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members upon the rock. “My heart, my heart, for their casualties!” path, and I directed him to learn the chapter from In the Garden
(siddur: Nachem). of Faith that deals with the trait of anger. I explained to him that
the verse, “Anger rests in the bosom of fools” (Ecclesiastes 7:9),
Something Here Isn’t Logical means that basically anger is a lack of knowledge and a lack of
intelligence. A person must plead with Hashem at length to give
In regard to faith as well, which is our central work and goal in him an intelligent faith related to the trait of anger. And when
the realm of “doing good,” a person who does not devote time He Who graciously gives man knowledge will be kind to him and
to personal work regarding the trait of faith every day of his life will give him complete knowledge, his anger will be completely
will not change but will continue to live with heresy, troubles and eliminated.
worries, and he will continue to live a life filled with fears and As a result of this discussion and the guidance that he received
anxieties. He will fear that people might harm him and he will fear from In the Garden of Faith, this man started to beseech Hashem
his own shadow. He will be filled with evil thoughts about himself
and others—thoughts of jealousy, vengeance and envy—and he to give him proper and simple knowledge and to eradicate his trait
of anger. He began to pray to Hashem to give him the faith and
will be filled with resentments and insolence toward Hashem, with
complaints and self-pity—all of which come from just one thing: a awareness that no one is doing anything to him, but that everything
is the will of Hashem. He prayed to believe that all of those people
lack of faith.
who are upsetting him are only rods of Hashem who were sent to
A person who does not do the work will not change. Our him for his absolute good in order to arouse him and bring him
forefathers, the generation of the desert, learned and learned and close to Hashem. And he asked to always be able to nullify his will
saw miracles (as we described), yet nevertheless they did not attain before Hashem’s will. He continued to pray in this way every day
proper faith. As Rashi states in his commentary to the verse, “How for about two years, until he received the faith-based awareness
can I bear your burden and your strife” (Deuteronomy 1:12): “This that he had lacked, and he began to see Hashem in everything that
teaches that they were heretics.” This is truly appalling. was happening to him, and Hashem extirpated this cursed trait of
anger.
As we study many verses, we tremble when we see the ingratitude
of the generation of the desert (as discussed at length in my His A Tool for Life
Gates with Thanksgiving, and as everyone recognizes and
knows). Here let us look at one verse from Moses’ rebuke of the At the same time, his eyes were enlightened and he began to
nation of Israel, from which we will understand the low level of attend more and more classes. The path of faith illuminated his
faith to which the nation of Israel had fallen. The verse states, “You entire life, and he learned that he must change in other areas as
complained in your tents and said: Because Hashem hates us, He well. After he saw results from his efforts regarding his trait of
took us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the anger, he knew that he must continue and utilize this wonderful
Amorites to destroy us” (ibid. 27). tool in other, more difficult and complex areas. Thus, his success in
nullifying his anger helped him and gave him a powerful impetus to
When I read this verse, I did not know whether to laugh or cry. Is continue onward and acquire more and more attainments in serving
what is written here logical? Can it be that when something did not Hashem, because he saw with his own eyes that his stubborn intent
please these people—who experienced so many miracles in Egypt and his steadfast prayer had borne fruit. Therefore, he accepted
and at the Sea of Reeds, to whom Hashem spoke face to face, this practice as a way of life. In each session, he addressed one or
who saw the presence of the Shechinah in the Tabernacle, who two topics, and dedicated a half hour of prayer to each one, or he

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