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

Related Material:
Sukkot: Adhesion With A Single “Embrace”
Temporary Residence Under The Open Sky
Sukkot–The Symbol Of The Corrected Kli

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