Musar על אבות 2:10

The fact that during the hundreds of years the Temple stood the High Priest never suffered from an involuntary emission of seminal fluid on the Day of Atonement is a clear indication that the putrid drop of semen – mentioned by Rabbi Akavyah – from which human life originates has been rehabilitated. The origin of seminal fluid is in the brain, and pure thoughts influence the purity of the seed. When man starts out correctly, pure, undefiled, every day of his life can be like a Day of Atonement and in his purity he may be comparable to the angels. This is what Rabbi Eliezer (Shabbat 153) had in mind when he told his students to repent one day before their death, i.e. on a daily basis. When one lives on such a basis, the pollutant transmitted as a residue of Eve's sin is purified each and every day.

The Mishnah continues by stating that neither serpent nor scorpion was ever reported to have inflicted harm on people in Jerusalem. We may also understand this in a spiritual sense, namely that the words (fire) of scholars (Avot 2, 15) do not harm the soul; should these scholars have been provoked however, their words have been compared in power to that of serpents and scorpions.