Anger: The Disease And The Cure

כל הכועס כאילו עובד עבודה זרה - If you get angry it is like worshipping idols.

IDOLS? What's the connection. A little harsh, no?

Heilige Pnei Menachem [Gerrer Rebbe]: Just like serving idols won't help you - getting angry won't either.

כל הכועס כל מיני גיהנום שולטים בו - When one gets angry he brings upon himself gehenom. Gehenom is not the punishment. Anger is itself gehenom.

Anger is a SIN as the Rambam makes clear in the seventh perek of hilchos tshvuah halacha gimmel. It requires tshuva like any other sin.

“Speak when you are angry - and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret.”

When angry - fill your mouth with water for 120 seconds. Take 5 deeeeep breaths. Sing an uplifting niggun.

Don't you feel better already:).

Or how about a line from Ralph Waldo Emerson [who had a reason to be angry - his parents gave him the name "Waldo"]: “For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”

Who wants to be unhappy?

I personally fight the battle against anger - and sometimes lose. What helps me is learning mussar and particularly watching how utterly stupid other people look when they are angry which apprises me of how I must look.

Also: Smiling. Learning Torah. Playing with a baby. Taking a nap. Having a drink. Repeating statements of Chazal condemning anger. Kissing my child.

Would LOVE TO HEAR any other ideas.

Love, blessings and a life of serenity!!