He and many rabbinic scholars are even reinterpreting the biblical term for jealousy, kinah, to express the emotion more vividly. Clinical social worker David Reinstein agrees with that description. Living with constant envy of others breeds anger and rage, he says. People with no useful way to express that anger turn it back on themselves. Feelings of intense jealousy and envy, he notes, often mark the first free-fall in a downward spiral toward anger, a sense of helplessness and, finally, clinical depression.
Therapists point to a wide distribution of jealous feelings, ranging from normal to pathological.
According to Reinstein, jealousy at the healthier end of the continuum can be an important opportunity to clarify one's own goals. It can be a real cue about how to direct yourself. The therapist, who teaches at Lehrhaus Judaica and lectures on the crossover between psychology and Judaism, says the story of Saul offers an extreme example of what happens when jealousy isn't checked. In contrast to the mostly violent outcome of male jealousy in the Torah, however, Frankel refers to Leah and Rebekah, two sisters who competed for the love of Jacob but never came to blows. They had to share their love of Jacob, an emotionally impossible thing to ask sisters to do, but they do it.