This morning's Torah reading several times describes the great anger with which God
will punish those who defy the demands of the covenant. יואבה
ה' סלח לו כי אז
יֶעשן אף ה'
וקנאתו באיש ההוא
"God will never forgive him, but then the
Lord’s anger will smoke him", or, as JPS puts it, in less literal terms, "the Lord’s anger and passion
will rage against that man." (Deut. 29:19). Again, warning of the terrible misfortune
that God will inflict upon the land if Israel defies God, the text puts in the
mouths of those who see it מה חרי אף
הגדול הזה
wherefore this awful wrath? And we are told, ויתשם
ה' מעל עדמתם
באף ובחמה
ובקצף גדול,
the Lord rooted them
out of their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation.
(Deut. 34:19) According to Deuteronomy the God of Israel is truly an angry and a
wrathful Being who looses destruction on those who defy Him. That image led our
traducers to accuse us Jews of having a primitive faith. I leave the theological
debates for another time. Suffice it to say that when history or life's
vicissitudes turn our collective or personal lives into a living hell, those
who understand God as Bing who controls everything almost inevitably feel that
God is angry, just as we refer to the great waves stirred up by high winds as "an angry sea."
Interestingly, wrath is not among the thirteen attributes that Moses ascribed to God and that we reiterate during these days of awe. On the contrary, God is "ארך אפים ורב חסד", "slow to anger," or, as others have translated the idiom, "patient" or "long suffering." (Ex. 34:6). But anger, and its heightened state, rage, are certainly human characteristics. Unchecked anger's consequence, violence, is among the sins we confess and ask God's pardon for on this day. God knows (and so do we that) anger can be enormously destructive in human life. We are not blind to the anger that underlies, for example, child and spouse abuse, the all too frequent murder of family members, school children, teachers, and co-workers that deface our society.
Long before our ancestors created the liturgy for the noraim yamim they warned against anger and extolled its opposite, patience. "When a man is angry, he deems even God's presence to be of no account, for the wicked in his wrath thinks that God never punishes," says the Talmud. Anger leads to folly and sin, it teaches. Elsewhere, we are told, "happy is the man who. hearing himself abused, remains silent. He thereby wards off a hundred evils from himself (Gemara) 203,707." Today's medical researchers have found that anger plays an important role in chronic alcoholism and that a hostile disposition puts people at risk for heart disease and eventually heart attacks. Clearly, anger is a sin that we need to repent—and true repentance means change—for the sake of those around us and for ourselves as well.
But, to quote the machzor, "this is not our first Yom Kippur nor our first resolve to repent." If confession, fasting, and prayer alone do not suffice, how can those of us who are quick to anger repent us of that sin? It's not easy. The Talmud teaches that in ארץ ישראל when two men are quarreling people watch to see who will be first to stop and would then say "This one is of better lineage." The rabbis understood what modern research has disclosed, that lineage, that is, genetic makeup and what parents teach children by example and with words are powerful determinants of our ability to respond peacably to our own and other people’s rising anger. Parents, and I marvel at how many parents these days behave this way, who patiently and with great self control sympathetically talk their children out of temper tantrums or, where necessary, declare and enforce “time outs” are teaching their children invaluable lessons that will, among other things, stand them in good stead later on in dealing with their own angers and even, God forbid, encounter violent situations. On the other hand, parents who are themselves too young or whose life situation is too precarious to impart those lessons are likely to find their children becoming more and more antisocial, angry, enraged, and even violent.
Culture is another determinant. As all of you are fully aware there are virulent strands in our American culture that reenforce, indeed venerateangry, violent impulses and actions. Of course, we must do what we can to change that cultural milieu, including by shunning the purveyors and their products. Then there is the widespread, but, I understand, wrong notion that if one is angry one must vent the anger. Venting, the evidence is, almost always results in greater anger, often escalating to rage, and provokes angry responses. R. Jeremiah of Difti taught, the angry man "causes his learning to be forgotten and his folly to grow." The parallel learning, based upon observation and analysis, is that when a person is angry he or she loses the ability correctly to perceive the situation that has frightened him or her (and a perceived threat is the commonest source of anger) and to choose wisely among the alternatives available for dealing with it.
If we want to live in peace we must intervene to provide children withother ways than fury and violence to respond when they rightly or wrongly feel threatened, insulted, or wronged. Because anger is a precursor to violence many of our school systems, in this area and around the country, have put in place programs to teach youngsters "emotional intelligence," the ability to recognize their own and others' rising anger and to deal with a developing conflict by figuring out what's going on in both their own and their opponents' minds, and where possible talking the situation through or, where not, by walking away, if that's best, even when challenged. Later on, if older children become disruptive and begin to develop patterns that we now know will later likely lead to criminal conduct, teachers and guidance counselors, with the help of parents, can often intervene constructively to teach these youngsters other ways to deal with their feelings or in other ways to stop the problem before it begins. There are even promising new initiatives aimed at reducing antisocial behaviour that seem to work with large groups of children. These programs are by no means universal, and the interventions are not always successful, they are critically important in the struggle to leach the violence out of our society. The earlier such intervention begins, of course, the greater the chances of success.
And how about those of us who are no longer young? If we are prone to anger and violence can we do anything about it, or must we return year after year and confess the same sin? This is a complex subject, and I claim no expertise. But I am sure everyone within the sound of my voice can readily find out where to start, and perhaps, having started and not progressed sufficiently, where to turn next. To paraphrase R. Tarfon, it is not incumbent upon us to finish the work, but we are not free to desist from it either.
I think there is a moral to these observations. Our ancestors, who in many respects knew as much about human life as we do, created the personal and communal values that our coming together signifies we want to pursue. Of course our forebears understood and we understand that mouthing fine sentiments accomplishes little. Even a fervent determination may not suffice, for the communal and individual sins we confess may be deepseated and beyond the reach of simple persuasion. It is there that the discoveries of modern scientists and the steps their tested observations suggest may come to our aid. Here, as elsewhere, we must marry heart and mind, spirituality and reason, commitment and knowledge. May God grant that in the coming year we achieve true repentance, the turning away from sin, that this day demands of us. If we do that then the new year may indeed be aשנה טובה ומתוקה , a good and a sweet year. May it be God's will—and ours. Amen.