Midrash sobre Pirkei Avot 6:12

Another interpretation (of Prov. 6:22): WHEN YOU WALK, IT WILL GUIDE YOU, < i.e., > when someone labors at Torah during his life.³Cf. Avot 6:9; Sifra to Lev. 18:1 (pereq 13); Sifre to Deut. 6:7 (34); Sot. 21a; also Gen. R. 35:3 (but not in the Theodor/Albeck edition); M.Pss. 1:11; 119:7, 10 (2), 49 (41); 140:1. (Ibid., cont.:) IN YOUR LYING DOWN, IT WILL WATCH OVER (rt.: ShMR) YOU, [because it keeps (rt.: ShMR) him] from worm and maggot. (Ibid., cont.:) AND WHEN YOU AWAKEN, IT WILL CONVERSE WITH YOU. In the future life, when everyone shall stand in judgment, it is one's advocate⁴Gk.: synegoros. and pleads his cause.

It says elsewhere in Scripture in reference to the Oral Law: Neither is it found in the land of the living (ibid. 28:13). What is the meaning of the verse Neither is it found in the land of the living? Does it mean that the Oral Law is found only among the deceased? Indeed not. It means that the Oral Law is not found among those who pursue the pleasures of this world—its passions, its glory, or its greatness, but only among those who deprive themselves for its sake, as it is said: This is the law; when a man dieth in a tent (Num. 19:40). The following is the path that leads to an understanding of the law: “A morsel of bread with salt shall you eat; a measure of water shall you drink; upon the earth shall you sleep; a life of hardship shall you lead; and in the law shall you labor.”⁵Pirkei Avot 6:4. The Holy One, blessed be He, established His covenant with Israel through the Oral Law, as it is said: According to the tenor of these words have I made a covenant with thee and with Israel (Exod. 34:27).

Is He not your Father, your Maker (kanecha): He is the one who acquired (kana) you. [It is] as we have found in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer: When the Holy One, blessed be He, came to mix up the generation of the dispersion (of the Tower of Babel), the Holy One, blessed be He, said to the angels, the ministers of all the nations, "Come and we will choose lots, to whom the nations will come up" - a nation for each one of them, and which will come up to [be] His lot. [So] they picked lots, and Israel fell to the portion of the Holy One, blessed be He. As it is written, "When the Highest One gave inheritance to the peoples." And so [too,] does it state, "For the portion of the Lord is His people, Yaakov the lot of his inheritance." Hence the Holy One, blessed be He, called Israel, 'the exchange of other nations.' And that is what the Sages said (Avot 6:10), "Israel is one acquisition." And that is [the meaning of] "Is He not your Father, your Maker."

A man has three friends || in his lifetime, and they are: his sons and his household, his money, and his good deeds. At the hour of a man's departure from the world he gathers his sons and his household, and he says to them: I beg of you to come and save me from the judgment of this evil death. They answer him, saying to him: Hast thou not heard that there is no one who can prevail over the day of death? and is it not written thus, "None of them can by any means redeem his brother" (Ps. 49:7)? "For the redemption of their soul is costly" (Ps. 49:8). And he has his money fetched, and says to it: I beseech thee, save me from the judgment of this evil death. It answers him, saying: Hast thou not heard, "Riches profit not in the day of wrath" (Prov. 11:4)? He (then) has his good deeds fetched, and he says to them: I beseech you, come and deliver me from the judgment of this evil death. And they answer him and say to him: Before thou goest, verily, we will go in advance of thee, as it is said, "And charity delivereth from death" (ibid.). Does then charity deliver from death? (This refers) to an evil death only. Another Scripture says, "And thy righteousness shall go before thee, the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward" (Isa. 58:8).