Once upon a time women of Nehardea who had been taken captive in battle were brought into the house of a man called Rabbi Amram, the Pious, in order that he might redeem them. For it was the custom in olden times to redeem captives. He put them all in the loft and removed the ladder, so that no one should be able (God forbid!) to go up and commit a sin with them. Among them R. Amram noticed one woman, as she passed by the opening, who was very beautiful. The evil passion took possession of R. Amram and so inflamed him with her beauty that he longed to make her his own. Thereupon he took a ladder, which ordinarily required more than ten persons to carry it, and

carried it alone. For his passion was so strong that he wanted to go up and lie with the woman.

When he had gone half way up the ladder, he suddenly bethought of the great sin that he was

about to commit and began shouting: "Fire, fire, in R. Amram's house!"

When the scholars came to put out the fire, they found none.

Then R. Amram said: "I did this in order to put out the fire of evil passion."

He told them what he had had in mind, for, he said, "It is better for me to be put to shame in this world than that I should (God forbid!) be put to shame in the world to come."

Then he adjured the evil passion to depart from him, and the evil passion departed in the form of a pillar of fire.

Then R. Amram said: "Behold, you are fire, and I am nothing but flesh and blood, and yet I have

subdued you, and I am also better than you, evil passion, you Satan!"

One should therefore not allow oneself to be led astray by the Yezer ha-Ra (evil passion),

but should put him to shame.