Musar for Bava Batra 156:10
<big><strong>גמ׳</strong></big> היכי דמי אי דאמר ליה היא ובנה אפילו פרה ובנה נמי אי דלא א"ל היא ובנה אפילו חמור נמי לא
R. Samuel b. Nahman said in the name of R. Johanan:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [Some texts read, R. Samuel b. Nahmani in the name of R. Jonathan.] ');"><sup>26</sup></span> What is the meaning of the verse: <i>Wherefore</i> hamoshelim [<i>they that speak in parables</i>] <i>say</i>, etc.?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Num. XXI, 27. ');"><sup>27</sup></span> — <i>Hamoshelim</i>,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The Heb. root [H] means 'to speak in parables' and also 'to rule', 'to master'. ');"><sup>28</sup></span>
Shemirat HaLashon
We learned (Bava Bathra 78b): R. Shmuel b. Nachmani said in the name of R. Yonathan (Bamidbar 21:27): "Therefore, the rulers say: 'Let us come to Cheshbon, etc.': 'the rulers' — these are the rulers over their yetzer. 'Let us come to Cheshbon' — Let us come and make the world's accounting ['cheshbon' = account], the loss [entailed by the performance] of a mitzvah against its reward; and the reward of a transgression against its loss." The plain meaning is well known: this [the reward of a mitzvah] is forever, and this [the "loss" of a mitzvah] is temporal. Also, this [the "reward" of a transgression] is a negligible pleasure, and this [the reward of a mitzvah] is awesome. For "one moment of pleasure in the world to come is greater than all the pleasures of this world," and the opposite for transgression.
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