Musar for Berakhot 63:13
ואי בעית אימא מהכא (דברים לב, טו) וישמן ישרון ויבעט אמר רבי שמואל בר נחמני אמר רבי יונתן מנין שחזר הקדוש ברוך הוא והודה לו למשה שנאמר (הושע ב, י) וכסף הרביתי להם וזהב עשו לבעל:
or if thou wilt, from the following : "But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked " (ibid, xxxii. 15). R. Samuel b. Nahmani said in the name of R. Jonathan : Whence is it that the Holy One, blessed be He, afterwards admitted [the plea of] Moses ? As it is said, "I multiplied unto her silver and gold, which they used for Baal" (Hosea ii. 10).
Mesilat Yesharim
Therefore the pious deemed it good for a man to afflict himself sometimes, in order to put down the evil inclination of arrogance, which grows strong only through abundance, similar to what our sages, of blessed memory, said: "a lion does not roar over a basket of straw but over a basket of meat" (Berachot 32a).
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy