תינח מתו אלא חמתו אחמתו קשיא חמתו אחמתו נמי לא קשיא הא ר' יהודה הא ר"ש הא ר' יהודה דאמר מלאכה שאין צריכה לגופה חייב עליה הא ר"ש דאמר מלאכה שאין צריכה לגופה פטור עליה
— This holds good only if he was not a Sage. But [even] if he was [merely] a worthy man, one is indeed bound [to rend his garments]? For it was taught: Why do a man's sons and daughters die in childhood? So that he may weep and mourn for a worthy man? 'So that he may weep' — is a pledge taken!<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' For the future surely not!
');"><sup>12</sup></span> But because he did not weep and mourn for a worthy man, for whoever weeps for a worthy man is forgiven all his iniquities on account of the honour which he showed him! — This holds good only if he was not a worthy man. But if he stood [there] at the parting of the soul<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., at the moment of death.
');"><sup>13</sup></span>
Shaarei Kedusha
We may now understand why our sages, of blessed memory, said, “When a person loses his temper, it is as if he is actually worshiping strange gods” – which is a negation of all 613 mitzvoth of the Torah! Furthermore, they said, “Whosoever has a haughty spirit is likened to one who denies the fundamental truth of G-d’s existence. He is worthy of being cut down like an Asherah grove. There are many such quotes. Contemplate this greatly and consider that since the character traits are root causes and fundamental characteristics embedded in the natural soul, they are not counted amongst the 613 mitzvoth that depend on the intellectual soul. We, therefore, find that greater caution must be taken to safeguard oneself from bad character traits, than even from fulfilling the positive mitzvoth or desisting from committing the negative mitzvoth. This is because if a person possesses good character traits, he will not find it difficult to fulfill all the mitzvoth.
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