Understanding The Spiritual Root Of The Hanukkah Symbols
Posted on December 29th, 2019
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 12/29/19
Is there a spiritual meaning behind the “Sufganiyah” (the Hanukkah Donut)?
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 12/29/19
Is there a spiritual meaning behind the “Sufganiyah” (the Hanukkah Donut)?
This time of the year, we are prone to wait for miracles. However, what if we actually don’t need to wait for miracles, but create them ourselves becoming more susceptible to others?
If the people who feel a strong rejection and hatred toward each other, begin consciously rising above it and connect, they literally draw the light of complete bestowal and love.
When each person starts being nice to others, without suppressing his rejection but overcoming it, his life also significantly improves, and everything falls into place. Out of the darkness, from which one was calling out for the miracles, he reaches a state of happiness and fulfillment.
What is a miracle? It is everything that is good. If we start uniting above the rejection that we instinctively feel, we’ll get an opportunity to let that good into the world.
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 12/23/19
May we all unite and share our unity with the entire world.
Please share this message with your friends and family.
Happy Hanukkah! 🕎
Learn everything about the spiritual meaning of Hanukkah
Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is Chanukah?“
Chanukah (also spelled “Hanukkah,” Heb. “חנוכה”) , starting on 25 Kislev (start-to-mid December), is also known as the Festival of Lights. It designates the start of our perception and sensation of the one, unique and unified force of nature, the first crossing of the boundary separating our ego from the altruistic force of nature. Hanukkah’s concepts and customs—the war of the Maccabees and the Greeks, the Hanukkah miracle, the candle, light, oil and wick—all connect to the crossing of this boundary between egoistic and altruistic perception.
In order to cross this boundary, we need to rise above our egoistic desires. The war of the Maccabees and the Greeks takes place inside the person, between a person’s egoistic rationalizations and reasoning, which the Greeks represent, and the inclination to unify by inviting nature’s unifying force into our connections, which the Maccabees represent.
However, since egoism is human nature, how can we find the ability to overcome it? Moreover, any desire to unify, love and give to others is minuscule compared to egoism, which incessantly seeks to receive self-aimed enjoyment.
Enter the Hanukkah miracle…
Our perseverance to unify above egoism draws the unifying force of love and bestowal dwelling in nature, also called “the light” in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Despite our very small desire to unite, love and give compared to our egoistic desires that comprise our entire nature, if we support each other so that we keep ourselves adhered to our effort to unite, we eventually arrive at a helpless state: we feel a complete inability to rise above our ego, i.e., to defeat the Greeks, and at that point, a miraculous light sparks up—an appearance of the unifying force of love and bestowal dwelling in nature, which grants us the strength we need in order to overcome our egoistic desires with a unifying, loving and giving tendency. That is the meaning of the Maccabees winning the war against the Greeks.
We prosper when we, on one hand, feel a necessity to win the war, but on the other hand, find ourselves out of options and in despair, i.e., under the attack of the Greeks. While under attack, we feel like we need to keep fighting with all everything we have, however with no success in sight. In any case, due to sensing a responsibility to win the war, we do not throw in the towel, because it would be like agreeing to be locked away in the ego’s solitary confinement.
At that point, the miracle happens—the illumination of the light of unity, love and bestowal. It charges us with its omnipresent energy, and we win the war.
The Hanukkah war is internal, taking place on the boundary between egoistic desires versus those of unity, love and bestowal. Our egoistic desires and thoughts are what filters our perception of the boundless force of love and bestowal surrounding and permeating us, and we revel in the revelation of this force when we win the battle for unification above our egoistic desires.
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My article in Newsmax: “What a Hanukkah for Humanity (Not Just Jews) Looks Like”
While the Hanukkah party at the White House caused ripples with Trump’s new executive order, and Jews around the world prepare for one of their major holidays, let’s take a look at what a Hanukkah for humanity, not just Jews, would look like.
Hanukkah is a pit stop on life’s race track, coming from the words “Hanu” (“park”) and “Koh” (“here”).
The more we advance in our lives, the more we encounter such stops. They let us discern what we’ve done, and whether we should change our direction in order to progress more optimally.
At one point or another, we find ourselves in situations that make us stop and rethink our lives’ entire course. Also, sometimes we need to forcefully stop ourselves, even if we want to continue, recalculate where we’re headed, and whether we should impact a change for a better future.
Therefore, we should see in the words, “Hanu” and “Koh” (“park here”), a desire brewing in humanity to cry out and stop the current way we’re running our lives, and change to a more fruitful direction.
Our current individualistic, consumerist and materialistic lifestyles are leading us into greater debt. Our debt is not only monetary, it’s our lag behind our balance with nature’s increased demands on us: to connect our attitudes to each other in order to match nature’s connectedness.
It is impossible to pay back the massive debt we have accumulated, but one way or another, we’ll have to pay it. In the meantime, we continue extracting from nature as much as we possibly can.
Essentially, society today needs to stop for a moment and think of how it can achieve more balance with itself and nature. Hanukkah is much more than a holiday marked on a few calendars. It is what humanity as a whole needs to undergo.
However, we can make no such stop until we recognize the cause of our individualistic, consumerist and materialistic lifestyles, gaining awareness of how the consumerist cycle — manufacturing products we don’t need, advertising them so that we want them, buying, selling and disposing of them — ultimately does no good to ourselves or to our planet.
We are overdue in making this pit stop.
If we continue business as usual, then we can simply count the days it will take till nature will activate a major blow upon us: pressures and disasters that would make life unbearable.
However, what is the alternative?
If we stop our current consumerist race, what would be able to replace it?
And how would we know its replacement would be better?
The alternative to rampant consumerism is positive connection.In order to understand this alternative, we need to first understand the importance of social influence.
Society determines our values according to what it promotes to us as enjoyable, worthwhile and important. The fact that we compare ourselves to others, then since we are incessantly promoted consumer goods, seeing celebrities, influencers, friends and acquaintances enjoying and discussing them, we thus also want them.
Therefore, we need to determine what is most advantageous for us all to enjoy, so that we won’t live our lives in a way where we empty our pockets to fill richer pockets, whenever we make a transaction to buy something else we don’t need.
For instance, instead of Black Friday, we could advertise a “Global Picnic Day,” a day where families and friends meet up in a park, at the beach, in nature, or go to the cinema or a trip somewhere — to promote a fun day together with family and friends.
It all depends on what we decide to promote to ourselves.
If we saw people around the world posting about themselves on Global Picnic Day, on the news and social media, celebrating it in different ways, we would find ourselves also wanting to participate. We would also find that such a day would give people much more enjoyment than a global day of buying and selling.
So why don’t we do that?
Instead of wasting our money buying a whole bunch of things that we’ll mostly discard, we would instead focus on enjoying ourselves in positive connection with other people.
Therefore, if we parked ourselves on the side of our life’s race track for a moment, we could pop the consumerist-materialistic bubble that we have blown up around ourselves, and start to advertise a new approach to life that we could ultimately enjoy a lot more from: one where we focus on positively connecting to each other, and which would bring us to greater balance in our relationships and with nature in general.
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 12/19/19
What is a miracle?
Hanukkah is a great time to talk about miracles.
A miracle, by definition, is something that according to the laws of nature isn’t supposed to happen. So for example, if at the end of the eight days of Hanukkah I’ve only gained two pounds or less, that can certainly qualify as a miracle …
But more seriously, how do you define something as “defying the laws of nature?” And if something defies the laws of nature, is it only defying the laws of the nature that we know, or the laws of all of nature?
Happy Hanukkah !!
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Learn everything about the spiritual meaning of Hanukkah
The Times of Israel published my new article “The Light of Hanukkah to Heal a World of Divisiveness”
The commemoration of the miracle of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, comes this year at troubled times, when the darkness of anti-Semitism again targets Jewish people worldwide. Our very existence is a miracle after being persecuted throughout history and surviving, and now should be no different. We again will be able to overcome all difficulties the moment we unite. However, this unity will not be achieved through presidential decrees or sympathy from political leaders. Such measures only give us time to realize what we truly need to do to thrive and live safely.
“I am proud that Jews are part of my family” declared President Trump at a ceremony for Hanukkah at the White House days ago. On that occasion, he signed an executive order to combat anti-Semitism, recognizing Judaism as a national identity and not just a religion, thus making it possible to withhold federal funding from institutions that provide Jews with no protection against discrimination and racism. The measure brought some relief to a large section of the Jewish community in America, where the world of academia has become a bastion of hatred toward Jews and Israel. A sense of relaxation was also experienced by British Jews after the victory of Brian Johnson over the anti-Semitic Jeremy Corbyn. But this calmness is for a limited time only.
Despite the slaps on the shoulders and the outpouring of holiday gifts, the boiling anti-Semitism will not cease. The phenomenon will increase and the hatred for Jews will become stronger and more salient until we come to terms with the root cause of the problem: the lack of realization of what makes us Jews. Our core essence as a nation is to attain unity above divisions and to be a “light unto the nations,” the victory of light over darkness and unity over division. This is precisely what the festival of Hanukkah symbolizes, the victory of the Maccabees (symbolic of the forces of unity) over the Greeks (symbolic of the forces of divisiveness).
The Role of the Jewish People
Bringing a positive light to the world is what humanity identifies as our Jewish role. Therefore, until we unite and lead humanity to positive connection, the nations of the world will continue pressuring us, which is expressed as threats, condemnation and hatred.
How can we halt animosity against Jews? We can do so by utilizing the current period of political grace to become a positive conduit of unity toward the world. We must start moving in that direction. Trump and Johnson will not be eternally in power, and when new leaders replace them, the help we now have will be gone.
It is our responsibility to change and be changed. By simply shifting our awareness, we can correct the world and bring about the unity of the nations, to be “as one man with one heart.” All of us without exception are required as Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag writes, “It is certain and unequivocal, that the purpose of creation lies on the shoulders of the whole of the human race, black, white or yellow, without any essential difference” (The Arvut).
Our grace period has an expiration date and we have to hurry up and organize ourselves to bring about closeness among us. It is our task to deliver and make available the method of connection—the wisdom of Kabbalah to the people of Israel, and through them to all the nations of the world. The method of connection will bring about the proper balance of the world, the healing that will make things better.
If we shirk our duty, there is a danger that the current support from some world leaders could give us an exaggerated sense of confidence, and history might repeat itself and strike another blow. We shall not forget that in the past, the Nazi regime initially had pro-Zionist consultants close by who later flipped and became ferocious anti-Semites leading to the Final Solution, as documented here.
The Healing Process
The illusion that we have unwavering supporters is similar to the deadened feelings of a person with a disease who has been given a painkiller. He feels fine even though the disease continues spreading. In the meantime, he lies in bed, talking and laughing with others around him, everyone thinking everything is okay, while he is merely desensitized to the disease festering under the surface toward an irreversible outbreak.
Today we have a breather period where we need to digest the process unfolding in front of our eyes, our role in the process, and act accordingly. We must not simply think that everything is business-as-usual, because nothing will heal that way.
The illness of division is rampant in the body of the people of Israel, and the healing is in exactly the opposite direction, in our unity. The cure is found in the love of the other, in building positive relationships based on the great rule, “Love your friend as yourself.”
The more we internalize and uncover the secret of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the more we will find that we only need to take a small step to bring us closer to a unity above our differences and the relative equality that will safeguard the uniqueness of each individual, while at the same time joining all parts into one.
Therefore, we must not become tired, despair, or give up. Our focus must be on internalizing and passing on the fact that a good life depends on the positive ties between us. Unity is the only remedy to mend ourselves and heal the world.
Happy Hanukkah!
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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 12/18/19
Do you know the spiritual meaning of the Miracle of Hanukkah and all the Hanukkah symbols? Find out what the Maccabees, the greeks, candle, oil, wick and dreidel symbolize in the infographic.
Learn everything about the spiritual meaning of Hanukkah
The holiday of Sukkot allows you to better understand spiritual work, that is, the way a person approaches the Creator. Due to our unity and the diminishing of our ego, we create a place for the Creator where He can dress and reveal Himself among us. The nature of this work varies depending on the depth of desire and its state at different stages of approaching the Creator. Therefore, there are times when the work differs: special days, holidays, days and nights, weeks, etc.
Now we are clarifying a special kind, a special form of approaching the Creator called “Sukkot.” In essence, this work always includes the same components: the desire to enjoy, restriction, the screen, and the reflected light, but with different types of connection between the corrected desire and the upper force, the source of light.
That is why we are studying holiday traditions not as folk customs, but as a method of special approach to the Creator. After all, there is a connection between the branch and the root, and therefore, the state of spiritual roots is reflected in our world. At a time when there is a special surrounding light that brings the corporeal holiday of Sukkot to this world, we should study the upper spiritual roots of this holiday.
Various states descend from the upper roots into our world, reflected as holidays and special traditions in our world.
We exist in the reality of our desire to enjoy, which pictures this whole world for us. And in order to see the true world, we must rise above this egoistic picture. For this, we need to make a cover (Schach), that is, to raise the importance of concepts for which there is absolutely no use from the point of view of a sound egoistic mind: faith, bestowal, unity, love.
No one appreciates such things in our world. As a rule, the most egoistic people striving for power, money, fame, like to talk about love for people, but we understand that this is only to confuse others and take power over them.
Sukkot is a radical transformation that occurs after a person decides to start the New Year, a new period. Everything that was previously insignificant garbage for him, rejected by our egoistic desire, he now collects and raises above his head.
These things cannot be at the level of the mind because there is no rational meaning in them. They need to be elevated above reason, against human logic, and appreciated above all that exists in this world. What becomes most important to me is unity, love, bestowal—everything related to the correction of the desire.
If a person thinks this way, it means that he is building the Sukkah and sanctifies it, sitting in its shadow and enjoying himself. Only in this form can he achieve Ushpizin and deserve to receive honored guests, approaching the Creator more and more every day. The seven days of Sukkot are against the seven Sefirot revealing in our corrected spiritual vessel (Kli).1
Rabash, Letter #36: “…for it is known that Sukkah is the “shadow of faith,” and with respect to the judgment, its shade must be bigger than its sun.
And if one is rewarded and does not add shade on his own, there is mercy on him from above and the sun is covered for him. But then a person becomes angry because he understands otherwise.
And if a person overcomes the shade, he is given “a sun,” and then he must add shade. If he does not add, he is given shade from above, and so forth until he is rewarded with eternal Dvekut (adhesion).
This is called a dance. The Creator plays with a person, giving him sometimes more, sometimes less, and checking his reaction. A person must keep the shade all the time so that his screen covers all his knowledge, that is, he always remains in bestowal.2
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/19, Sukkot
1 Minute 0:20
2 Minute 1:46:50
Related Material:
Sukkot Is A Symbol Of Internal Work
Sukkot: On The Fifteenth Day Of The Seventh Month
Warm Waves Of The Sukkot Holiday
Daily Audio Version-MP3
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