Kaisipang Hudyo sa Mga Panaghoy 3:27: Dirshuni II & Sefer Yesodei HaTorah

He fell on his face and said: My King and my God, not this! I am your slave, the son of your slavegirl (Tehillim 116:16) - please, open my fetters! The Holy Blessed One said: It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has taken it upon him. (Eicha 3:27-28).

Now the increase of mitzvoth and statutes in the Torah of Moses are of avail for observance of the faith, for thereby the Israelites were separated from the idolatrous nations, and it was also of avail for improvement of character, this, in two respects: the first, the mitzvoth of G-d that one observes remind him at all times of the G-d who commanded them. And the remembrance of G-d and of His providence and of reward and punishment act as a rein upon the lusts' strengthening themselves in a man and implant in his heart the fear of G-d that he not sin. And second, there is no stratagem for a man's overcoming his evil inclination and ruling over his spirit other than that of training himself to separate himself from pleasures and to bear distress and stress, as epitomized in (Eichah 3:27) "It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth." And the philosopher Epictetus said: "If a man takes to heart these two words, he is certain not to sin and he will live in peace all of his days — 'Sustain' and 'Abstain.'" That is, sustain stress and abstain from pleasure. The increase of mitzvoth and statutes trains a man to rule over his spirit and to sustain and abstain.