#972: The Anger Box
A Hasidic story relevant to Parashat Devarim, Devarim/Deuteronomy 1:16
וָאֲצַוֶּה֙ אֶת־שֹׁ֣פְטֵיכֶ֔ם בָּעֵ֥ת הַהִ֖וא לֵאמֹ֑ר שָׁמֹ֤עַ בֵּין־אֲחֵיכֶם֙ וּשְׁפַטְתֶּ֣ם צֶ֔דֶק בֵּֽין־אִ֥ישׁ וּבֵין־אָחִ֖יו וּבֵ֥ין גֵּרֽוֹ׃
I charged your magistrates at that time as follows, “Hear out your fellow men, and decide justly between any man and a fellow Israelite or a stranger.
Gimme Some Torah #972
Judges often see and hear things that would make anyone angry. But how much anger should a judge be allowed to display? Must jurists maintain a stone-faced expression of equanimity, or should they be allowed to express anger at appropriate moments? A Hasidic story about R. Menahem Mendel Hurvitz answers this question.
Once, two men from Linsk brought a legal case to Rabbi Menachem Mendel Hurvitz. The men had been partners in several businesses, but eventually a major financial dispute broke out between them. The two men requested that Rabbi Hurvitz settle the dispute that had arisen between them, and they promised to follow rabbi’s ruling without question.
Rabbi Hurvitz, as usual, granted the request of both litigants. After hearing their arguments in detail, he issued a judgment, and ruled that one of the litigants was obliged to compensate his companion a large sum.
The face of that man who was found to be liable became red, and he began to make arguments and excuses in the rabbi’s ears. Then he declared that he did not intend to obey the rabbi’s judgment, even though had signed a document to that effect only a short time earlier.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel stood up and spoke to the rebellious litigant before him in a tone of resentment: When I was appointed as the teacher of the rabbi in our city, I purchased a special box, which I have always kept in my home’s bookcase. And what am I doing with this box, that I never part with it even for a moment? Let me tell you, in this box is the anger that I need in my role as a rabbi and a judge. When I feel that I need the quality of anger for the sake of God, I pull that box out of the cabinet and take from it the amount of anger that I need at that moment. However, you must know that if I have to open this box for you, God forbid, you will sink into the abyss, and you will never find anyone to get you out of there!
The piercing words of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Hurvitz struck terror and fear into the reluctant litigant, who apologized for the unnecessary words he had previously uttered in the Rabbi’s ears, and promised to carry out the ruling issued against him without delay.
The story teaches us that a religious judge (dayan) is permitted to show anger, but that anger needs to be for the sake of God, and not for the sake of merely blowing off steam. By threatening to get angry, Rabbi Hurvitz gave the litigant a chance to walk back his rebellious statements.