Rebbetzin Leah Gans
The Chofetz Chaim tells the following parable:
“A man hired a carter with a cart to transport his goods. They loaded everything onto the cart and set off. The steady motion made the carter drowsy, and he fell asleep. The horse, sensing that no one was urging it on, wandered off the road to nibble some grass. One of the cart’s wheels fell into a hole, the cart tilted, and all the goods tumbled onto the ground. The owner of the goods began shouting and scolding the carter: ‘How could you fall asleep on the job? Didn’t I entrust my goods to you?!’ The carter replied: ‘But my horse is so clever and quick-witted! I relied on it!’”
Can a horse be considered clever? Especially when there is lush green grass nearby?
Our body wants to be like the “clever horse”: to be urged on as little as possible and to graze freely. And if the load falls off along the way—well, what can you do?
A person who does not rein in his anger, allowing it to govern him, resembles a carter who lets his horse take him wherever it pleases. The fact that those around us suffer, that our careless behavior may have broken something important to them, matters less and less to us.