midian was a remarkable success - not a single soldier fell. After the battle, the generals and captains approached Moses:

"We wish to bring an offering to God. Every man who found a gold article - an anklet, bracelet, ring, earring, body ornament - to atone for our souls before God." [Num. 31:50 - see the Pasuk below]

The officers had followed God's command, waging war against Midian. Why did they feel a need for atonement?

The Sin of the Soldiers

The Sages explained that while the soldiers committed no actual transgressions, they were not free of improper thoughts. Rabbi Ishmael expressed this idea with an intriguing phrase, saying that "their eyes feasted on the immodest sights" [Shabbat 64a-b].

When the soul's inner sense of holiness is healthy and robust, it will not absorb decadent and degrading sights. Such visual stimuli are inconsistent with the overall makeup of the soul and will be promptly rejected.

If, on the other hand, the soul has failed to retain its pristine purity, then it will lack an orderly defense against defiling images. Improper sights will have a negative impact on one's emotional and imaginative faculties, and will generate turmoil within the soul.

Rabbi Ishmael described this phenomenon as a 'feast' of the eyes. To feast or derive nourishment indicates that there exists a natural connection between the food and the living organism eating that food. The soldiers were not immune to the sights of Midian. The images of the Midianite women and their flashy ornaments found a place in their souls, and "their eyes feasted on the immodest sights."

True, the soldiers did not act upon these stimuli; but the very fact that they were drawn to them indicated that they were in need of atonement and spiritual cleansing.

Superficial Attraction

The gold ornaments were an apt metaphor for the corrupting deception that confronted the soldiers in Midian. The Sages wrote that the body ornaments were formed into lewd shapes. The golden pieces of jewelry lured the eye with their dazzling exterior of glittering beauty. Their influence was a function of the magnetism of their superficial attraction. On the inside, however, their true essence remained, crude and repulsive.

Sent to us by an anonymous sender from RavKookTorah.org
[adapted from Ein Eyah vol. IV, pp. 114-116]

It seems however that the Targum Yonasan argues with Rabbi Ishmael (in Shabbat 64a-b) who writes that "their eyes feasted on the immodest sights".

The Targum Yonasan translates the Pasuk above (Num. 31:50) as follows:

"We wish to bring an offering for the name of G-d since he gave the Midianites into our hands and we captured their land and their country, and we went into their palaces and we saw their beautiful sinful and promiscuous daughters, and any man that saw gold on them would remove their crowns off their heads, earrings from their ears, necklaces from their necks, bracelets from their arms, brassieres from their breasts, and even so, we were careful not to gaze upon them and not to look at even one of them, so as not to sin through even one of them and not to die the death that the wicked ones die in the World to Come, and this should be remembered in our merit on the great day of judgement to atone for our souls before the Lord".

Anyway, regardless of whether the soldiers did gaze - like Rav Yishmael holds, or whether they did not gaze - as the Targum Yonasan holds, we still see that if a person "feasts their eyes" on immodest sights (and does not do Teshuvah), they are destined to die the death of the wicked in the World to Come.

And now on a more positive note: the Yalkut Shemoni (above) brings Chazal's words on this Pasuk as follows:

"Who ever turns himself away from aveira (sin), then even if he is a Israelite, he is worthy of bringing a sacrifice on the alter like the Kohen Gadol"... "And who ever makes himself lazy from sin and doesn't sin, merits to enjoy the shine of the Shechina like the ministering angels".