was married, while another stated that the prohibition stood even though she was not married and a common-law marriage through intercourse, although frowned upon, would have been permissible. The same rigor was applied by one sage to a woman who has intercourse with her husband while thinking of another man:“There was no greater adultery than this.”(Nu. Rabbah 9 to Ez. 16:32). R. Lakish of the third century said:“Do not think that only a man who sins with his body is called an adulterer; he is called this even if he sins only with his eyes”(Lev. Rabbah 23)— a statement that we may compare with that of Jesus in the Gospels:“Whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery in his heart.” (Mat. 5:28).
This attitude led to the talmudic prohibition against walking behind a woman(Ber. 61a), listening to a woman’s voice(Ber. 24a), or looking at her hair.® The last injunction led to Orthodox women cutting their hair and wearing a wig(sheitel) following marriage. It also brought the segregation of the sexes; medieval rabbis labored, probably rather in vain, to enforce this. Maimonides (1135-1204), for example, demanded that the authorities place police in public parks and beaches to keep men and women from eating and drinking together and thus fall into sin. Men and women were not to mingle in their homes at parties, either(Yad Hil. Yom Tov 6.21). Later rabbis sought separate days for men and women to visit cemeteries.” The segregation of the sexes at religious worship also became customary.’ A balcony for women was supposedly already built in the second Temple(Suk. 51b). Sometimes segregation was practiced in religious schools, weddings, funerals, and other religious public gatherings."
Virginity continued to be demanded as in biblical times, but it was reported of the Babylonians that they knew how to bend in coitus without destroying the signs of virginity(Kid. 82a). Wasting human semen in any way was prohibited and considered a sin equal to idolatry(Ket. 6b). The Talmud condemned masturbation; men were advised to avoid involuntary pollution through looking at their penis