“I pushed my hand into the bag and began pulling out one sin after another, to look at them more closely. I saw that almost all the sins were committed unwillingly, without pleasure, downright carelessly, or in sheer ignorance. No Jew was really bad, but the circumstances of exile, poverty and hardship sometimes hardened his heart, set his nerves on edge, brought about petty jealousies, and the like.
“And strangely enough, as I was examining all these sins, and thinking what was really behind them, they seemed to melt away, one by one, until hardly anything was left in the bag. The bag dropped back, limp and empty.
“The next moment, I heard a terrible cry. The Satan had discovered what I had done. ‘You thief!’ he screamed. ‘What did you do to my sins? All year I labored to gather these precious sins, and now you have stolen them! You shall pay double!’
“‘How can I pay you?’ I pleaded. ‘My sins may be many, but not so many.’
“‘Well you know the law,’ the Satan countered. ‘He who steals must pay double, and if he is unable to pay, he shall be sold into servitude. You are my slave now! Come!’
“My captor brought me before the Supreme Judge of the Universe.
“After listening to the Satan’s complaint, the Holy One, blessed is He, said: ‘I will buy him, for so I promised through my navi Yeshaya (46:4): ‘Even to his old age, I will be the same… I have made him, I will bear him, I will sustain and save him!’”
“At this point I returned to this earthly realm,” concluded Reb Levi Yitzchok. “Now I understand the meaning of the words, ‘To Him, who acquires His servants in judgment!’ We are the servants of G-d, and if we are faithful servants, G-d protects us and is our Merciful Master. Let us remain faithful servants to G-d, and we’ll be spared from being servants of servants, and in the merit of this, the Almighty will surely inscribe us all in the Book of Life for a happy New Year.