Musar for Berakhot 63:15
משל למלך שכעס על בנו והיה מכהו מכה גדולה והיה אוהבו יושב לפניו ומתירא לומר לו דבר אמר המלך אלמלא אוהבי זה שיושב לפני הרגתיך אמר דבר זה תלוי בי מיד עמד והצילו:
A parable : [It may be likened] to a king who was enraged against his son, and he struck him a violent blow. His friend was sitting in his presence but was afraid to say anything to him. The king exclaimed, "Were it not that my friend were sitting in my presence, I would kill thee." [The friend] said [to himself], "This matter depends upon me." He at once stood up and rescued him.
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).
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