NUM365 See [[EXOD623]] Exodus 22:1 death DORFFRAG 167-8

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NUM366 See [[NUM288]] Numbers 22:32 beaten TELVOL2 306-7

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NUM367 Do not grow angry even when reprimanding someone for a wrongdoing. The Talmud (Psochim 66b) states that Moshe was punished for his anger at the officers for having allowed the Midianite women to remain alive. Basing itself on this verse, the Talmud says that if a wise person becomes angry, he will forget his knowledge. In his anger, Moshe forgot the laws dealing with the Midianite vessels. Consequently, Eliezer, instead of Moshe, taught these laws to the soldiers (verse 21). Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv pointed out that Moshe's rebuke was correct. The soldiers had erred and deserved censure. Moshe's only wrong was his emotion of anger. Even when a person should rebuke someone, he must remain calm and be careful not to grow angry. (Chochmah Umussar, vol. 1, p. 161).

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NUM368 Rabbi Eliezer said: … do not be easily moved to anger; Pirkei Avot, Perek II, mishnah 15. The wise King Solomon says, "Anger rests in the lap of fools" (Ecclesiastes 7:9). The lap is not a secure resting place. As soon as a sitting person rises, his lap is no more, and anything that was on it falls off. This is the position of anger in the personality of the fool. It is ready to "pop" at a moment's notice. At the slightest provocation his reserve vanishes, and his anger is released to explode. Said Resh Lakish: "Any man who becomes angry--if he is wise, his wisdom leaves him; if he is a prophet, his prophecy departs from him." As proof he sites the verse, "Moses was angry with the officers of the army…" [this verse]. Shortly afterward, he notes, Elazar the cohen had to say "to the men of war who had gone to battle: This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded Moses" (Numbers 31:21). We can only conclude, says Resh Lakish, that Moses' knowledge and wisdom had temporarily left him. Again, we read that Elisha exclaimed angrily to Jehoshaphat: "Were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor see you" ( II Kings 3:14). But he had to add immediately, "Now bring me a minstrel"; and we read, "when the minstrel played, the hand of the Lord came upon him" ( II Kings 3:15). He needed the cheer of music to restore the power of prophecy that anger had driven from him (T.B. Pesahim 66b). Is therefore best to be, as we describe our Creator in the musaf prayers of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, "difficult to provoke and easy to pacify."

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NUM369 See [[LEV95]] Leviticus 10:16 angry TZADIK 241-3

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NUM370 See [[NUM295]] Numbers 24:5 fair TELVOL2 265

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NUM371 See [[LEV95]] Leviticus 10:16 angry TZADIK 241-3

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NUM372 Resh Lakish said: All who get angry -- if he is wise, his wisdom departs from him, as it is written (14): "And Moses was wroth," and: "And Elazar the priest said:… This is the statute of the Torah, which the Lord commanded Moses," from which it is to be inferred that the halachah escaped him (Pesachim 66b)

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NUM373 See [[NUM368]] Numbers 31:14 SINAI1 angry 183-4

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NUM374 It was taught in the school of R. Yishmael: Why did the Jews of that generation require atonement? Because they had feasted their eyes on nakedness (Shabbath 64b)

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