EXOD980 … we should try to pacify someone if that person is beginning to act precipitously out of anger. The Torah depicts Moses employing such a strategy vis-à-vis God Himself. In Exodus 32, while Moses is on Mount Sinai communing with God, the Children of Israel start to worship a golden calf. Outraged, God says to Moses: "Now leave Me be that My anger may blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation" (32:10). Moses appeases God, "Let not your anger blaze forth against your people… Turn from Your blazing anger and renounce the plan to punish Your people" (32: 11 – 12). Moses also employs other strategies to assuage the Lord's wrath. He asks God to remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and "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 the whole land of which I spoke, to possess forever.'" This plea proves successful: "and the Lord renounced the punishment He had planned to bring upon His people" (32:14). We should learn from Moses' encounter with God that when someone who is angry is about to shift from venting to engaging in destructive behavior, we should do whatever we can to stop him.