From the Yom Kippur to Hanukkah

Question: During Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) a person makes a restriction on all one’s desires because one wants to become similar to the Creator and not receive anything. Then a person corrects all one’s seven types of desires and on the eighth day receives the Torah, the light. Then comes Hanukkah. What does this holiday symbolize?

Answer: Hanukkah symbolizes the correction of a person to the state when one reaches the quality of Bina, the quality of complete bestowal. From Malchut one rises to the Sefira of Bina where one is completely in bestowal and does not need to receive anything.

Question: Does it mean that one has already corrected the seven first Sefirot during Sukkot and now has ascended to Bina?

Answer: No. These are all nominal, private corrections, not at full capacity. After all the holidays, precisely by receiving the Torah (upper light), one begins to correct oneself.

Until the end of Sukkot, until Shemini Atzeret, a person is not being truly corrected. A person did all the preparatory work to attract the upper light upon oneself.

Starting from the end of the holiday of Sukkot, from Shemini Atzeret to Hanukkah, one corrects oneself in the quality of Bina, in the quality of bestowal.

Question: Hanukkah represents a historical event that took place in the second century BC: an ideological conflict between the Maccabees and the Greeks. According to Kabbalah, the Greeks represent our egoistic desires and the Maccabees represent our altruistic desires.

The most interesting thing is the miracle that happened during Hanukkah. What is it?

Answer: The Maccabees found a small jar with the seal of the High Priest (Cohen), which contained the oil usually used in the Temple. From this oil they lit a lamp, and it burned all seven days of Hanukkah.

This is considered the miracle of Hanukkah and represents the fact that if a person correctly prepares oneself from below and is ready to be both the oil and the candle, then the Creator completely corrects the person, and one reaches one’s complete correction in the upper light of Bina, meaning one rises to the level of complete bestowal.

Question: Does it mean that a candle, a wick, and oil symbolize certain actions that a Kabbalist does with his or her desires?

Answer: Yes. And Hanukkah itself is “Hanu-Koh,” a stopover, when a person finishes correcting oneself in the quality of bestowal and moves to the next degree to the correction in the quality of reception for the sake of bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/29/19

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Holiday of Sukkot and Its Symbols

Five days after the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) comes the holiday of Sukkot, which means that a person receives five upper lights of NRNHY and comes to the state when one is under the influence of the surrounding light. In order to receive the surrounding light, a person must perform an action on oneself called building a hut, Sukkah. This is a restriction that as if blocks the upper light from a person because he or she does not want to receive it for one’s own fulfillment, but wants to receive it only for self-correction. A person continues the same line: from the New Year through Yom Kippur to Sukkot.

Thus a person builds a screen (Masach) called “Schach,” “roof,” which symbolizes that only a small light can penetrate through this roof. One sits in the shade of the hut for seven days which represents a correction of all seven egoistic parts of the shattered soul: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut.

Only then, once one is already corrected, one leaves the Sukkah and on the eighth day, Shemini Atzeret, celebrates the Giving of the Torah, i.e., one begins to receive the upper light already in the style of bestowal.

Question: Is the roof,  Schach or screen, made from waste?

Answer: Yes, out of branches of various trees and stalks of various grains.

Question: Waste symbolizes things that are unimportant to us, and we raise them to make them important. What exactly is important to us?

Answer: Things that we previously considered not important for us, we neglected bestowal, love, coming closer to other people, “loving your neighbor as yourself”—the qualities that we need to develop—now, on the contrary, we raise above our heads. That is, we want to implement them at any cost.

Question: During the holiday of Sukkot, we use the attributes of four types of plants: willow, myrtle, palm, and citron. What do they symbolize?

Answer: They represent four phases of our egoism, which we correct, connect together, and then we can attract the upper light upon ourselves.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/29/19

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Spiritual Holidays, Part 2

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Yom Kippur Prohibitions

Question: What limitations (restrictions) are performed on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)?

Answer: On Yom Kippur a person “closes,” does not want to use one’s egoism. It turns out that all five egoistic levels that make up one’s soul are closed. A person closes them and does not use them.

This is why on Yom Kippur we don’t drink, eat, wear clothing and shoes made of leather, anoint ourselves with aromatic substances, nor cut or comb our hair.

Question: Where did the Kabbalists get these symbols from? For example, what does the prohibition on wearing leather clothes and shoes symbolize?

Answer: In the past, all clothing was made almost exclusively from leather or wool. When Kabbalists reveal spirituality, they see that they can only use their small spiritual states, i.e., the tools called Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshama.

The degrees of Haya and Yechida, which symbolize skin and wool, cannot be used. This is why there is such a custom. It especially applies to shoes because shoes are considered the last, lowest level of our spiritual body.

In other words, the Kabbalist, from his attainment, sees analogies of the connection between the root and the branch, that a certain type of desire, called “skin” is a type of communication with the Creator, which he cannot use in this world.

Question: Is this how all the customs of our holidays came about?

Answer: Yes. Everything that we discover in the spiritual world, we try to implement in symbols of our world.

Question: I always thought, what difference does it make to the Creator what I eat or what shoes I wear?

Answer: There is no difference. Therefore, it is said that the commandments are given only to correct a person and the Creator is absolutely indifferent to what you do physically with your hands and legs.

Kabbalists say that of primal importance for us is the correction of our egoism. This is what was created and it is what we need to correct.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/29/19

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Yom Kippur – Self-Trial

Ten days after Rosh HaShanah comes Yom Kippur.

During Rosh HaShanah a person awakens, wants to become like the Creator to acquire the quality of bestowal. Aspiring for equivalence with the Creator, one feels oneself more and more, and on the tenth day comes to the state where one sees that he or she is an absolute egoist, completely opposite to the Creator.

Yom Kippur or Judgement Day is the revelation of our evil nature, the day when a person judges oneself.
A person begins to correctly perceive oneself as an egoist, under the rule of the forces acting on him, and is unable to cope with them. In principle, this is not even one’s fault but a given. This is why one should position oneself in this way.

No one, of course, judges him, including the Creator, who arranged all this for him. This is a person’s awareness of one’s spiritual state.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/29/19

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Symbols of Rosh HaShanah

During Rosh HaShanah we exalt the Creator because the very first and most important task of a person is to reveal the Creator and connect with Him.

Therefore, exalting the Creator and revealing Him as the most important force that influences everything that exists is the New Year. All sorts of customs of this holiday stem from its various particular manifestations.

We eat an apple because it represents the apple from the garden of Eden and we dip it in honey to show that we want to correct this sin.

Another symbol of the New Year is the pomegranate because its seeds symbolize parts of our soul. It consists of 613 parts that we want to correct, which is called observing the commandments.

During the New Year we eat fish heads. This means that we want to be the head, not the body, to manage our own correction and at the same time bring goodness, love, and good connection to all parts of the universe.

Question: Can we say that every time I wake up to the Creator I feel the New Year?

Answer: Yes. When a person begins one’s connection with the Creator, this is called the New Year. Moreover, this can happen every day. All Jewish holidays symbolize the spiritual states that a person undergoes.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/29/19

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Holidays Are Recurring States

Question: Special dates that Kabbalists celebrate can be called “holidays” or “traditions,” but they all carry special spiritual information. Some of them exist as historical events, some are simply described in the Kabbalistic sources.

The word “Holiday” itself is “חג” – “Chag” in Hebrew. What does it mean?

Answer: “Chag” is from the word “Mehuga” (returning arrow). That is, these are recurring events that represent spiritual states of any person who wants to advance in spirituality.

Spiritual space is above our world and exists on its own. These people who attain spiritual qualities and forces become included in this space and feel themselves in certain spiritual states.

These states are called Chag, Mehuga, that is recurring, returning states. They initially come from the structure of the system of the upper world, and as it descended, they manifest in our world.

The first state is Rosh Hashanah (New Year). This date represents the creation of a person and therefore, we celebrate it. The world was created five days before that but we do not celebrate this. We are interested in the New Year when the system of Adam was created.

This is not a person in our world but a spiritual system that controls us. Before it, the system was formed that controls inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature. On the sixth day of creation, meaning on the sixth degree, the system called Adam appeared.

Question: Does it mean that Adam is a program that controls all of our reality?

Answer: There is a program that controls us and inside it there are subprograms. One of them, the most central one is called Adam (human).
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/29/19

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My new article: “The Meaning Of Tu BiShvat”:

Tu BiShvat, which takes place on the 15th of Shevat, seems to be a Jewish holiday of lesser significance, as if hidden among the distinctive Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Purim, Passover and Shavuot. Its customs are simplistic and few: eating dried fruit and drinking some wine while the children plant tree seeds.

However, according to its inner meaning, the holiday of Tu BiShvat holds monumental importance among the Jewish holidays, as it discusses a very important discernment on our path to a harmonious reality: the discernment of needing to choose an environment, plant ourselves in it, invest in it, and care for the means that can grow us to become more and more optimally connected.

In our current times, as we plod on in the midst of heated social division, terror and nuclear weapon anxiety, the reawakening of Nazi, fascist and xenophobic tendencies, as well as increasing depression, stress and loneliness, the holiday of Tu BiShvat comes to remind us of nature’s positive power. The seed we plant in the soil symbolizes the great potential that dwells in our connections.

This seed will germinate and grow into a life-giving tree, which will later bear fruit. For example, a feeling of safety and confidence in the streets, the reduction of economic inequality and disparity, a healthcare system that concerns itself with all people, and the education of connection-enriching values. The wisdom of Kabbalah, the teaching of how to draw nature’s force of positive connection into our relations, is the water. When we let the spirit of positive connection, “the water,” flow between us, it serves to lubricate our connections, vitalizing them with nature’s positive, connective force.

Investing in rich, fertile soil can be likened to building an environment that will value nature’s quality of love, bestowal and connection above any other values. That is Tu BiShvat’s universal message. It is also the reason why Kabbalists have always regarded the holiday with utmost importance. As the Torah compares humanity to a “tree of the field,” Tu BiShvat, also called “the New Year of the trees,” is an invitation to the beginning of growth, the beginning of a new life.

“The person is called a tree of the field, and Rosh HaShanah is the time of judgment, for better or for worse. … It is written, ‘Forever is mercy built’ (Psalms 89:3). So on Tu BiShvat, which is called the New Year for Trees, we must be strengthened with the quality of kindness, because for this we merit fruit, which is called ‘a tree bearing fruit.””

– Rabbi Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag, Dargot HaSulam, “The New Year of the Trees.”

Happy holiday!

Spritual Meaning of Tu Bishvat

Tu Bishvat, “The New Year of the Trees,” symbolizes the fruit of the spiritual work, growth.

In the first stage of our spiritual path we invert the egoistic intention (Lo Lishma) into an altruistic intention (Lishma), bestowing in order to bestow. In Kabbalah, this degree is called “the quality of Bina.” The acquisition of this quality makes us a “tree of the field.”

Our next milestone of spiritual progress is receiving in order to bestow. Here, the barren tree of the field starts bearing fruit. This is a result of our work and our degree.

We now use our “tree” to grow fruit, fulfill the desires of others, and we relate to them as the source of bestowal. This way, we equalize with the quality of bestowal and complete our correction. This way, Tu BiShvat also contains the completion of our spiritual work.

Tu BiShvat might appear to be a trivial holiday. Its customs don’t extend beyond eating fruits, drinking some wine and children planting tree seeds in the ground. However, it is a very important holiday, since it represents the outcome of spiritual work, the fruit of our efforts. Out of nature’s four levels—still, vegetative, animate, speaking—Tu BiShvat represents the correction of the vegetative level.

The Meaning of New Year for Trees

The New Year of the Trees marks their awakening to life, symbolizing the awakening of a person to achieve the purpose of life: equivalence with nature’s quality of love, bestowal and connection.

The Meaning of A Man Is Like a Tree in the Field

A tree has a special internal structure that feeds from the ground and stretches upward toward the sun. The most important part of the tree is its fruit. In general, any plant, everything that grows from the earth, feeds us and is the basis of our material life. Our spiritual development functions according to the principle that we operate as a tree through all kinds of actions we do.

The Meaning of Fruits

Fruits represent attaining our purpose in life, which is to harmonize with nature’s quality of love, bestowal and connection. In principle, everyone would want to attain this goal if they understood how sweet that fruit is: an eternal and perfect existence in absolute attainment without any restrictions and problems.

Whether we want it or not, we nevertheless get closer to it. However, Kabbalah can accelerate our path if we use it correctly. Otherwise we’ll have to advance the way we do now, with the help of unpleasant blows from nature that push us forward.

There is a beautiful future ahead of us and I hope that the same sweetness we feel from the good fruits of the earth and plants, we will feel from fulfilling our soul.

Further Reading On Tu Bishvat
Posts in Dr. Michael Laitman’s Personal Blog

• New Life #677 – The Meaning Of Tu Bishvat
• The Fruit Of The Tree Of Knowledge
• Introductory Lecture “Tu B’Shevat” – 01.18.11 – video, audio
• Milestones On The Way
• The Meaning Of The Tu B’Shevat Holiday
• New Life #193 – The Jewish Holidays
• Tu B’Shevat As A Turning Point In Providence

Material on Hanukkah and the Jewish holidays by the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute

• The Meaning of the Jewish Holidays – chapter from the book, The Path of Kabbalah
• The Spiritual Meaning of the Jewish Holidays – app for Android, iPhone and iPad

The Meaning of the Jewish Holidays Series

• The Meaning of Rosh Hashanah
• The Meaning of Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement)
• The Meaning of Sukkot
• The Meaning of Simchat Torah
• The Meaning of Hanukkah
• The Meaning of Tu BiShvat
• The Meaning of Purim
• The Meaning of Passover
• The Meaning of Shavuot

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The war between the Hasmoneans and the Greeks is an internal war in a person who discovers that he consists of two opposing forces that must be constantly held against each other. The problem is that we surrender to the negative forces, to our egoism, since it is more convenient for us to please it than to fight with it all the time. As a result, a person understands that there is no way out and that he must turn to the Creator to fight for him because he himself is unable to fight with his evil inclination, which also comes from the Creator. An action against egoistic forces is the appeal to the Creator in which a person, with his egoism, wages a war against the Greeks toward complete victory.

This war does not end until a person wins and reaches the light. Let this be a little light in the vessel of Bina, but this is already the beginning of the revelation of the soul.

First of all, we must reveal that we are in danger and cannot escape from the power of our egoism, which does not let us turn to the Creator. This whole war is only for turning to the Creator, whom we ask for the strength to unite. The success of the war is measured by this only. This is how we advance until we win.¹

The egoism does not let us turn to the Creator through the ten, but does not prevent us from turning to Him personally. The whole world appeals to the Creator because this is a Klipa, opposite to spirituality. The Creator can be revealed only through the ten, and if the appeal is not through the ten, then it is not to the Creator.

The power of the appeal to the Creator is the power of the Maccabees, the power of the ten. First of all, we must unite and create one common force, perhaps small yet a precise one, which will deliver success.

You can become a hero through quantity and quality. Those who are disconnected are strong in numbers. And those who are united as one person possess the power of quality.

The main thing is to get an opportunity to turn to the Creator because this whole war is aimed at revealing the one standing before us and achieving similarity to Him. Unity is not the end goal but the means of revealing the higher power that once created this unity and then broke it.²

The Hanukkah song “The Mighty Rock of My Salvation” says: “The Greeks attacked us in the days of the Hasmoneans and broke through the wall of the tower… .” This means that we must reach a certain level of connection, build a tower. And then we will feel how the “Greeks” attack us, break through the walls of our fortress, meaning, egoism attacks trying to break through our thoughts, desires, and destroy us.³

If in our ten we want the greatness of the Creator to enter into our whole being, affecting us as if we actually see Him and feel Him, then we attract the returning light that builds this feeling within us. Thus, we are already behind the fortress wall. And then the Greeks appear, wanting to break through the walls of our tower, meaning, these are all kinds of extraneous thoughts from all directions trying to break through our faith above reason.

Faith above reason—because inside my reason I do not see or feel anything. I received a backlight from above that keeps me in the air like a magnet holds a piece of metal. Thanks to this, I am in the tower behind the wall. This tower and the wall were built for me by the upper light, so, I depend on it.

In order to make me even more dependent upon the upper light and demand even more strongly, the Creator reveals in me faults called “the Greeks.” And I must ask Him and demand that He again performs a miracle and lets me stand against them. Of course, I do not have the strength, and if the Creator does not perform a miracle, I will certainly fall. Therefore, I have nothing to hope for except for the Creator.

Everything works according to one system: the Creator does something bad, I ask Him to correct this evil, and He does good. And so it happens at every step. Every time the same story occurs. We must finally understand how this happens and what needs to be done today: how to turn to the Creator asking for the power of faith above reason in order to advance with it.

The Creator builds a wall, and He sends the Greeks to destroy it. The Creator operates everywhere, and we are in the middle of this battlefield, between the powers of good and evil in order to combine them both within. Then we, as beings created by the force opposite to the Creator and having received a form similar to the Creator, become one with Him.⁴

We must ask for faith above reason because this is the wall behind which we can hide. And the tower is the greatness of the Creator built inside the wall—the faith above reason higher than our reason and feelings—only thanks to the prayers to the Creator and His actions. We only need to cry out together. If we ask together, we will certainly succeed.

Therefore, we need to bring together our knowledge, prayers, aspirations, and desires, in order to understand exactly what we want. Everyone should separate as much as possible from their own “I” and take care of the tower and the wall, that is, the greatness of the Creator which is inside faith above reason.⁵
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/19, “Hanukkah”

¹ Minute 3:40
² Minute 6:10
³ Minute 11:20
⁴ Minute 14:58
⁵ Minute 23:20

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Catch The End Of The Thread That Returns To The Creator
New Life #654 – Hanukkah: Light And Darkness In Life
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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 1/1/20

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 12/29/19

The stronger our relations with others, the happier we are.

The most important New Year’s resolution is to invest in the only source of true satisfaction, a source that can be found through positive human connection, in our collective unity, where each person is outwardly focused toward building friendships and benefiting society.

If our desire is focused outside ourselves, on giving to others, then we will not feel empty all the time. In such a state of connection, we will be able to achieve a beautiful and complete life, free of suffering. This source of fulfillment is limitless and not only relevant for the new year, but for our entire lives.

Read my full article:

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