Reply To: Short & Sweet

Vaykhel: Fire 🔥

Of all the 39 melachos, only one is specified in the Torah: lighting a fire. To add another layer of mystery as to why this particular melacha was chosen, the Zohar adds the prohibition against lighting a fire includes getting angry (igniting the the fire of anger) on Shabbos.

R’ Aron Lopiansky explains this by looking at the root of anger. Anger almost always comes from a place of frustration. Somebody who feels that they could be accomplishing something, but that they are being held from doing so, gets angry.

But Shabbos is supposed to be the antithesis of that very mindset. On Shabbos, we acknowledge that we do not run the world. Hashem made the world, and only He continues to control it.

A person only feels frustration and anger at a perceived loss of control, if they believe they were in control in the first place. Hence כל הכועס, כאילו עובד ע״ז.

One who truly appreciates Shabbos and acknowledges that Hashem alone controls the world, will not feel the fire of anger.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום