קבלה על שבת 210:2

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 grove²¹This was a grove used for the ancient idolatry of tree worship.. 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.