44 | FEBRUARY 29 • 2024 

C

omparing two of 
the most famous 
events in the Torah, 
we face what seems like a 
glaring contradiction. In 
this week’s parshah, Moses 
on the mountain is told by 
God to go down 
to the people. 
They have 
made a golden 
calf. Moses 
descends, 
holding in 
his hands the 
holiest object 
of all time, the two tablets 
carved and inscribed by God 
Himself.
As he reached the foot of 
the mountain, he saw the 
people dancing around the 
calf. In his anger, he threw 
down the tablets and broke 
them to pieces (Ex. 32:19). It 
was a public display of anger. 

Yet Moses was not criticized 
for this act, done entirely of 
his own accord. Resh Lakish, 
commenting on the verse 
in which God commands 
Moses to carve a new set of 
tablets to replace the ones 
“which you broke” (Ex. 34:1), 
says that God was, in effect, 
giving His approval to Moses’ 
deed. 

The Sages went further. 
The concluding verses of 
the Torah state, “No other 
prophet has arisen in Israel 
like Moses, who knew 
the Lord face to face … or 
in any of the mighty hand 
and awesome wonders Moses 
displayed in the sight of all 
Israel” (Deut. 34:10-12). On 
the phrase “mighty hand,” 
they said that it refers to the 
breaking of the tablets. In 
other words, it is seen as one 
of his greatest acts of courage 

and leadership.
Many years later, Moses 
was faced with another crisis. 
The people had arrived at 
Kadesh. There was no water. 
The people complained. 
Once again, Moses displayed 
anger. Told by God to speak 
to the rock, he struck it 
twice, and water gushed out. 
This time, however, instead 
of being praised for what 
he did, God said to him, 
“Because you did not trust 
in Me to sanctify Me in the 
sight of the Israelites, you 
will not bring this assembly 
into the land I have given 
them” (Num. 20:12).
The difficulties in this 
passage are well-known. 
What was Moses’ sin? And 
was not the punishment 
disproportionate? My 
concern here, though, is 
simply with the comparison 

between the two events. In 
both cases, the people were 
running out of control. In 
both cases, Moses performed 
a gesture of anger. Why was 
one commended, the other 
condemned? Why was a 
show of anger appropriate 
in one case but not in the 
other? Is anger always wrong 
when shown by a leader, or is 
it sometimes necessary? 

PRIDE AND ANGER
The answer is provided by 
Maimonides in his law code, 
the Mishneh Torah. In his 
Laws of Character, he tells 
us that in general we should 
follow the middle way in the 
emotional life. But there are 
two emotions about which 
Maimonides says that we 
should not follow the middle 
way but should instead strive 
to eliminate them entirely 

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

Anger: 
Its Uses and Abuses

