Anger has a bad reputation in both religious and secular life. Religion often warns that anger can lead us toward sin. Contemporary culture frequently treats it as something to manage, suppress, or “let go.” We praise people for staying calm and worry about those who lose their temper. There are good reasons for this. Anger can frighten people. It can destroy trust. It can make cruelty feel righteous. But anger is not itself the problem.

Sometimes anger is the appropriate response to betrayal, injustice, humiliation, or harm. The moral question is not whether we become angry. It is what we do once anger arrives.

Parashat Ha’azinu, Deuteronomy 32:1–52, is filled with anger. Moses’s final song describes a relationship between God and Israel damaged by betrayal. God cared for Israel “as an eagle who rouses its nestlings,” protecting and sustaining the people (Deuteronomy 32:10–14). Then prosperity produces estrangement. “Jeshurun grew fat and kicked.” Israel “forsook the God who made him” (32:15–18).

The language is relational. Someone gave love, loyalty, and protection and received betrayal in return. For years, I wrestled badly with anger. I could feel it welling up........

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