Moses and Aaron had sent the Israelites for a certain job and then they came back. Moses and Elazar went to greet them. And Moses got angry.

We find three times in the Torah that Moshe becomes angry. He gets angry at them and, as the Midrash makes very clear, after becoming angry with them, Moshe forgets what he was told through prophecy to tell them. We find this three times in the Torah. Moshe got angry, rightfully, so what he was told through prophecy was not done. He got angry, and then he forgot the prophecy he was supposed to give.

The idea, as the Zohar makes clear, is that there are different levels of disconnection one can make. One of the worst is becoming angry. The Zohar explains why anger is so dangerous. Unlike negative actions that are for the most part external to us, if a person hits someone else, he uses his hand. Even with his mouth, it’s external, from his mouth going out. Even bringing something into his body, it is all on the physical level. The Zohar explains when we become angry, it’s the one negative action that literally becomes internal to us, internal to our soul, and it burns up Light that we already have.

Unfortunately, most if not all of our anger is not the type of anger Moshe was having. Moshe wasn’t angry because his ego was hurt, but because he realized they had not done what the Creator asked them to do. It was not a personal anger. But we see that even anger disconnected from the ego still burns up any connection — any Light that Moshe had taken in.

Even Moshe, through his rightful anger–anger that was disconnected from the ego–nevertheless lost his connection to the Light of the Creator, lost his prophecy. Our anger, more often than not, stems from the ego. The fire of that anger that we feel is even worse than the fire of anger that Moshe awakened.

If Moshe could lose his prophecy, can we imagine the damage we do to ourselves every time we become angry? The Zohar says anger becomes internal to us, our soul, and burns up the Light we have, and any wisdom we have.

Moshe had received prophecy and wisdom. The anger he awakened burnt up his connection, his wisdom, his prophecy.

One of the important ideas, especially in these three weeks, is the terrible danger of anger. Anger is one of the most negative actions because we bring it inside and it burns our connection to the wisdom and understanding that we have.

Wisdom is one thing; prophecy is another. What about the understanding we had? Anger burns that too. If we awaken anger, and allow it to come inside and burn, it will burn also the knowledge we have already gained. There are not any other actions we do that are as dangerous as anger.

In these three weeks, the damage we can do in anger, if a person does something in anger, the negative side takes it and uses that energy to damage that person. Anger is a terribly dangerous action. One of the gifts we want to understand on this Shabbat is a true understanding of the damage of anger.

The next time we feel rightful or unrightful anger, we have to ask, is this 5 or 10 seconds of anger worth the terrible disconnection, the terrible burst that will burn any Light, understanding or wisdom that I have?

We need to understand: anger burns. We cannot allow ourselves to feel anger. We must know we cannot afford to become angry. It will burn my connection, burn my understanding. I cannot be angry not because I care for the other person, but because I care for myself. I know the damage it will do to me, and I do not allow myself to become angry. Moshe had a reason to be angry. And his anger burnt his wisdom, prophecy, and connection.