Our Gemara on Amud Aleph tells us that a certain Mishna could not be understood by Rabbi Yochanan. That is he could not find a single Tanna’s position that could satisfactorily explain the halakhic outcome of the Mishna. We won’t get into the specific shakla v’tarya of the Gemara other than to note that part of Rabbi Yochanan’s assertion hinged on maintaining that the halakha does not factor in a concern of death in otherwise healthy people.
The problem this raises is that there is an explicit Mishna in the beginning of Yoma, which relates the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda, who does indeed factor in concerns about death. He says, we arrange a second wife for the Cohen Gadol for Yom Kippur, in case his first wife dies, because the Cohen Godol who performs the Yom Kippur service must be married. (The exact details and conditions of this back up marriage partner is discussed in Yoma 13b.) Clearly, Rabbi Yehuda does consider death a factor. If so, why couldn’t Rabbi Yochanan attribute the Mishna to Rabbi Yehuda?
The Maharsha (Mahadura Basra) answers, based on a principle established by Tosafos (Yoma 2a, “Vachachamim”), that even Rabbi Yehuda does not ordinarily factor in concerns about death into his halakhic calculus. Rather, because the “forgiveness for the entire Jewish people” is riding on the service of the Cohen Godol, extra precautions are taken, as the stakes are high..
Some commentaries apply this principle in a metaphysical manner.
The Mishna in Avos (5:5) recounts that one of the miracles that occurred continuously in the Beis HaMikdash is that the Cohen Godol did not experience a nocturnal seminal emission on Yom Kippur, which would have invalidated him to perform the service.
The Tosafos Yom Tov raises a question: Why is this such a miracle? The Mishna in the beginning of Yoma (1:4) teaches that they kept the Cohen Godol up all night, so how likely is it that he would have a nocturnal emission? He answers that the Yetzer Hara and the Yetzer Hatov are two enemies locked in battle. Just as a person close to death may all of the sudden rally his forces for the last moments and regain strength, so too when the Yetzer Hara is close to being vanquished it will make one last gasp and rally its strength. So yes, even on Yom Kippur night, with the Cohen Godol staying awake, there was still great risk that he would become invalidated by a seminal emission. This force is so powerful, that it was considered a miracle that this never happened.
If you ever are on a good streak and then start feeling an overwhelming urge to relapse into whatever destructive behavior that is your sin or addiction of choice, be strong because you know victory is at hand!
Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation 
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