(ז) וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה לֶךְ־רֵ֕ד כִּ֚י שִׁחֵ֣ת עַמְּךָ֔ אֲשֶׁ֥ר הֶעֱלֵ֖יתָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃ (ח) סָ֣רוּ מַהֵ֗ר מִן־הַדֶּ֙רֶךְ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר צִוִּיתִ֔ם עָשׂ֣וּ לָהֶ֔ם עֵ֖גֶל מַסֵּכָ֑ה וַיִּשְׁתַּֽחֲווּ־לוֹ֙ וַיִּזְבְּחוּ־ל֔וֹ וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ אֵ֤לֶּה אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר הֶֽעֱל֖וּךָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃ (ט) וַיֹּ֥אמֶר יְהֹוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה רָאִ֙יתִי֙ אֶת־הָעָ֣ם הַזֶּ֔ה וְהִנֵּ֥ה עַם־קְשֵׁה־עֹ֖רֶף הֽוּא׃ (י) וְעַתָּה֙ הַנִּ֣יחָה לִּ֔י וְיִֽחַר־אַפִּ֥י בָהֶ֖ם וַאֲכַלֵּ֑ם וְאֶֽעֱשֶׂ֥ה אוֹתְךָ֖ לְג֥וֹי גָּדֽוֹל׃
(1) When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who shall go before us, for that fellow Moses—the man who brought us from the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.” (2) Aaron said to them, “[You men,] take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” (3) And all the people took off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. (4) This he took from them and cast in a mold, and made it into a molten calf. And they exclaimed, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” (5) When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron announced: “Tomorrow shall be a festival of יהוה !” (6) Early next day, the people offered up burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; they sat down to eat and drink, and then rose to dance. (7) יהוה 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) יהוה 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.”
Is God's anger justified?
How do we feel about God voicing anger this way, and threatening to destroy the Israelite people?
Why is this text so central to our tradition?
TEACHINGS ABOUT ANGER
Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Human Hilchot Deot 2:3
(3) ...there are certain tendencies which man is forbidden to follow in the middle-way, but must distance himself from extreme to extreme.... One should teach himself not to get angry, even over a matter which befits anger. If one desires to engender awe in his children and his household, or in the public, if he be at the head of a community, even if he desire to get angry at them so as to bring them back to the good way, he should only act angry in their presence so as to reprove them, but his disposition must remain calm within himself, even as a man imitates, who is angry when the time calls forth anger but in reality he is not angry. The sages of yore said: "He who yields to anger is as if he worshiped idolatry". They also said: "Whosoever yields to anger, if he be a wise man his wisdom leaves him, and if he be a prophet his prophecy leaves him."
Alan Morinis
This association of anger with idolatry also reveals why anger is such a frightful power. When a person loses his or her temper, he or she becomes overwhelmed and overpowered by the emotion of anger. By allowing that to happen, a person yields authority over their life to the raging emotion, and it is then the power of anger [i.e., rather than God] that the angry person serves.
Orchot Tzadikim, Gate 12
Anger causes a person to be stubborn, and because of his anger a person will not make concessions, and he will not admit the truth....
People who are angry, and who reinforce their rage, are unaware of what they do, and they do many things in their anger that they would not do when calm. For anger causes one to think irrationally and speak out of anger, thus triggering disputes and quarrels.
Rabbi Mari Chernow, "Kaas-The Value of Anger"
Once anger leads us to regrettable action, we can no longer speak of one injured party and one injuring party. Anger has the potential to make it impossible to claim that one is holding righteous high ground. It ensures that both parties will bear responsibility for a damaged relationship. In this case, if God had given into rage, there would be little difference between God and the brazen Israelites. Both sides would be, as it were, idol worshipers.
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT DIFFERENTLY
Exodus Rabbah 42:9
“Now let me be!” Was Moses holding fast to God that He should say “Now let me be!”? [Of course not, therefore another meaning must be intended.] To what can the thing be compared? To a king who was angry with his son, and had him brought into a chamber and was about to beat him, but then the king cried from the chamber “Let me be, that I may beat him.” Now, the instructor [of the son] was standing without and he thought to himself: “If the king and the son are alone within the chamber, then to whom is he saying: ‘let me be’? it must be because the king wants me to go in and entreat him on his son’s behalf and for this reason he says: ‘let me be!” [He is hinting that I have the power or even the permission to prevent him, if I so choose.] Similarly, God said to Moses, “Now let me be!” and Moses inferred, “It is because God wants me to intercede on Israel’s behalf”… Thereupon Moses began to plead for mercy on their behalf as its says, “but Moses implored the Lord his God.”
Rabbi Mari Chernow, "Kaas-The Value of Anger" in Block, Rabbi Barry H. The Mussar Torah Commentary: A Spiritual Path to Living a Meaningful and Ethical Life. CCAR Press.
"...in supposedly telling Moses not to intervene, God is inviting Moses to intervene! If so, the phrase reveals God’s own misgivings about the force of God’s own rage. Before Moses so much as raises an eyebrow in objection, God suggests that there is reason to object. Moses takes the opportunity and convinces God to relent. Had that not been the case, Ki Tisa might have been an illustration of the teaching of Orchot Tzadikim, “It is impossible for the angry one to escape great sin,”3 and that of Abraham ibn Hasdai, “Anger begins with madness and ends with regret.” It seems that God teeters just on the edge of both madness and regret."
Deuteronomy Rabbah 3:15
God said to him: ‘Let not the two of us be angry, but when you see me pour hot [water] you pour cold, and when you see me pour cold, you pour hot.’ Moses asked: ‘Ruler of the Universe, how shall this happen?’ God replied: “Pray for mercy on their behalf.” What did he do? Immediately ”But Moses implored the Lord.”
Rabbi Mari Chernow, "Kaas-The Value of Anger"
It is critical to note that the text does not say “never angry,” but rather “slow to anger.” Anger, in the right measure, is actually a teacher. It can function like a bright red-flashing indicator light on our emotional dashboard, alerting us to a matter in need of attention. As a signal to our souls, anger can be holy. It can reveal a deep passion or perhaps a wound, a longing or a regret. It can help us clarify and prioritize.
if God had said to the Israelites, “I didn’t even realize how important your loyalty was to Me until so much anger rose up that I actually wanted to kill you!” What are the parallels for us? Where can we notice anger and learn from it?
On a societal level, too, anger can indicate that transformative change is necessary. Consider social movements, such as Me Too and Black Lives Matter. The issues at their heart, sexual violence and racial inequality, have long been critical and worthy of our attention. However, they did not gain the national spotlight until anger fueled a sense of urgency.
Rebecca Traister, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Woman's Anger
“Others are still experiencing [injustice], still mad; some of them are mad at you. Don’t forget them; don’t write off their anger. Stay mad for them. Stay mad with them. They’re right to be mad, and you’re right to be mad alongside them. Being mad is correct; being mad is American; being mad can be joyful and productive and connective. Don’t ever let them talk you out of being mad again.”
“I confess that I am now suspicious of nearly every attempt to code anger as unhealthy, no matter how well meaning or persuasive the source. I believe Stanton was correct: what is bad for women, when it comes to anger, are the messages that cause us to bottle it up, let it fester, keep it silent, feel shame, and isolation for ever having felt it or re-channel it in inappropriate directions. What is good for us is opening our mouths and letting it out, permitting ourselves to feel it and say it and think it and act on it and integrate it into our lives, just as we integrate joy and sadness and worry and optimism.”
"What becomes clear, when we look to the past with an eye to the future, is that the discouragement of women's anger--via silencing, erasure, and repression--stems from the correct understanding of those in power that in the fury of women lies the power to change the world.”
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
Do you agree that anger can sometimes be holy?
If so, how do we make sense of some of the musar teachings around overcoming our anger?
If not, how might we respond to injustices in our world?
Rabbi Paysach Krohn, Around the Maggid’s Table, p. 76.
In the yeshivah of Novardak, there were no dormitory facilities for the students. Instead, they were responsible to find their own accommodations, and most rented rooms nearby from owners who were happy to have them as tenants. There was one exception.
One building, where more than twenty rooms were occupied by students, was owned by a bitter woman who was a widow. She ridiculed and criticized every one of the students who rented from her. Her anger even led her to sometimes turn off the water and electricity on Friday afternoons. Soon her harassment became too much to tolerate, and the students moved out, one by one. Only one student remained, Yosef Geffen.
One morning as he was coming home from shul, the woman yelled at him, “You must be crazy! How can you still stay in my building? You see that all the other boys have moved out – why do you insist on staying?” Yosef paused for a moment and then said softly to the woman, “I stay here for your sake. I realize that you live alone and I fear one night you might fall or become ill and call out for help and there will be no one to hear your cries. I understand that when you yell at us you are merely letting out your frustrations and anger about being widowed and struggling. I therefore felt that it was proper for me to stay, just in case you might ever need help.”
The woman’s face changed. This was not at all what she had expected to hear. She was so surprised by the unexpected concern that she literally pleaded with the student, “Forgive me! Forgive me, young man! It never dawned on me that was the reason you were staying. How kind and gracious of you.” For days afterwards she never said anything but kind words to the students she met. Slowly word got around that she was no longer as bitter and angry as she had been, and the students started moving back into the building until all the rooms were filled.
Talmud Bavli Shabbat 31a
It happened that a certain non-Jew came before Shammai and said to him, “Convert me on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.” [Shammai] pushed him away with the builder’s measuring stick
He went to Hillel, who converted him. Hillel said to him, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary; go and learn it” … Some time later three converts met up. They said, “Shammai’s strictness sought to banish us from the world, but Hillel’s gentleness brought us under the wings of the Divine Presence.”
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
What do these texts teach us about the nature of anger?
How can we respond to the anger of others?
When we feel anger, what do we hope to do with that emotion?