Chasidut for Pirkei Avot 6:9

אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹסֵי בֶן קִסְמָא, פַּעַם אַחַת הָיִיתִי מְהַלֵּךְ בַּדֶּרֶךְ וּפָגַע בִּי אָדָם אֶחָד, וְנָתַן לִי שָׁלוֹם, וְהֶחֱזַרְתִּי לוֹ שָׁלוֹם. אָמַר לִי, רַבִּי, מֵאֵיזֶה מָקוֹם אַתָּה. אָמַרְתִּי לוֹ, מֵעִיר גְּדוֹלָה שֶׁל חֲכָמִים וְשֶׁל סוֹפְרִים אָנִי. אָמַר לִי, רַבִּי, רְצוֹנְךָ שֶׁתָּדוּר עִמָּנוּ בִמְקוֹמֵנוּ, וַאֲנִי אֶתֵּן לְךָ אֶלֶף אֲלָפִים דִּינְרֵי זָהָב וַאֲבָנִים טוֹבוֹת וּמַרְגָּלִיּוֹת. אָמַרְתִּי לוֹ, בְּנִי, אִם אַתָּה נוֹתֵן לִי כָל כֶּסֶף וְזָהָב וַאֲבָנִים טוֹבוֹת וּמַרְגָּלִיּוֹת שֶׁבָּעוֹלָם, אֵינִי דָר אֶלָּא בִמְקוֹם תּוֹרָה. וְלֹא עוֹד, אֶלָּא שֶׁבִּשְׁעַת פְּטִירָתוֹ שֶׁל אָדָם אֵין מְלַוִּין לוֹ לָאָדָם לֹא כֶסֶף וְלֹא זָהָב וְלֹא אֲבָנִים טוֹבוֹת וּמַרְגָּלִיּוֹת, אֶלָּא תוֹרָה וּמַעֲשִׂים טוֹבִים בִּלְבַד, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (משלי ו) בְּהִתְהַלֶּכְךָ תַּנְחֶה אֹתָךְ, בְּשָׁכְבְּךָ תִּשְׁמֹר עָלֶיךָ, וַהֲקִיצוֹתָ הִיא תְשִׂיחֶךָ. בְּהִתְהַלֶּכְךָ תַּנְחֶה אֹתָךְ, בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה, בְּשָׁכְבְּךָ תִּשְׁמֹר עָלֶיךָ, בַּקֶּבֶר, וַהֲקִיצוֹתָ הִיא תְשִׂיחֶךָ, לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. וְכֵן כָּתוּב בְּסֵפֶר תְּהִלִּים עַל יְדֵי דָוִד מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל (תהלים קיט), טוֹב לִי תוֹרַת פִּיךָ מֵאַלְפֵי זָהָב וָכָסֶף. וְאוֹמֵר (חגי ב) לִי הַכֶּסֶף וְלִי הַזָּהָב אָמַר ה' צְבָאוֹת:

R. Yossi b. Kisma said: "Once I was walking along the road when a certain man met me and greeted me and I greeted him in return. He asked me: 'Rebbi, where are you from?' I answered: 'From a great city of sages and scribes.' He replied: "Rebbi, please live with us in our place and I will give you thousands upon thousands of golden dinars and precious stones and pearls.' I said to him: 'My son, if you gave me all the silver and gold and precious stones and pearls in the world I would live only in a place of Torah. For when a man dies there accompany him neither silver nor gold nor precious stones nor pearls, but Torah and good deeds alone.'" As it is written (Proverbs 6:22): "In your going forth, it will lead you, in your lying down, it will guard you, and in your waking, it will be your converse." "In your going forth, it will lead you" — in this world; "in your lying down it will guard you" — in the grave; "in your waking, it will be your converse" — in the world to come. And thus is it written in the book of Psalms of David, king of Israel (Psalms 119:72): "Better to me the Torah of Your mouth than thousands in gold and silver," and (Chaggai 2:8): "Mine is the silver and Mine the gold, says the L rd of hosts."

Kedushat Levi

This idea is alluded to in the wording in Chagigah 3:1. ‎The Mishnah there discussing different degrees of holiness, ‎i.e. that ‎קדשים‎, sacred parts of sacrificial animals, have a higher ‎degree of holiness than t’rumah, the portion of the farmer’s ‎harvest that has to be given to the priest. An example given by ‎the Mishnah illustrating this is that whereas two vessels ‎which require ritual purification through immersion in a ritual ‎bath may be cleansed even when one of them is inside the other, ‎this ruling is not valid when the vessels in question belong to a ‎higher level of holiness known as ‎קדשים‎, vessels used in handling ‎the remains of sacrificial animals, for instance. Apparently, the ‎author of this Mishnah relates the rules pertaining to ‎cleansing vessels that have become ritually impure to their ‎respective origins. In other words: the holier one’s origin, the ‎more stringent the rules for recapturing one’s purity once it had ‎been lost. The wording of the Mishnah, i.e.‎חומר בקודש ‏מבתרומה ‏‎, can be understood allegorically as: “the reason why ‎higher ranking holiness is subject to more stringent steps of ‎purification than lower ranking holy vessels, is because the higher ‎ranking ones had been inside the lower ranking ones.” The word ‎תרומה‎ chosen by the Mishnah, has a double meaning, i.e. it ‎is something in need of being elevated further. Applied to the ‎צדיק‎ in our parable, it means that the tzaddik engaged in ‎‎“outreach,” must be much more on guard against being drawn ‎into the sphere of the sinner than the kind of tzaddik who ‎does not venture to mix with the sinners even in order to bring ‎them closer to G’d. A tzaddik faced with this dilemma will ‎do well to remind himself that the allures of this world are ‎transient, and cannot be compared to the delights in store when ‎the soul rejoins its place in heaven after having successfully ‎discharged its duties while within a mortal body.‎
When our sages in Avot 6,10 stated that everything that ‎G’d created, He created only for the sake of His glory, this is ‎another way of saying that He desires to have satisfaction from ‎the conduct of His creatures.

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