Question: During Sukkot, we must strengthen our strength of purpose and focus on it. Does this mean that the exchange of Reshimot (spiritual records) must reach its peak during this period?

Answer: We still have to go through many states. In principle, these states should serve only to connect us for the sake of one goal. In other words, we need only think: “We are all together—toward the Creator!” That is all. This is the only thing. That is why we chose our slogan: “We are all one Kli!”

If we constantly think about this and focus on it, then I hope that many will feel it clearly, while the rest will feel it subtly. This will be a sensation of being “above the Machsom.” It will create the conditions within us that will enable us to advance further, at least during the coming months until Passover. Or perhaps at Passover we will add something more (some now and others later), but it will be a group on an entirely different level.

Everything has been given to us for this purpose. We see how all of it comes to us from above. We even feel how we are being pulled. Whether we want it or not, today we are already being regarded above as people fulfilling their duty. And if we speak about what it means to be the chosen people, we can say that we are the chosen people. We have been chosen today (and this is what “being chosen” means) in order to raise ourselves and then raise everyone else.

There are people who, practically speaking, are capable and ready today, have exerted sufficient effort, and can at least sense these states, pass through them, and then, after some time, actually realize them.

There can be no leaps. Everything depends on how much you accelerate the events. In any case, you must pass through everything; otherwise, you will not have a Kli. You must scrutinize everything, feel it, and live through it inwardly. Of course, it is possible to live through this in a second. There are states in which a single second already gives you an impression.

But you must pass through all these states. Therefore, those who have more or less passed through them are ready today, while the others will sense them from a distance and imagine them.
[362129]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/25/26

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Holidays, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

After Yom Kippur and before the beginning of Sukkot, there is a preparation for correction that begins on the first day of the holiday of Sukkot. During Sukkot, we build a special, unique, somewhat auxiliary Kli (vessel) for ourselves. That is why we sit in a hut, a Sukkah, which we build from specific natural materials.

The walls do not matter much, because we erect them artificially. But the roof must be made from what is called “Psolet, Goren ve Yekev,” the refuse of vineyards, fields, and plantations: straw, hay, palm branches, or similar vegetation.

This is not merely a custom. All of this is based on spiritual roots. A person builds a temporary dwelling for seven days because at this point only the ZAT, only the VAK, only part of our soul, the egoistic desire, is being corrected. The correction of the remaining three higher Sefirot, Keter, Hochma, and Binah, will be added on Purim, when we arrive at Purim through Hanukkah.

What is Purim? It is the reception of the entire light into a completely corrected Kli. It corresponds to Gmar Tikkun, the final correction and fulfillment. In contrast to this, when the Kli is completely empty but ready for correction, there is a state “like Purim,” “Ki Purim,” which is Kippur, Yom Kippur.

During Sukkot, for seven days we gather in the shack, which is made according to special rules and specifications. In the Talmud, which was written in the third century CE, there is an entire tractate devoted to this subject, aptly named Sukkah. When the Temple was destroyed, in order that people would not forget how to observe the laws, everything was recorded by the sages of the Great Assembly (Anshei Knesset HaGedolah).

There was such an assembly consisting of seventy great Kabbalists. It was a kind of supreme institution called Knesset HaGedola. “Knesset” means an assembly, while “Gedola” comes from the word “great,” from the word “Hochma”. This means “great” not in width, which corresponds to Binah, but in height, which corresponds to Hochma.

They wrote down and specified what the Sukkah should be like and the internal state it corresponds to. The tractate says that the distance between the walls must not exceed three handbreadths (Shlosha Tefachim).

Why? Because when Reshimot emerge from the Kli, when the Kli receives and then the light exits it, this light ascends to the upper and manifests in the lower. Then it rises even higher and manifests again in the lower, but the third time it is no longer felt at all. In other words, when passing to the third level, the connection between the lower and the upper completely disappears. Therefore, a distance greater than three Tefachim is forbidden.

Thus, in our world we have a reflection of how a person prepares such a Kli within himself in which there is no interruption of more than three levels between the exiting and entering lights. In other words, a person wants by every possible means to remain connected with the light. Under these conditions, he builds his inner Kli and begins to receive the surrounding light (Ohr Makif) into it.

This Ohr Makif shines upon him throughout seven stages, while it purifies within him the seven Sefirot: Hesed, Gevura, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. Therefore, each evening, while sitting in the Sukkah, we say: “Today we invite Abraham into our Sukkah,” because Abraham corresponds to Hesed, this is his quality. “Today we invite Moses into the Sukkah, Joseph… David.”

In other words, each day corresponds to a particular spiritual degree, a particular spiritual quality that we are correcting in our soul. This is what each day of the holiday of Sukkot symbolizes.

By correcting all these seven Sefirot during the holiday of Sukkot, we receive only VAK, a small illumination of the light of Hochma. This is the light that can exist in a Kli that is not yet completely corrected.

Then, after Sukkot, on the eighth day, the remaining light enters us. This is called Simchat Torah , “Rejoicing of the Torah.” It is called rejoicing because when one drinks wine (Ohr Hochma), the light of Hochma enters. “Torah” comes from the word “Ohr,” “light,” or Ora, “illumination,” the general light that fills the Kli.
[362097]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/25/26

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: We have said that a person’s work for the Creator is something imagined. Then what does the article “There is None Else Besides Him” mean when it says that everything that happens to a person comes from the Creator?

Answer: When talking about spiritual work, we say that at best we raise MAN upwards. But even in corporeal work, all our desires rise upward.

For example, I am thirsty. This desire is sensed above. If something hurts, even the unconscious desire for it to stop hurting rises up too.

What does “rises up” mean? It is connected to the Creator, since in essence, all desires, all pains, and all causes of something good or bad come from Him. Even before something happens to me, He sends it. Therefore, He automatically feels my reaction. He caused it, and He knows in advance how I will react.

As a result of my reaction, a mechanism activates that affects me again and causes a new response to the previous one. I get different signals from Him all the time, and I always react to them somehow, whether consciously or not, whether I think it came from Him or not. I am constantly receiving some kind of influences from Him that pass through me. That is how I grow and advance.

I feel some things intensely and others less so. There are things I directly attribute to the Creator and there are things I am unsure if they came from Him, or I simply do not think about them. I begin to add intention to some influences and perceive them as coming from Him for my benefit, but sometimes I cannot justify Him and think He is bad.

When do I think He is bad? When I disagree with what is happening and start shouting back, “Why are You doing this to me?” The righteous agrees with everything that comes from above. He has been corrected so much that he is similar in form to what comes from the Creator and always feels goodness.

It is known that “There is None Else Besides Him,” and everything happening to me now comes from Him; whether I react or not does not matter. Everything that happens to me now and until the end of correction (Gmar Tikun), the entire system works automatically.

We say that nothing changes in the actual events. “The world follows its course.” You have a path, and you must go through all the actions from this moment to the end of correction because your Kelim (vessels) are broken and must be gradually corrected until everything is completely corrected. The only thing up to you is the intention you add to what is happening, how you feel about what you are going through.

This is precisely our work: to be righteous and justify everything that happens to us. To the extent you can justify these actions, you move past them. But if you cannot justify something, you linger in that state until you gradually understand it more deeply, with all the causes and effects. But as soon as you can justify it, you will immediately move on to the next action, to the next state.
[361752]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Every Day They Will Be as New in Your Eyes,’ in the Work?”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

A person is constantly influenced by society and reality as a whole ,the universe and their surroundings. At the same time, one must constantly strive to connect the three points together: I, the Creator, and my actions (my present state), as if they form a unified whole.

The balance between the right and left lines needs to be reestablished every minute, renewed at every moment. In fact, you can never simply be in a state of balance. Spirituality is a constantly changing substance.

There are no moment in spirituality where you can reach a point and say to yourself, “Ah! That is it, I’m done!” There is no such thing. If you utter that “Ah!”, then you are already no longer in the state that you had attained. In order to find the strength to remain in balance, you need a group.
[360523]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/26, Rabash, “What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work?”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Towers, pyramids, mausoleums—all of these are necessary; people need them.

Question: Even though they all deteriorate and will inevitably fall apart?

Answer: Yes, but in the meantime, we keep building them.

Question: Why is this urge within us?

Answer: We need this symbol. We are building a home for our egoism.

Question: So we need a symbol that we can constantly worship. Is this what is meant by “worshipping other gods”?

Answer: Yes. They may be temples; they may be pyramids; it doesn’t matter what form they take.

Question: When will we stop building them? When will we reach that stage?

Answer: Only when the Creator is revealed to us.

Comment: Lately you keep coming back to this very point, again and again.

My Response:What else could there be?!

Comment: At the same time, we don’t know when He will be revealed.

My Response: We don’t know, but this is the only way it can happen. It will completely encompass all our dreams, plans, our future—everything! In other words, when He is revealed to us, we will understand that all of this was complete nonsense and that we built all these things for nothing.

Question: You said that the Creator is mercy, that He is always goodness, love, and so on. Why, then, is this mercy so harsh? Why does it take so long? Why has blood been shed for centuries? Wars have continued for centuries, yet He still does not reveal Himself. Why?

Answer: He reveals Himself under certain conditions! What do you want from Him?! He must be revealed in a state of absolute unity between Him and humanity. But that unity does not exist. And so far, there has not even been any real movement toward it.

Question: Do you mean absolute unity among people themselves?

Answer: No, with people, the Creator’s unity with people.

Question: The unity of the Creator with people? Under what conditions can that happen?

Answer: If we become similar to Him in our qualities. In other words, if we become like Him, He will be revealed.
[360156]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 7/31/26

Filed under: Egoism, News | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 250

How Do We Distinguish Between a Klipa and the Recognition of Evil?

We distinguish everything according to the way the light illuminates us.

From a Talk on the Article “What Are Holiness and Purity, in the Work?” 6/17/2002.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 249
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 248
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 247

Filed under: Talks about the Steps of the Ladder | Add Comment / Ask Question →

After Yom Kippur, we essentially build our attitude toward the light so that it will begin to correct us. Preparation for perceiving the light continues from Yom Kippur until the beginning of Sukkot.

Before Yom Kippur, we have ten special days called the “Ten Days of Return,” when all of egoism becomes structured according to ten levels, into ten Sefirot. Each Sefira, each level, under the influence of this light from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, directs itself in such a way that it reaches Malchut. Malchut is the last, tenth Sefira, which feels completely isolated and opposite to the light. This is Yom Kippur, the tenth day.

These days are called the “Ten Days of Return” or the “Days of Judgment.” A person judges himself: Who is he, what is he, and in what way and what has he done with himself? He begins to pray and ask for correction through this light.
[362094]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/25/26

Related Material:
Days Of Atonement
Yom Kippur—The Revelation Of Egoism
Yom Kippur: Universal Joy Or Grief?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: By meticulously observing all the laws of the Sukkah, don’t we resemble idol worshippers?

Answer: You are asking: “If I work on the material observance of the commandment—building and decorating a Sukkah and carefully performing the rituals associated with the holiday—am I not violating the prohibition, ‘Do not make for yourself graven images or likenesses?’ In other words, am I becoming more attached to matter than to the spirit?”

For me, it is important not to become more attached to matter than to the spiritual, but to see in material objects only hints of the spiritual. It is important that these hints awaken questions in me about spirituality. How should I act internally toward the Creator regarding my inner qualities? If this is indeed what happens, then I am using the material expression of the spiritual correctly—branches and the literal meaning (Pshat)—for my personal spiritual advancement.

But if I really forget about the spiritual aspect of the commandment, about advancing through it, and about the connection between the material action and the spiritual intention that makes spiritual ascent possible, then indeed I have simply built a beautiful Sukkah, covered it with a beautiful roof, and sit in it, eating and drinking without thinking about spirituality at all.

I would not say that this is graven image or likeness or something forbidden, but in any case, the benefit is minimal. Perhaps at some point I will nevertheless develop a desire to attain the state of Sukkah in the spiritual sense—to build it within myself.

As Ibn Ezra writes, all the commandments were given to us not in order to “make idols,” but to correct the heart. If a person relates to willow branches, the etrog, the Schach, and so forth as attributes symbolizing the correction of the heart, wishing through them to connect a little more with the inner meaning and grasp the hints conveyed by these “branches,” then he truly sanctifies this world as well. The entire world acquires meaning for him.

But this applies only to those who use everything in this world for spiritual advancement.

Some people think that we are opposed to the mechanical observance of commandments. No, we are not opposed to physical actions at all. It is true that the importance of physical actions is somewhat diminished for us because we constantly think and work on how to fulfill these commandments in the spiritual, inner sphere, and carry them out within the person himself.

But when a person is already completely filled with the desire to perform a spiritual action and attain fulfillment of the commandment in its true meaning, then material things do not hinder him at all. On the contrary, they help him return to his intention again and again. He finds all kinds of nuances and pleasant elements in them that connect him with the same idea.

There are things that people often neglect. At the beginning, there may be periods when a person pays almost no attention to the material world or to carrying out physical actions. Later, everything, so to speak, returns to its proper place. This will come; there is no need to worry.

We should be more concerned about what we do not fulfill spiritually, which is a matter of bestowing upon the Creator. As for the material side, that will come. It is desirable to try to do these things in parallel—in the spiritual and material realms—although, in reality, one or the other occasionally falters.
[362084]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/26/26

Related Material:
The Distinction Between Spiritual and Physical Actions
Physical And Spiritual Conversion
Performing Mitzvot Both Externally And Internally

Filed under: Commandments, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Comment: Baal HaSulam writes that the commandment of the Sukkah symbolizes faith, and therefore stands above all the other commandments. On the other hand, we learn that the commandment “love your neighbor as yourself” is the one that transcends all other commandments.

My Response: Neither the commandment of Sukkah nor the commandment “love your neighbor as yourself” goes beyond all the other commandments. They include them within themselves. If it seems to you that this commandment is something greater, then it would appear as though there are 613 commandments, and the last of them is greater than all the others.

No, this commandment includes all the others, but is not an additional commandment, an additional action. It is an action that manifests as the sum of all the previous actions.

For example, suppose you have a cucumber, a tomato, an onion, dill, and parsley. You chop everything, and you get a salad. The salad is something new, but is there really anything new in it? There is nothing other than the combination of components that already existed.

The same principle underlies the commandment “love your neighbor as yourself” (the great rule of the Torah) or the commandment of the “Sukkah” as a synthesis of all the commandments. Combine all the commandments and you will get the Sukkah.
[362089]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/26/26

Related Material:
Commandments Dictated By the Upper Force
Love As The Law Of Nature
Warm Waves Of The Sukkot Holiday

Filed under: Commandments, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Why is fulfilling the commandment of Sukkah equivalent to all the other commandments? It is because the Sukkah symbolizes faith, and faith is the screen and reflected light through which a person can perform the commandments. Bestowal upon the Creator (Hashpa’ah) is called a commandment (Mitzvah), equivalence with the Creator is called a commandment, adhesion (Dvekut) with the Creator is called a commandment.

A commandment is working with the desire to receive for the sake of bestowal, which is possible only according to the measure of the screen and reflected light.

Therefore, Rabash says that all those who betray faith receive a curse. That is, one who is unable to work with the intention for the sake of bestowal, who has neither a screen nor reflected light, has no faith, and then instead of a blessing, he receives a curse.

Conversely, those who preserve their faith will face no obstacles. Therefore, the main thing is to work on maintaining faith and ensuring that faith prevails over reason.

Thus, one must always be concerned with the intention to bring contentment to the Creator, so that only the magnitude of the intention to bestowa becomes the magnitude of the Kli (vessel) with which the person works.
[362069]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/26/26

Related Material:
“I Sat Down Under His Shadow With Great Delight…”
Sukkot: Adhesion With A Single “Embrace”
Let Us Meet In The Sukkah Of Peace

Filed under: Commandments, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →