 he judges reality and others critically, with severe judgment (the “evil eye”). This is the nature of one who is spiritually immature. Dan is likened to a snake, who bites with the venom of anger. The “evil eye” is the eye of the snake.
The rectification of Dan is his engaging in the battle of holy anger against evil anger. Our sages teach us that only one from the soul-root of Dan can spontaneously jump up and kill the evil snake–“one like him, killed him.”
Nachash (“snake”) = 358 = Mashiach. The holy power of Dan reflects a spark of Mashiach. In the Zohar we are taught that the commander-in-chief of the army of Mashiach will come from the tribe of Dan.
The sense of holy anger, or righteous indignation (the rectification of the month of Tevet) is the ability of the soul to arouse one’s good inclination to become angry at one’s evil inclination. This our sages teach us in their commentary on the verse in Psalms: “Be angry and don’t sin.”
Positive anger expresses the deepest care and concern of the soul that reality become good. Though even to this anger there is a certain element of immaturity (for absolute maturity, that of the Creator of reality, sees [with the ayin of Tevet] all as good), nonetheless, of it is said: “for Israel is [behaves as] a lad, and [therefore] I [G-d] love him.”
In Chassidut we are taught that one must direct his left (“evil”) eye towards himself (with the holy anger of his innate good against his innate evil), to lower and subdue his ego, while simultaneously directing his right (“good”) eye towards outer reality (by which power he helps reality perfect itself).
The sages teach us that “the liver is angry.” The function of the liver [kaved, in Hebrew] is to purify the blood with which it is saturated. In Kabbalah, the liver corresponds to the primordial snake, whose rectification is personified by Dan. (The three “rulers” of the body and soul are the brain, the heart, and the liver, which correspond to Adam, Eve, and the snake, respectively).
The snake, in Kabbalah, represents the initial state of immaturity of the soul, as characterized by the unrectified attribute of anger. The venom of the snake is hot (see above, the month of Cheshvan), like the fire of anger. When converted to the good, the fire (and blood of the liver) serve to warm the cold month of Tevet.
Kaved = 26 = Havayah. This reflects the secret mentioned above, that the sum of the four months which “fast” over the destruction of the Temple (by the venom of the primordial snake), which culminate in Tevet, together equal 26. By fasting over the destruction one rectifies one’s liver–mellows one’s anger–and thereby “sweetens” the anger of G-d (with Israel, the cause of the destruction) and arouses the mercy of Havayah to rebuild the Temple.
Other Hebrew Months: Nisan | Iyar | Sivan | Tamuz | Av | Elul | Tishrei | Cheshvan | Kislev | Tevet | Shevat | Adar