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Atonement for the Soldiers
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".