Virtues

Gevurah

Jewish Middot

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Gevurah." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/virtues/gevurah-might.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Gevurah. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/virtues/gevurah-might

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-gevurah,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Gevurah},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/virtues/gevurah-might},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Self-mastery over one's own impulses, counted among the classical rabbinic middot as a strength greater than physical or military power. Ben Zoma's teaching in Pirkei Avot 4:1 asks who is mighty and answers that it is the one who conquers his own inclination, citing Proverbs 16:32, one slow to anger is better than a mighty man, and one who rules over his own spirit than one who takes a city. This entry is the rabbinic ethical trait itself, distinct from the atlas's existing Fortitude, whose account is drawn from Plato, Ambrose and Aquinas, and from Gevurah as a sephirah on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, a separate later mystical reading of the same word this atlas records in its existing Tree of Life material.

Facts

Origins

Place of Origin

Roman-era Judea, the Land of Israel. 1

Origin of the Name

Hebrew gevurah, might or strength, from the root gimel-bet-resh, to be strong; the same root gives gibor, a mighty or heroic person. 1

Attributed Author / Compiler

Ben Zoma, a second century tannaitic sage, in Pirkei Avot 4:1, defining true might as self-mastery rather than physical strength, quoting Proverbs 16:32. 1

Language

Hebrew 1

Status

Status Within the Tradition

Standard teaching, not formally defined 1

Doctrinal Status Detail

One of four paired questions Ben Zoma poses in Pirkei Avot 4:1, who is wise, who is mighty, who is rich, who is honored, each answered by redefining a conventional measure of standing as an inward, ethical one; self-mastery over one's own inclination redefines might away from physical or military strength. 1

Attestation

Meaning in the Attesting Source

Might redefined as self-mastery: the strength to conquer one's own inclination rather than to conquer others. 1

Disputed

Origin Period

Pirkei Avot reached its final form as part of the Mishnah compiled around 200 CE, though its sayings, attributed to named tannaitic sages across several generations, are held to have circulated earlier in oral form; Ben Zoma is traditionally placed in the late first and early second centuries CE. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Gevurah's own proof text, Proverbs 16:32 as quoted in Pirkei Avot 4:1, names being slow to anger as the mark of true might; Wrath, already catalogued among the seven deadly sins, is the atlas's existing entry for that disposition, textually the closest fit rather than an approximation.

Source The Mishnah: A New TranslationJacob Neusner, trans.