OGC 2 Class 5: Anger, Lust and Envy

(21) Rabbi Elazar Ha-kappar said: envy, lust and [the desire for] honor put a man out of the world.

(5) The angry man does not find favor in the eyes of his fellow creatures; he is in fact hateful in their eyes. And thus, his deeds are not received favorably by his fellow creatures. Even if he possesses knowledge of the Torah and has many good deeds to his credit, people cannot learn from him.

(6) The angry man is a burden on his household, who are always compelled to hear his wrath and his complaints, and his temper brings him very near to a calamity, for he casts too much terror on his household. As we learn in the Talmud (Gittin 7a) concerning Rabbi Hanina, the son of Gamliel; his household was brought almost to the point of feeding him a piece of meat cut from a living creature.

(7) The wrathful man is not gracious or generous. He is constantly seeking revenge and always bears a grudge. Anger brings a man into quarrels for when he is angry with his companions, they quarrel with him and he quarrels with them. And when there is a quarrel, there is, of course resulting envy and hatred. And you already know the evils of a quarrel, as will be further explained in the chapter on quarrels.

(8) Wrath restrains the heart of a man from all good deeds. For when a man is angry, he is insensitive and has no mercy upon the poor. Concerning the Lord, may He be Blessed, it is said "In anger, remember to have mercy" (Habakuk 3:2). But this is far from the ways of man.

(9) Anger vitiates the intent of a man in his prayer, and the Divine Presence cannot dwell where there is anger.

(10) The angry man cannot be very wise, for wrath causes reason to flee from the mind, so that he cannot answer as is proper, and he cannot rebuke as is proper, and all his words are not prompted by intelligence. The angry man bars from himself all corrections and rebukes, for no man feels free to reveal his errors and his shortcomings, inasmuch as every man fears him, — fears to tell him the things he does wrong, lest he be wrathful with him. And even if some person should rebuke him, the angry man will not receive correction because of his anger. In general then, an angry man does not acquire any good quality unless he first removes his anger from his heart. Just as the angry man does not accept rebuke from others, so is he not able to administer rebuke to others, for the Torah has said, "You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and thus not bear sin because of his wrongful conduct" (Leviticus 19:17), which means that first you must rebuke him gently, and in private, and with soft speech, pleading with him that you are thinking only of his own good. And then, if you do this, sin will not accrue to you. But if you rebuke your companion right at the beginning, with an angry voice and with wrath, and you shame him, then you are sinning for your companion will not receive correction from you. For this is human nature, if a man comes to his companion with force then his companion will be stubborn and unyielding to him, and will not listen to him. Concerning this the wise man said in Koheleth, "The words of the wise are heard gently" (Eccl. 9:17), that is to say, the wise man speaks gently.

Man was only created in the world in order to break Nature. For this reason, one must encourage oneself to fix one's middot, specifically in the eighteenth year, as I will explain. For example, if someone was born with a stubborn nature, they should break their nature by doing for forty consecutive days exactly the opposite of what their mind thinks of doing. And similarly if someone is naturally lazy, they should accustom themselves for forty consecutive days to do everything enthusiastically, from going to lie down in bed to waking up in the morning, to enthusiasm in getting dressed, washing their hands, cleaning their body, walking enthusiastically to synagogue immediately after finishing one's study, and the like. And similarly, someone who is shy by nature, and it's the bad kind of shyness, should accustom themselves for forty days to pray specifically with a loud voice, with forceful movements of their limbs, and to obey "all my bones say..." (=to sway during prayer), and to say Torah blessings with a loud voice, until They help them from Heaven by removing the bad shyness from them. And similarly someone whose words do not come out nice and organized, due to their habitual nature and their speech organs, should accustom themselves for forty days to pay attention to the words they say, whether in general speech, in sacred speech, or while studying, because in every situation, habit becomes the boss. And similarly someone who naturally does not pay attention to their studies, should accustom themselves also for forty days, and study more than one usually does, and should look each time before studying at my Tzetel Katan. And from then on, They will help them from Heaven to add and continue breaking their bad middot until they are completely gone.

And Rava said: If there is a teacher of children who teaches a few subjects, and there is another who teaches more subjects than him, one does not remove the first teacher from his position to hire the second, as perhaps the other teacher will come to be negligent due to the lack of competition. Rav Dimi from Neharde’a said: On the contrary, all the more so is it the case that he will teach in a better manner if he knows that he is the sole instructor in the place, as jealousy among teachers increases wisdom. The one who was dismissed will try to refine his skills so that he will be rehired, and this will prevent negligence on the part of the other teacher.