Commentary for Avodah Zarah 72:18
מאי על ד"א משום ד"א אמר רב נחמן בר יצחק גזרו על תינוק עובד כוכבים שיטמא בזיבה שלא יהא תינוק ישראל רגיל אצלו במשכב זכור
What is the meaning of, “and against this other matter on account of still another matter”? R. Nahman b. Yitzchak said: They decreed that a non-Jewish child should cause defilement as if he had unnatural genital emission so that an Israelite child should not become familiar with him and have male intercourse.
Daf Shevui to Avodah Zarah
The rabbis feared not only intercourse between Jewish men and non-Jewish women, but also between Jewish men and non-Jewish men. They therefore decreed that non-Jewish male children convey ritual impurity. They seem to have thought that this was a way to keep the boys from playing together.
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