We are now entering the month of Tevet, or Capricorn. The letter Bet created Capricorn’s ruling planet, Saturn, and the letter Ayin created the sign of Capricorn. Ayin is a letter that manifests the energy of anger; therefore, the month of Capricorn is one during which we can both completely remove negative anger, as well as awaken positive anger.
The kabbalists tell us that no other emotion has the power to eliminate the Light the way that anger does, with the Zohar explaining that the difference between anger and any other negative action is that a person literally internalizes darkness when he becomes angry; if someone loses control during moments of anger, he is no longer connected to the Light. The Zohar even advises us not to speak to someone who has lost his temper in anger, for when we do, it’s as if we are directly connecting with the Negative Side, because the anger has removed the Light from within that person.
So, hopefully the negative effects of anger are very clear. But, what is the positive side of anger? And I am not talking here about having anger at other people, or at someone who does something to us. Rav Ashlag writes that there’s only one thing that we need to become angry with, and that is the ego, the Desire to Receive for the Self Alone. We need to become angry at the selfish thoughts and ideas that are always trying to invade our minds.
Therefore, the one anger we do want to awaken, the one great gift of this month, is anger at our ego. As we enter the month of Capricorn, every single one of us should ask ourselves, “How angry am I at my ego? How angry am I that these thoughts and desires are from the Negative Side?” We need to realize that the ego, the anger, is not us. Every single one of us is pure Light; our soul, our essence is a complete connection to the Light of the Creator, and our job, then, is to separate ourselves from the Negative Side. We do that through positive anger – being angry at our ego. It is a powerful tool.
As we consistently disassociate ourselves from our Desire to Receive for the Self Alone and become angrier at it, we put ourselves more and more on the path for which we came to this world: the path towards receiving complete Light, fulfillment, and blessings. This gift of positive anger that we can awaken in the month of Capricorn, therefore, is an important one, and one that we need to use throughout the entire year.
