Moses got angry. God got angry. The 13 Attributes say that God is slow to anger. Some translations say patient. It is OK to be angry. It is even OK to be angry with God. In fact, Dannel I Shwatrz in his book Finding Joy has an entire chapter on Getting Through the Pain where he talks about how to channel anger. In some cases, if harnessed, anger can make us more effective. Mayyim Hayyim in their fabulous resource for cancer patients, Blessings for the Journey, talks about this difficult topic rather than sweeping it under the rug. The question becomes how do we use our anger. Can we use it for good? Or do we become bitter? What do you do when you become angry?

Moses smashed the first set of commandments. And yet, and yet, life continues. Yet, out of the smashing, the destruction of the tablets of the 10 Commandments, hope arises. A midrash tells us that the Israelites gathered up the broken pieces of the smashed tablets. Eventually they put the pieces in the ark together with the new set. As Estelle Frankel said in her book, Sacred Therapy, “Sometimes we learn to appreciate life’s gifts only after we have lost them.” Ultimately, Frankel concludes, “the whole and the broken live side by side in us all, as our broken dreams and shattered visions exist alongside our actual lives.” What are the dreams that you have that you have not realized yet? How do we hold onto the beauty of our youthful, idealized dreams while maintaining the more mature, realistic ones?