Audio Version Of The Blog – 12/31/24
Posted on December 31st, 2024
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Question: Why is Hanukkah considered a children’s holiday?
Answer: Hanukkah is indeed considered a children’s holiday, as is Purim, which is even more of a children’s holiday.
During Hanukkah, children light candles, eat donuts, and sing songs. Each one can have their own menorah. The holiday is considered a children’s holiday because it symbolizes the beginning of a person’s ascent on spiritual steps.
Our entire spiritual work is like play, akin to that of a child, because we are constantly working on correcting ourselves. The forward movement and ascent from one step to another resemble the growth of a child.
Purim is an even greater holiday when we ascend very high spiritual levels toward complete correction. These are unimaginable steps that have never realized in our world!
We lived at the “Hanukkah” level 2,000 years ago during the time of the Maccabees, and even earlier for nearly a 1,000 years from entering the land of Israel until losing it. After leaving Egypt, we began to attain the attributes of Hanukkah during the 40 years of wandering in the desert.
As for the attribute of Purim, we attempted to reach it during the period of the First Temple, but quickly fell from this level.
Purim is a very high holiday yet to come! We must not only return to it but create it, for it does not yet exist in us, we must bring it into being. This is why it is considered even more childlike.
During Purim, children and adults dress in costumes, and adults drink wine, which is encouraged and considered a significant commandment. Purim represents the forgiveness of all sins because one achieves the fulfillment of the ultimate commandment: love.
If Hanukkah represents good mutual connection between us, then Purim symbolizes love, the attainment of the complete correction of all souls.
We should see ourselves as children who are constantly growing. A person who is growing is called a child.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/24, KabTV’s “The Kabbalistic Meaning of Hanukkah”
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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 34
How Should We Relate to Feelings?
It is written that the purpose of creation is “to do good to His creations.” It means that the goal is to experience pleasures, to feel goodness and benefit. Our path involves correcting the vessels of sensation, which are designed for enjoyment. However, until we complete our work and reach the end of correction, we must constantly monitor our feelings to avoid being misled.
As long as we lack a spiritual screen (Masach), following our sensations can lead to excessive use of the desire to enjoy for oneself. Therefore, we must constantly supervise ourselves to make sure that we use the desire to enjoy correctly; otherwise, we cannot escape the vessels of reception.
We cannot determine the validity of something solely based on good or bad feelings. For example, according to an analogy of Baal HaSulam, a person with a boil might enjoy scratching it, but the process ultimately leads to infection and death.
Until all corrections are completed—both in this world and on spiritual levels—we must not, even for a moment, abandon the guidance of reason and its connection to the purpose of creation: “What is happening to me now? What am I doing?”
The sole exception is acting with a clear intention to break free from all definitions and order, to “lose oneself” as in the Purim celebration. Even then, this must be done deliberately, as otherwise it holds no benefit. One cannot completely forgo supervision.
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Question: How can one come to the correct action without intention?
Answer: Without intention there are no correct actions.
Question: Then how can I come out of the state where the evil inclination says that there is no sense in doing something, that it is all useless and may seemingly harm?
Answer: In this case you should leave your efforts, join the ten and participate with them in their actions.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/24, Writings of Rabash “Jacob Sent”
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Question: What does it mean that we acquire a screen?
Answer: It means that together we are capable of working for the sake of bestowal, helping one another, and thinking about the Creator.
Question: But we are already trying to work for the sake of bestowal, helping one another.
Answer: Yes, we are trying. But to what extent we succeed is unknown to us.
Question: And what does it mean that we have a screen?
Answer: It means that we can bestow.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/24, Writings of Rabash “Delight Them with a Complete Building – 2”
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Question: You said we should have a serious, working, spiritual connection with each other. Can you explain every word: what does serious mean, what does working mean, and what does spiritual connection mean?
Answer: One should have a serious, spiritual, and working connection with the friends in his ten.
Serious—because he puts all his desires into it and believes this is the most critical and vital thing.
Working—because he is willing to work with these desires, deficiencies, and aspirations. And spiritual—because it is all about reaching the next level, the quality of bestowal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”
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Question: The realization that “There is none else besides Him” has brought me to the state where I analyze any event in my life from this point of view and try to find out for what purpose it is happening to me. As a result, I exist in such analysis all the time. Is this normal?
Answer: The best analysis of our states is one where I recall that “There is none else besides Him” and I position myself only in relation to this state. This way, I chose my next step.
With regard to “There is none else besides Him” I have to constantly be in analysis. In addition, in all my thoughts, desires, in any state, I have to understand that the Creator inputs everything that I have in me. Now that I have established that the Creator has instilled everything in me, my reaction to what is happening—this will be me.
Of course, in the beginning, it triggers an automatic, animalistic reaction within me even if I have understood that all this comes from the Creator.
But then later on comes a spiritual reaction, but only in the case if I am connected with the group and together with them I work out my reaction for any states. This is already a conscious reaction at the level of human (Adam).
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Is None Else Besides Him”
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In every beginning a person must start over the acceptance of the kingdom of heaven (Rabash, Article 6, 1991, What Is, “The Herdsmen of Abram’s Cattle and the Herdsmen of Lot’s Cattle,” in the Work?).
At every moment in time, even if we are connected to the Creator and feel that everything is directed by Him and originates from Him, whether it be inanimate, vegetative, animate, or human nature, I must remember that all four types of nature are perceived within my four-layered desire, known as HaVaYaH or Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey.
Ultimately, everything I perceive, I perceive as coming from the Creator.
In everything that happens to me, I must accept the “kingdom of heaven,” meaning that it comes directly from the Creator—how I perceive it, how it fills me and shapes my perception of the world into a specific image, and how I relate to it.
For this reason, every acceptance of the kingdom of heaven is considered a new discernment. That is, now he receives a part of the vacant space that was devoid of the kingdom of heaven, and admits that empty place and fills it with the kingdom of heaven, i.e., with his feelings, knowledge, strength, desires, and intentions. In doing so, he adds the source to his perception of the world.
It follows that now he sorted out a new thing, which did not exist before he took that empty place and filled it with the kingdom of heaven. He fills his world with His authority, as he realizes that the Creator is within the picture of this world and desires for him to perceive it and feel it this way. There is nothing that cannot be attributed to the Creator.
This is regarded as elevating a new spark into the Kedusha, meaning he took yet another aspect of his experience in the world and attributed it to the Creator. The essence of our work is to continually relate everything we feel, perceive, think, and understand to the Creator. From there, all progress continues within this framework.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”
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When the evil inclination brings us foreign thoughts, this is the time to take these thoughts and raise them above reason. [Meaning to rise above them.]
This is something one can do with everything one’s soul desires. He should not say that now he has received rejection from the work. [Or that he has been led astray.] Rather, he should say that he was given thoughts and desires, [which have now come to him] from above so as to have room to admit them into Kedusha (holiness). [And, through them, we establish a connection with the Creator, who sends us these distracting thoughts and desires.] (Rabash, Article 22, “The Whole of the Torah Is One Holy Name”)
Therefore, it turns out that a person is brought closer to spirituality through foreign thoughts and various desires unrelated to spirituality: food, sex, family, work, studies, hobbies, anything and everything.
One must simply accept all of this as necessary for existence and reject nothing. We are prohibited from vows of celibacy, fasting, and the like—nothing of the sort.
Instead, we are to use all the pleasures and fulfillments of this world to sustain ourselves for the work with the Creator. This condition is called “neither too much nor too little” (Lo Igune VeLo Ishubach).
It was said about this: “The ways of the Lord are straight; righteous walk in it and transgressors fail in it.” That is, if he is rewarded, he receives an ascent by it. If he is not (rewarded), [meaning if he is unable to use the group, the study, and the resources given to him for the ascent] he receives by it a descent in spirituality.
All phenomena, desires, and thoughts that arise within us are given so that we can evaluate them correctly, understanding that they are sent by the Creator Himself, “There is none else besides Him,” and that we should choose only what is necessary for normal existence.
No one says we must sit in a corner eating grasshoppers. Instead, we must use what is rationally required for our existence while directing all other forces and capacities solely for advancing toward the Creator, drawing closer to Him through the qualities of bestowal, which we cultivate between us in the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Rabash “The Whole of the Torah Is One Holy Name”
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Question: There is a concept of “necessary and excessive.” How can we determine what is necessary for us in life?
Answer: What is necessary differs for each person, so you must define it for yourself.
If your primary goal in this life is to achieve the spiritual world, then everything else will be used solely for what is essential to live normally and decently but without excess. This way, you will properly allocate your energy and efforts to attain the Creator.
However, this is a decision only you can make and no one else. It is your life, your soul.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/17, “Kabbalistic Principles: Spiritual Meaning and Application”
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