Rav Dovid Orlofsky said that one time a friend of his told him about when he was waiting on a line in a store, and the person who was in front of him was dissatisfied with something the shopkeeper had done. This fellow then took the ‘obvious’ next step, and he started screaming at the shopkeeper in a blazing fit of rage, until he was literally red in the face from his furious shouting.
“However,” Rabbi Orlofsky said, “to my friend’s great surprise, no matter what the customer said to him, the guy behind the counter just wouldn’t get upset. Not a twitch of reaction could be seen on his face. He just sat there calmly taking it all in.
My friend was shocked. He had never seen such calm, such reserve. ‘How did you do that?’ he asked the shopkeeper after the incident had ended, and the angry customer had left. ‘How can you take that type of aggravation and not get upset?’
The shopkeeper looked up at him and explained, ‘It’s simple. I have a very serious heart condition. Without exaggeration, If I get upset, I could die. It’s just not worth it to me.’”
Rav Orlofsky said, “What a powerful lesson! If we are given such choice, between controlling our anger or facing dreadfully dire consequences, then we can find a way to maintain that extreme level of control. We just need the push that will help us get there, but we can do that is every situation we find ourselves in as well!”
Reprinted from the Parshas Pekudia 5784 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’Tefilah.
