New Life 440 – The Sukkah In The Heart
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe
What does the Sukkah and its special structure symbolize? What is the meaning of the lights and shadows that are typical of this holiday, and what does it mean to build the Sukkah in the heart?
The Creator [1] is the general force of all of reality and He is absolute love and bestowal. Every natural phenomenon is felt only after a person prepares the right sense for it. The Creator is the force of love and bestowal. If there is a little bit of love and bestowal in me, I will feel Him. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the wisdom of absorption and of how to tune ourselves to the same wavelength as the Creator.
The covering of the Sukkah symbolizes the Masach (screen [2]), meaning that I don’t want to receive this illumination for my own pleasure but for the correction. The soul is not in the Sukkah that we build in the yard, of course, but it is our desire that is aimed at bestowal. How can we aim our desire at bestowal unto others? By the Lights, the forces of correction, called Ushpizin.
The four varieties (used in Sukkot [3]) represent the four parts of the soul, י-ה-ו-ה – Yod – Hey – Vav – Hey. The etrog (citron) is very important since it represents the Sefira of Malchut, the foundation of our creation. We hold the four varieties together and move them from side to side. Other than the external custom, we also have to move the soul from side to side.
In addition to the custom of building a Sukkah in the yard, we also have to build a Sukkah around our heart. That’s the main thing.
Developing our love and bestowal, just like the Creator’s, is called building a Sukkah around my soul. Seven Sefirot separate me from my next state. Sefirot are the levels of the correction of the soul. The covering of the Sukkah symbolizes the fact that I don’t want to receive the abundance for my own pleasure but so that it will correct me. After Sukkot, Simchat Torah, and Chanukah comes Purim, the end of correction, when everything is permitted.
Building a Sukkah in the heart is establishing the conditions for our desire and our intention to be corrected to love and bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 440 – The Sukkah In The Heart,“ 10/2/14
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