Don't lose out because of anger

Whenever I feel down, I can always find words of comfort and encouragement from Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. These are from The Essential Rabbi Nachman by Avraham Greenbaum. You can find the free online version here.

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It would be proper for all Israel to have wealth, but there is one trait that interferes and causes them to lose it. The trait in question is a very bad and lowly trait from which it is very difficult to escape. Sometimes a person wants to escape this trait out of a desire for wealth itself, so as not to lose money, but even so this evil trait attacks him from childhood, causing him to lose the money he should have had.

The evil trait that causes a person to lose the money he should have had is anger. The reason for this is that at its very root and spiritual source , wealth is in the same category as anger. Thus when the evil one sees a flow of influence descending to bring wealth to a person, he turns it into anger, because , at their root , anger and wealth are in the same category: they both descend from God's mighty powers, deriving from the same place. “From the north comes forth gold” (Job 37:22) and “The evil will start from the north ” (Jeremiah 1:14 ) .

Wealth is a “wall” ( ch O mah ), while anger ( ch EY mah ) ruins the wall. Thus when the evil one sees that a flow of wealth – chomah , a “wall” – is being sent to a person – he turns this flow into anger, sending something to make the person angry. Thus the “wall”, chomah , is ruined because of the anger, cheymah . Since anger and wealth are at root one category, the evil one can easily turn the flow of wealth into anger.

And know that even if the descending influence has already reached a person and turned into actual wealth, a “wall”, the evil one can still sometimes tempt the person to become so enraged that he loses even his existing money and wealth. One might have thought that after the blessing has already reached him and turned into wealth, it would be impossible for the evil one to turn it back into anger. The wealth should have been a “wall” protecting him from the evil one and preventing him from succumbing to anger, which is the opposite of a “wall”. Yet the evil one has the power to attack a person with such great anger that he loses even the money he already has.

May God guard and save us from this despicable trait! Amen.

Likutey Moharan I, 68