Idolatry in Action
He who gives vent to anger commits as grave a sin as though he worshipped strange gods. Tractate Shabbat 105b
Anger – Referring to Job 18:4, Luzzatto follows the Sages by connecting anger with idolatry. We don’t usually think like this, but perhaps we should. Stone’s commentary on Luzzatto shows us why: “[Anger] is the total erasure of the needs and burden of the other by the needs and burden of the self. It is therefore the very definition of idolatry.”[1] According to Luzzatto, anger removes a man’s ability to think of his relationship burden. Anger focuses entirely on the self, but in this case, a self that has lost control of cognitive understanding.
Stone points out that this kind of anger is “an outgrowth of pride. It is the imposition of one’s will upon the world because one cannot conceive that one’s will is not the wisest and most important.”[2] It is the abdication of watchfulness because watchfulness is always related to the obligation for the other.
You will most likely agree. When you really think about anger, Luzzatto’s analysis makes perfect sense. Anger is idolatry. But perhaps we need to expand this just a bit more because quite often it seems that anger is hidden from public view. Perhaps even hidden from ourselves. When anger shows itself as rage, we all instinctively know that the person has become unhinged. We might even feel embarrassment for such a person, knowing that when his anger passes he will (or should) feel ashamed about his loss of control. But public anger isn’t the only problem. What do we say about a person whose anger boils inside, whose actions hint at some subterranean volcano that never actually erupts in rage? Isn’t this much more pervasive, and more dangerous?
Perhaps you’re angry about a relationship failure, but you don’t express your frustration. You push it under. In your view, the other person has failed to meet your expectations. It’s not your fault (of course). The other person just doesn’t do what you would like them to do. You’re aware that this judgment means that you hold yourself in a superior position, but rather than speak your emotions, you repress them, thinking that they will go away. But they don’t. Later you catch yourself diminishing the other person in small and subtle ways. You put them down (just a bit). You ignore their requests. You feel entirely justified because, after all, they haven’t met your needs. So why should you meet theirs? This is not the result of ignorance. It is the result of smoldering. Watchfulness requires us to smell smoke where there is no visible fire because anger isn’t always brazen aggression. Far too often it arrives as “justifiable” reprisal, and in this form it is an even more serious kind of idolatry. It puts you on the throne.
The word “watchfulness” tends to suggest visible recognition. But real watchfulness is not simply optics. It’s awareness of our emotional condition in all its subtlety. Take a moment to “smell” your aura. Any smoke there?
Topical Index: watchfulness, anger, idolatry, Tractate Shabbat 105b
[1] Ira F. Stone, in Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 150.
[2] Ibid., pp 149-150
