LEVITICUS | 19:17 hate — LEV557 Maimonides summarizes various Talmudic pas...
LEV557 Maimonides summarizes various Talmudic passages and shows all the deleterious effects of someone who displays his or her anger. He says that the angry person [who] appears to be worshiping a different "God" loses his learning and wisdom at the moment of anger (if he is a prophet, he loses his prophecy), and loses his quality of life itself. Therefore, Maimonides strongly recommends that a person should constantly work on himself not to feel anger and not to react to those things that normally would generate anger. In this way, he becomes a righteous individual by accepting personal attacks without responding at all. In addition, he should strive to react to suffering with joy (Maimonides, Hilchot De'ot 2:3). Nevertheless, the Torah clearly says that a person should not hate another person "in his heart," to which the commentaries (such as Nachmanides) explain that if a person feels wronged and angry, he or she should not harbor that anger and hate inwardly, but rather confront the person (in a courteous manner) asking the offender to explain his or her behavior and letting the person know why one feels wronged [this verse with Nachmanides commentary]. This will ultimately engender more love, peace, and understanding, and remove anger (See chapter "Hatred in Judaism" for an expanded discussion of this issue). Thus, in this case we see that, if done in a civil manner, it is good for a person to express his or her feelings of anger to the one who is the object of that anger, and it is beneficial not to deny or hold these feelings inside of oneself. The Torah then understands that it is sometimes better to express one's angry feelings, but not in an angry way, if the goal is to dissipate them. That is why the Mishna, in describing four types of people, says that the best kind of person is someone who takes a very long time to become angry and then dissipates that anger quickly (and the worst is the opposite-someone who is very easily angered, who takes a very long time to calm down and forget his anger) (Mishna Avot 5:11). Thus, in Judaism, a person is judged by his or her reaction to anger and how he or she displays or does not display it, and not by the feeling itself.
Source Key | LEHRMAN |
Verse | 19:17 |
Keyword(s) | hate |
Source Page(s) | 29 |