על החוקים לפרטיהם, ספר א כ׳On the Special Laws, Book I 20
א׳
1[105] So strict are the regulations laid down for the marriage of the high priest that he is not even permitted to marry a widow, whether her isolation is due to the death of her husband or divorce from him while still alive. This is laid down first in order that the holy seed may pass into pure and untrodden soil and the issue receive no admixture with another family.
ב׳
2Secondly, that by mating with souls entirely innocent and unperverted they may find it easy to mould the characters and dispositions of their wives, for the minds of virgins are easily influenced and attracted to virtue and very ready to be taught.
ג׳
3[106] But she who has had experience of another husband is naturally less amenable to instruction. For her soul is not one of the completely simple kind like a sheet of wax levelled to show clearly the lessons to be inscribed upon it, but rather like one roughened by the imprints already scored upon it, which resist effacement and either do not yield to the dint of other seals or, if they do, confuse them with their own indentations.
ד׳
4[107] Let the high priest then take a virgin who is innocent of marriage. And when I say “virgin” I exclude not only one with whom another man has had intercourse but also one with whom any other has been declared to have an agreement of betrothal, even though her body is that of a maid intact.
