Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Yonathan walked the road one afternoon until it split in two. One path ran past the door of an idol shrine. The other ran past a house of ill fame. They had to choose.
Let us take the road past the shrine, said the first. Our hunger for idols is long dead in us. There is nothing there to tempt us.
No, said the other. Let us take the road past the brothel. There our desires are still alive. And where desire is alive and we master it, there heaven gives a reward.
So they walked the harder road. As they passed, the women in the windows saw the two sages and felt suddenly ashamed. They drew back into their chambers and pulled the curtains closed.
Afterward Yochanan turned to his companion with wonder. How did you know it would turn out like this, that our discipline would even bless them?
The other answered with a verse. It is written (Proverbs 2:11), Discretion shall preserve thee. The Torah that guards us guards everyone who crosses our path.
This Talmudic teaching from tractate Avodah Zarah 17a, preserved in Hebraic Literature (1901), teaches that the holiest road is not always the safest one. Sometimes the reward waits on the path where the fight is still real.