Get Ready To Be Born: Flip Over “Head Down”

The Jewish Holidays Are Steps of Spiritual AscentWhen I build a Sukkah above me – a covering for my egoism, and when I hide my egoism in its shade, I conceal 99% of my desires to enjoy from the Light,  and I am then able to see 1% of the Light. I leave just one thin ray of Light (Kav Dak), and in it, I see the Creator. I then begin to gradually reveal new inner qualities that are illuminated by this ray, which are called Ushpizin – Guests. These are my corrected qualities, which have been attached to bestowal.

That is how gradually, over the course of seven days of Sukkoth, all my qualities undergo a change. I realize that besides the studies and many other activities I have to do, I was supposed to unite with other souls, but somehow I always forgot about this. It just always seemed unimportant, like the garbage or leftovers of my spiritual work.

But if I raise the importance of these “unnecessary things” above all else, above my own head or knowledge, and if I make them important by building a “ceiling” from them that will rule over me, then inside this tent, I will be like an embryo that is preparing for birth and turning upside down. By flipping over into a “head down” position, I change my values.

I am then able to enter the Sukkah – the covering for my will to enjoy. This is a covering that a person builds over his own egoism, instead of the Creator having to conceal Himself from the person.

The Sukkah, the canopy that we build on the holiday of Sukkoth, symbolizes the concealment (screen) that a person has to build over his desire at the first stage of the spiritual work. He does it by collecting all the “leftovers” and raising them above him, thus pacifying his ego. Now his ego is in concealment and he is ready to sit (to be in a state of smallness) in this Sukkah for all seven days of Sukkoth (designated HaGaT NeHY), until all his desires will come under that canopy.

What takes place there is a revolution, similar to how a baby turns head down in the mother’s womb preparing for birth, or like the earth is ploughed by turning its lower layer inside out and bringing it to the top. This means that the things that used to be important for egoism now lose their importance, while the things that were unimportant – bestowal and unity – become the most important. That is how the leftovers of the previous state are used to build the new level. In this manner, we use the Light to build one level after another out of our desires.

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