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 - No Comments →

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 - No Comments →

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 - No Comments →

Question: What is the essence of the connection between faith and the “covering of the Sukkah” (Schach)?

Answer: Schach and faith are one and the same. If they are the same thing, what connection can there be between them? If they were two different things, I would explain the connection between them, but this is simply one and the same phenomenon. We are not speaking at all about a material roof made of plants. When we speak of the covering of the Sukkah, we are referring to the screen that a person builds above his head.

Schach symbolizes things that were once alive and growing, but have now died, things that have reached the end of their life cycle. A person once enjoyed these things, but now they are dead to him; the spirit of life has departed from them. In his eyes, they have lost all importance and are entirely unsuitable for his advancement. He then takes these things, which have no importance for him anymore, and raises them above his head.

The Schach is constructed of objects that have practically no use: scraps of wood, leaves, and branches that cannot be used for anything other than perhaps burning them to heat a little water. What else can be done with these objects? It is impossible to build something from them. The covering of the Sukkah is not made from standard building material, such as solid timber. There are specific laws concerning this.

When a person raises things that have no importance according to the perceptions of his desire to receive above his head, it means that he is proceeding by faith above reason. Then the Schach is faith, while his knowledge is located inside the Sukkah.

A person is ready to work with his knowledge, which is smaller than his faith, or to use it only in accordance with the measure of his faith. This is called having his entire vessel of reception under the cover of the decision not to receive for himself, under the cover of the Schach, the screen. Then a person sits in the shade of the Sukkah, whose shade must be greater than the sunlight entering it. There must be so little sunlight in the Sukkah that it is almost imperceptible.

Today, we cover the Sukkah with thin slats. Rabash made sure that they were placed so closely together that almost no light could enter through them. It was not a matter of seeing the sky or the stars, only the faintest trace of light. I once asked why. It looked almost like a house. The roof was unattractive, but it was truly a roof. I was told that this was the custom: to make it very dense.

This is one of the symbols indicating the immense power and strength of the canopy, the force of mercy. This is what one must be concerned with rather than the amount of light filtering through the roof.
[362077]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/26/26

Related Material:
Sukkah—Construction Of The Spiritual Vessel
Sukkot–The Symbol Of The Corrected Kli
Sukkot—A Special Opportunity to Correct the World

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

1st part of the Lesson — Sukkot 2003, Lesson 12 (10.16.2003)

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

2nd part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “There Is One Who Buys His World in One Hour” (1.27.2017)

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Question: Is faith always the most important thing that a person must attain first?

Answer: It is not merely the most important thing. Faith is the only thing we must attain, and nothing else besides it. “The righteous will live by his faith.” Besides the screen and the reflected light, the light of Bina, in which the Ohr Hochma (the light of wisdom) is clothed, there is nothing else. Therefore, this is the only thing we should be concerned with.

What is the connection here with the holiday of Sukkot? After a person has passed through the period of the exodus from Egypt and received the Torah, through its light he sees himself as weak and contemptible in his original qualities, with which he was created.

In this way, he attains a full awareness of his soul, which is represented by Yom Kippur (the Day of Judgment), and approaches the stage of his correction called Sukkot. Sukkot is Schach (the covering of the Sukkah), and Schach is the screen and reflected light.

What does “Tzel” (shadow) mean? “In His shadow I sat, and I delighted…” To delight while sitting in the shade means to delight in bestowing upon the Creator, rather than in the Light that comes without being clothed in the shadow, that is, without being clothed in the light of Bina.

These are all symbols. In essence, we should see this in every commandment and in every matter: There is nothing besides the light, the Kli, and the screen between them; everything, in essence, comes down to one thing.

Sometimes, when we do not understand very well what is being discussed, we begin to enter into the details of a commandment. In general, such a major commandment as Sukkot, which is equal in importance to all the other commandments, is more or less clear, and all the actions involved in carrying it out can easily be imagined.

However, there are commandments that speak of particular corrections of the Kli during the Second Restriction (Tzimtzum Bet), of attaching the ascending AHP de Aliyah, when one makes a correction on Yesod rather than on Malchut, and so on. Here, the problem arises of how to accurately grasp all kinds of particular states. But in general, the essence of all spiritual actions, which are called commandments, is the correction of the screen. The size of the screen is called the measure of faith, and through faith one receives knowledge, the revelation of the divine.

The revelation of the Creator can also occur before faith appears, in order to give birth to it. This is called, “Know the Creator, your Almighty and serve Him.” We need the revelation of the Creator also because in this way the screen manifests within us and is built. If we ask the Creator to reveal Himself for this purpose, it happens, and a person, bowing before the Creator, submits to Him. This submission is our screen.
[362072]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/26/26

Related Material:
Under A Temporary Shade
Holidays—Stages Of The Correction Of The Soul
More Shade Than Light

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

On Yom Kippur, a confrontation takes place between the entire Kli (vessel), which is revealed in all its egoistic depth, and the light that must correct and fill this Kli.

Therefore, on Yom Kippur, a person does not eat, drink, or wash, has no marital relations, and does not anoint himself with oils, because oil symbolizes the light of Hochma, the body symbolizes the desire to receive, and the external reception of the light of Hochma symbolizes the process called Sikha—smearing or anointing. It is also forbidden to wear anything made of leather, because leather is considered a covering, an external garment, whereas at this time everything is exposed; there is not yet an external Kli.

A person has internal and external Kelim. The internal Kelim were formed in one during the Second Restriction (Tzimtzum Bet). These are the Kelim for the lights of Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshama. But for Haya and Yehida, for the light of Hochma, there are external Kelim, the Levush ve Heichal (garments and a house, walls).

We have three qualities that exist together within us: Shoresh, Neshama, and Guf (root, soul, and body). In addition, there is a garment over us and walls around us that we build as our own.

Garments and walls also exist in the material world because of the imperfection of our Kelim. If we were internally complete, we would not need clothing, as Adam HaRishon did not, nor walls, that is, any space in which a person resides.

These categories, these Kelim, would exist within us. But now we partially compensate for their absence through clothing and through a house. All this results from the defectiveness of our Kelim, from human imperfection. After correction, this gradually enters within a person, and he no longer needs either garments or a house.

The light that comes to us on Yom Kippur shows us how imperfect our Kli is; all its negative qualities are revealed within it.
[362033]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/25/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

Related Material:
Yom Kippur – The Calendar And The Spiritual One
Yom Kippur—The Revelation Of Egoism
From Yom Kippur To Purim

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

What does it mean that the Torah (from the word Horaah, instruction or method) is acquired? Everything is done only through light and vessels; there is nothing else. When one receives the light that can gradually correct the vessels, it is necessary that this light and the Kelim not simply exist as two things opposite one another, but that the light first enter the Kelim and impart its qualities to them.

This occurs after the upper light called Moses (from the word “Limshoch,” to draw, to pull egoism from below upward toward the light) descends. Moses embodies the aspiration of all a person’s qualities to be corrected and to attract the upper light to themselves. That is, after Moses draws this light to himself, since the soul initially possesses only a single quality, the point in the heart, the soul must undergo a shattering.

We know that every connection begins with the breaking of the Kelim (vessels). Subsequently the qualities of the light enter the qualities of the Kelim and establish a connection between them. Only afterward, through a different light, the light of correction, do the sparks of the light that fell into egoism during the shattering begin to align the ego with themselves and correct it.

Thus, the breaking of the Kelim must take place. Moses receives the Torah and descends with it from the mountain to the remaining qualities (the people) while they are making the golden calf. Moses symbolically breaks the tablets; that is, the light enters the vessel, and the breaking occurs.

The process of the breaking of the Kelim had already occurred in the world of Nekudim and with Adam HaRishon. Now the same thing is happening. It is one and the same process without which there would be no connection between the light and the Kelim. The light breaks these vessels.

This takes place on the 17^th of Tammuz. Moses breaks the tablets and the light enters the vessel. Then some time passes until the first of Elul, a new month, followed a month later, after the new moon, by the New Year (Rosh Hashanah).

This means that Moses again ascends Mount Sinai and receives the second tablets. In other words, the light within the vessel is processed again, and it again becomes possible to rise and ask for the light of correction. When the light of correction descends upon a person, they begin to see themselves within this light.

Once again, just as the first time, Moses remains in contact with the light for 40 days, at the level of Bina. Then he descends, meaning that the light begins to pass through to all the remaining qualities, to the entire people.

The descent of the light to Malchut and their complete opposition is celebrated among us as Yom Kippur. Through the shattering of the soul, a person begins to understand that they do not have a single good quality, and that everything must be corrected. But they learn this because within every egoistic quality of the soul there are already sparks of light that fell during the breaking when the light first entered. Now a second light shines, the light of correction, akin to the second tablets.

There is a difference between the first and second tablets, just like there is a difference between the First Temple and the Second Temple. Here, another light descends, the light of correction. It no longer needs to break the vessels, enter them, and mix with them. Instead, it must shine from afar and gradually correct the vessel. It possesses different qualities.
[362029]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/25/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

Related Material:
Dance Around The Golden Calf And Shattering Of The Tablets Of The Covenant
The Shattering Of The Tablets
“I Will Give You The Stone Tablets”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

1st part of the Lesson — Sukkot 2003, Lesson 11 (10.16.2003)

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

2nd part of the Lesson — Awakening from Below

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Question: Were there Kabbalists who violated the rule against touching the secrets of the Torah prematurely, before they had completed their own corrections?

Answer: I do not want to go into this because we are not yet capable of discussing such topics. Questions will immediately arise: “How did they do it? For what reason? Why did the Creator allow this? Where was the general and individual governance? Was it a mistake or to the contrary?” There are many stories, and it is not for us from our degree to analyze them.

Why do we go above reason in order to ascend from degree to degree? Because the mind of the higher degree is literally opposite to my mind. I am simply incapable of discussing such degrees. We can only, so to speak, console ourselves with the formulations, and make some understanding in order to continue on the path.

In the same way, children are told fairy tales and fables so that they will grow. And when they become adults, they see that everything is somewhat different. However, they cannot yet grasp with their minds the full complexity of human relationships and world processes, and that is why they are presented with these things in a simple form corresponding to their understanding, and thanks to this they grow.

It is the same for us. It is impossible to take such questions seriously. It is good that they exist, but we must understand that every question is a Hisaron, the fulfillment of which can be seen not at our degree, but many degrees higher. Therefore, the question is different: how can a Hisaron (lack) arise in me, the fulfillment of which lies, say, ten degrees higher? What does its present revelation mean?

Actually, this is not even a question, because from this I must derive the understanding that I actually need to possess a yearning to reach the highest degree—even if an unconscious need.

I will put it differently. There must be a Hisaron, a need for a state of infinity within the limits of my current level, but a need for the state of infinity. Because at every degree it is precisely infinity that is revealed, only to a different extent, first a little, then a little more, then even more.

It is perfectly normal that I have questions about the highest degree because I must strive for infinity. In essence, I am already in it now, but only a very, very small measure of infinity is revealed to me, although it is revealed in every detail. In every detail, but in a very, very limited way. Limited, but equally present in all those details.

And if the smallest degree of infinity is revealed to me, then it will be revealed in all the details that exist in infinity. However, in my eyes it will appear so unclear that it will seem very small, very vague, but infinite to me.

Therefore questions will arise throughout the entire path up to the final goal, even at the smallest degree.
[360481]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,’ in the Work?”

Related Material:
Hiding the Secrets of the Torah
Secrets Of The Torah
From the Flavors of the Torah to the Secrets of the Torah

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Work, Torah - No Comments →