Avos 5:11

בס׳ד

אבות ה:יא

Four are the psychological traits: Easy to anger, easy to appease - his gain is cancelled by his loss; Hard to anger, hard to appease - his loss is cancelled by his gain; Hard to anger, easy to appease - here’s the pious! Easy to anger, hard to appease - here’s the wicked!

אַרְבַּע מִדּוֹת בַּדֵּעוֹת. נוֹחַ לִכְעֹס וְנוֹחַ לִרְצוֹת, יָצָא שְׂכָרוֹ בְהֶפְסֵדוֹ. קָשֶׁה לִכְעֹס וְקָשֶׁה לִרְצוֹת, יָצָא הֶפְסֵדוֹ בִשְׂכָרוֹ. קָשֶׁה לִכְעֹס וְנוֹחַ לִרְצוֹת, חָסִיד. נוֹחַ לִכְעֹס וְקָשֶׁה לִרְצוֹת, רָשָׁע:

        In our discussion of Avos 4:18, we discussed the Arizal’s belief that anger is among the most damaging emotions.  It fragments families and friendships. brings division to society, and, carried to an extreme, alienates a person from the spiritual resources that enable communication with HaShem.  This mishnah evaluates four typical ways of handling anger.

        What is the situation of a person who blows up instantly but can speedily be calmed down?  According to this mishnah, the virtue of his easy appeasement is wasted by the fact the he so easily gets into a funk.  The constant tension of being around such a person puts everyone on edge and, ultimately, drives people away. Things are a bit different with a person who is mostly even-tempered but, when he DOES lose it, needs a lot of time to cool down.  His virtue of cheerfulness is something people keep in mind during his few moments of anger.  And they’ll put up with his lengthy return to good spirits, knowing that they can rely on him to keep his temper in check.

        Some versions of this mishnah - including one that Rambam used and those found in many Askenazic siddurim - reverse these two judgements.  That is, they say that the person who is easy to anger and easy to appease has the advantage, since his frequent flare-ups don’t last very long.  By contrast, the mild-mannered person who takes a long time to get over his occasional moments of anger will drive away those attempting to calm him.

        Rabbi Ovadiah of Bertinura and Shlomo Adeni, the seventeenth-century author of the Melekhes Shlomo, argue that this alternate version of the mishnah is unreliable and that the correct reading is the one we have translated.  Their judgement is confirmed by Rabbenu Simkha, a student of Rashi’s, who included this version of the mishnah in the text of Avos that he included in his Makhzor Vitri.  The Makhzor Vitri is one of the earliest written copies of the version of the siddur we now call nusakh Ashkenaz.  So I’m puzzled that many Ashkenazic nuskhos disagree.  I’m happy to report that the version of Avos in nusakh Arizal, used by Chabad, has the correct reading!

        The last two ways of managing anger are self-evident, no?

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