The Calamity of Anger
In the times of Elisha HaNavi the Yidden had a king called Yehoiram who was a rasha and worshiped avoda zara. When the king of Moav rebelled against him, he invited Yehoishofot, the righteous king of Yehuda, to join him in battling Moav. On their way, they were without water for seven days, so when they heard that Elisha HaNavi was nearby, they hurried to see him. However, when Elisha saw Yehoiram, he said angrily, "What do we have with one another? Go to the nevi'im of avoda zara!"
Elisha nevertheless agreed, in honor of Yehoishofot, to exercise his power of nevua, but he was unable to do so because of his anger. In fact he had to ask for a musician to play for him, and only then did the ruach nevua rest upon him. (מלכים א' פ"ג)
Chazal say, Kol hako'es ke'ilu oved avoda zara – "If someone becomes angry, it is as if he worshiped avoda zara." The Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya that if a Yid believed with complete emuna that whatever befell him is from Shamayim, he would not be angry at all. His anger is a sign of his belief that there is something else in the world other than HaShem. (שבת ק"ה ע"ב, אגה"ק סי' כ"ה)
The Zohar writes that one who becomes angry uproots the holy neshama that is within him and replaces it with a spirit of avoda zara, more so than any other aveira. The Arizal explains that he loses the spiritual levels that he attained.
Reb Chaim Vital relates that sometimes while learning with his brother, he would become upset at him for his lack of cooperation. The Arizal would reprimand him and warned him not to become angry even concerning a mitzvah. (זהר פ‘ תצוה ע‘ קפ"ב, שער רוח הקודש י"ט)
One of the things that Reb Boruch Batlan, the Alter Rebbe's great grandfather, noticed about Chassidus is that it teaches a person to control himself. As he observed the heated discussions between his chassidisher friend Yitzchok Shaul and his brothers-in-law, who were misnagdim, he noticed that whenever Yitzchok Shaul's anger was stirred up, he would suddenly close up, as if with a lock and key, and his anger would disappear. Yitzchok Shaul once explained this to Boruch, saying, "My father used to tell me in the name of the Baal Shem, that anger is a foreign and unworthy thing, even when it comes from yiras Shamayim. He taught me that whenever I get into a temper, I should just seal my lips and not utter a word!" (ספר הזכרונות [אנגלית] ח"ב ע' 15)
Feeding the Spirits
Once, after a week of continuous efforts, the Baal Shem Tov succeeded in collecting the amount necessary to redeem a family imprisoned by a stubborn poritz, who had refused to free them until he received every penny that they owed him. They were finally set free late on Friday, so the Baal Shem Tov invited them to stay with him for Shabbos, for they would not be able to make it back to their town in time. They willingly agreed. At the seudas Shabbos, the Baal Shem Tov turned to the Yid and asked, "So, what news have you heard today?"
The Yid looked up in wonder: "But Rebbe, what news could have reached the dungeon in which we were imprisoned?"
"Then tell us something of your past," encouraged the Baal Shem Tov.
The Yid replied, "I can't think of anything worthy of telling about my life, but I just recalled a strange experience I had while I was imprisoned.
"In the same dungeon, at some distance from us, there was a group of people who cried and moaned all week long. It melted my heart. However, erev Shabbos after chatzos, they would begin to dance and laugh loudly, and I too would burst out laughing. This went on for weeks, but this week, the crying and screaming was louder than usual, as was the roaring laughter and the wild dancing which took its place. During the entire time, I was too terrified to approach and speak to them and ask the reason for all this. We just huddled together in our corner. Yet, knowing that we were to be freed shortly, I gathered enough courage to shout a question in their direction, 'Who are you?'
"A voice from the far end of the pit responded, 'We are kelipos whose existence depends on the aveiros of a certain tzaddik. He doesn't eat all week long, breaking his fast only on erev Shabbos. He prepares a mug of milk in the morning, and puts it aside to drink when he finishes davening Shacharis. All week long, we are so overwhelmed by the power of his tzidkus that we cry. Every erev Shabbos, however, we cause someone in his family to accidentally spill the milk, causing him to become angry. From this anger, we receive our chayus. This week he was determined to overcome his anger, because he realized that by getting angry, he could lose all of the ruchniusdike achievement that he had reached during the week. He therefore decided to lock the closet where he put the milk and not to give anyone the key. And that's why we were so upset this week,' the voice explained.
'We didn't know how we would be able to make him angry, but we were not prepared to give up so easily. This morning, one of us appeared as a woodcutter, knocked on the tzaddik's door, and offered his wife a bundle of wood at a cheap price. Her purse was in the same closet as the milk, and she asked her husband for the key. Anxious not to keep the woodcutter waiting, she knocked over the milk jug. Sure enough, the tzaddik exploded into a rage, and that's why we had so much to celebrate about today.'"
All the chassidim at the Baal Shem Tov's seuda listened to this strange story in amazement. Suddenly, one of them fell down in a faint. He was known to fast the entire week. (רשימות דברים ח"א ע' יב)
