The Emotions - Anger

(3) In the course of time, Cain brought an offering to the Eternal from the fruit of the soil; (4) and Abel, for his part, brought the choicest of the firstlings of his flock. The Eternal paid heed to Abel and his offering, (5) but to Cain and his offering [God] paid no heed. Cain was very angry and his face fell. (6) And the Eternal said to Cain, “Why are you angry, And why is your face fallen? (7) Surely, if you do right, There is uplift. But if you do not do right Sin couches at the door; Its urge is toward you, Yet you can be its master.” (8) Cain said to his brother Abel … and when they were in the field, Cain set upon his brother Abel and killed him. (9) The Eternal said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

(7) The Eternal spoke to Moses, “Hurry down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted basely. (8) They have been quick to turn aside from the way that I enjoined upon them. They have made themselves a molten calf and bowed low to it and sacrificed to it, saying: ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’” (9) The Eternal further said to Moses, “I see that this is a stiffnecked people. (10) Now, let Me be, that My anger may blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation.” (11) But Moses implored his Eternal God, saying, “Let not Your anger, O Eternal blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. (12) Let not the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth.’ Turn from Your blazing anger, and renounce the plan to punish Your people. (13) Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, how You swore to them by Your Self and said to them: I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I will give to your offspring this whole land of which I spoke, to possess forever.” (14) And the Eternal renounced the punishment planned for God’s people. (15) Thereupon Moses turned and went down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Pact, tablets inscribed on both their surfaces: they were inscribed on the one side and on the other. (16) The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing, incised upon the tablets. (17) When Joshua heard the sound of the people in its boisterousness, he said to Moses, “There is a cry of war in the camp.” (18) But he answered, “It is not the sound of the tune of triumph, Or the sound of the tune of defeat; It is the sound of song that I hear!” (19) As soon as Moses came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he became enraged; and he hurled the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. (20) He took the calf that they had made and burned it; he ground it to powder and strewed it upon the water and so made the Israelites drink it.

(16) Besides, all his days he eats in darkness, with much vexation and grief and anger.

(8) Give up anger, abandon fury,do not be vexed;it can only do harm.

(21) They incensed Me with no-gods,Vexed Me with their futilities; I’ll incense them with a no-folk,Vex them with a nation of fools. (22) For a fire has flared in My wrathAnd burned to the bottom of Sheol,Has consumed the earth and its increase,Eaten down to the base of the hills.

(6) The Eternal passed before him and proclaimed: “The Eternal, the Eternal, a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, (7) extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin—yet not remitting all punishment, but visiting the iniquity of parents upon children and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generations.”

(29) Being slow to anger results in much understanding;Impatience gets folly as its portion.

(32) Better to be slow to anger than mighty,To have self-control than to conquer a city.

There are temperaments with regard to which a person is forbidden to follow the middle path. One should move away from one extreme and adopt the other...Anger is also an exceptionally bad quality. It is fitting and proper that one move away from it and adopt the opposite extreme. You should school yourself not to become angry even when it is fitting to be angry. If you should wish to arouse fear in your children and household - or within the community, if you are a communal leader - and wish to be angry at them to motivate them to return to the proper path, you should present an angry front to them to punish them, but should be inwardly calm. You should be like one who acts out the part of an angry person in their wrath, but is not actually angry.The early Sages said: Anyone who becomes angry is like one who worships idols. They also said: Whenever one becomes angry, if they are wise, their wisdom departs; if a prophet, their prophecy leaves. The life of the irate is not true life.Therefore, they have directed that you distance yourself from anger and accustom yourself not to feel any reaction, even to things which provoke anger. This is the good path.This is the way of the righteous: They accept humiliation, but do not humiliate others; they listen when they are shamed, but they do not answer; they do this with love and are joyous in their sufferings. Of them, Judges 5:31 states: "And those who love God are like the sun when it comes out in its strength."

It was taught that Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha, the High Priest, said: Once, on Yom Kippur, I entered the innermost sanctum, the Holy of Holies, to offer incense, and I saw Akatriel Ya, the God of Hosts, seated upon a high and exalted throne (see Isaiah 6).And God said to me: Yishmael, My son, bless Me.I said to God the prayer that God prays: “May it be Your will that Your mercy overcome Your anger, and may Your mercy prevail over Your other attributes, and may You act toward Your children with the attribute of mercy, and may You enter before them beyond the letter of the law.”God nodded God's head. This event teaches us that you should not take the blessing of an ordinary person lightly.

And Rabbi Yochanan said in the name of Rabbi Yosei: From where is it derived that one must not placate a person while they are angry? As it is written “My face will go, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14). The Holy Blessed One, said to Moses: Wait until My face of wrath will pass and I will grant your request.

And is there anger before the Holy Blessed One? Yes, as it was taught: "God is furious every day” (Psalms 7:12). How much time does Divine anger last? a moment. And how long is a moment? One fifty-eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty-eighth of an hour, that is a moment.

And no creature can precisely determine that moment, except for Balaam the wicked, about whom it is written: “He who knows the knowledge of the Most High” (Numbers 24:16).

(18) Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar said: Do not try to appease your friend during the hour of anger; Nor comfort them at the hour while their dead still lies before them; Nor question them at the hour of their vow; Nor strive to see them in the hour of their disgrace.

(11) There are four kinds of temperaments: Easy to become angry, and easy to be appeased: their gain disappears in the loss; Hard to become angry, and hard to be appeased: their loss disappears in the gain; Hard to become angry and easy to be appeased: a pious person; Easy to become angry and hard to be appeased: a wicked person.

Rabbi Elai said: In three ways a person is known - in their cup, in their pocket, and in their anger. And some say: also in their laughter.

ANGERYou must break the force of your anger with love. If you feel yourself becoming angry, make sure you do nothing unkind because of your anger. You must make a special effort to be kind to the very person you are angry with. Sweeten your anger with kindness. When you do this, you will be able to draw benefit from the Tzaddik and then you will be able to understand the true goal of all things. You will taste the delight of the World to Come, and you will see how everything in the world is part of the movement to this ultimate goal. Your perception will be according to the root which you have in the soul of the Tzaddik (18:2).

Anger and unkindness arise when people’s understanding is limited. The deeper their understanding the more their anger disappears, and kindness, love and peace spread. This is why the study of Torah, which deepens the understanding, brings love and peace into the world and banishes anger (56:6).

When a person fights their anger and breaks it, the spirit of the Messiah is drawn into the world. Such a person is accounted as if it was through them that the world and all that is in it was created and brought into being. They will be worthy of rich blessings, and will attain true prayer, directing themselves to God alone without any extraneous motives of gaining people’s respect and admiration. They will succeed in carrying out all the mitzvot and other holy acts that they must accomplish (66:3).

The Holy Blessed One loves three people: One who does not get angry; one who does not get drunk; and one who is forgiving.