- Torah and Jewish Thought
- General Questions
Question
What causes anger? Why people get angry? What to do to fix bad temper and anger? By asking what is anger I mean from Kabalah and Torah view
Answer
Shalom
ב"ה
What causes anger it not and intrinsically a Jewish thing. A person is disappointed, a person gets stuck in traffic, a person is insulted or lied to. There can be a million reasons. It is part of human nature to react in anger if not monitored. Anger is a human trait among other traits that humans have, both good ones and bad ones.
However, according to the Torah perspective, we don't excuse negative things and see them as something uncontrollable, rather we see them as something that we have the ability to overcome and that we have to work on. "Bechira Chofshit"= freedom of will, is one of the fundamentals of the Torah . This is also the reason why the Torah also includes ethics which have been expounded upon over the generations.
There is so much material in the Jewish sources discussing the overcoming of our negative side and self-control. To work on overcoming anger, a person must immerse himself into a rigid program of studying the books on ethics which deal with anger and be conscious of the ways to apply what he learns when anger comes.
A very important and fundamental essay on the control of our character was written by the Rambam in his introduction to Pirkei Avot.
I suggested a few book in a previous answer, though I'm sorry , I am not aware of a particular book in English that I can suggest.
In addition it is very popular these days, at least in Israel, of people going to coaching workshops dealing with personal issues, such as self- confidence, personal empowerment, anger and other things. Of course, it is recommended to go to a group which deals with these things on a Torah basis.
All the best and Shabbat Shalom