What Anger Costs Us - R. Ari Neuwirth - TorahAnytime.com

I'm going to share with you a story that highlights what it means to get angry. There was a wagon driver who was taking a very wealthy man to the city of Prague. We're talking here in the 1700s. On the way to Prague, they're on a road and they come to a path where it was densely filled with woods. They were in the forest. Suddenly, the wagon driver pulls the horses to a halt, turns around to the wealthy man behind him with a knife, and he tells him, "Step out of the wagon." They both exit the wagon and the wagon driver tells him, "We are switching identities. [snorts] I am going to be the wealthy man and you're going to be the wagon driver. We're going to switch clothing. You're going to give me your clothing and I'm going to take your clothing." And they switch clothing. And now the wealthy man looks like the wagon driver and he sits up with the horses and he's holding the res. And the wagon driver now acts like the rich man and he sits in the back. Finally, after a few hours, they roll into Prague and the wagon driver who is now the wealthy man goes straight to the No Yehuda. He took advantage and he pulls the wagon in front of the house of the Naid Yehuda who was the Pis of that time, the Pik Ad. And he goes to the N Yehuda and he says, "This guy, he stole my identity. I'm really the wealthy man. He's really really the wagon driver." He looks at me and goes, "I don't know what he's talking about. He's a fool. I I'm the wealthy man. Look at me. Look at the way I'm dressed." And the Yehuda didn't know what to do. He says, "I'm going to pass tomorrow morning. both of you make sure you're here at my house at sunrise. They go to sleep and the next morning at sunrise both of them appear at the house of the Yehuda and they're waiting and Yehuda doesn't come out of his office and they're waiting and it comes shak and it becomes breakfast time and it comes lunchtime. nothing doing is a no-show. The both of them really are becoming very agitated and very upset that he made us come early in the morning sunrise and he's a no-show. Comes lunchtime, nothing. It's already supper. The sun is beginning to set. They haven't eaten. They're bored. They're waiting. They're agitated. And finally, as the sun begins to set, the no dehuda comes out of his office and he says, "Wagon driver, please come inside." And the real wagon driver went inside. And as he's walking in, he says, "I made a mistake. What happened? How could he make such a mistake? He switched identities. Shouldn't have known." And the answer is because he was angry. He was agitated and due to his mood, he forgot. He lost control. He wasn't thinking anymore. And therefore, he forgot the charade that he was playing. He forgot the game that he was playing because he wasn't thinking anymore. And that's how the N Yehuda was able to figure out who was the real wagon driver and who was the real wealthy man. So, we learn from here what anger could do to a person. It causes you to lose control. It causes you not to think. Don't step into a dangerous situation where it could be harmful and it could be hurtful because of the anger and the cost that is ranging.