Friday, January 20, 2006

At Home Sick Today

When you go out on the street, you should think of yourself as having been handed over to a policeman to be taken for trial. If you have a headache, you should think of yourself as having had your neck put in chains. If you fall ill and have to go to bed, you should look on yourself as if you've been brought up to the execution block. Anyone on the execution block can be saved if he has sufficiently powerful advocates. If not, there's no escape. And who are a person's advocates? Repentance and good deeds. Even if a person has nine hundred and ninety-nine accusers and only one defender, he will be saved, as it is written (Iyov 33:23-4): "If he had one defending angel out of a thousand to vouch for his righteousness, than G-d will show him favor and say, 'Save him from the pit, I have found a ransom.'"

(Talmud - Shabbos 32a)