New Life 629 – Sukkot And Temporariness
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Man, just like any other animal, aspires for security and stability. In the past, life was predictable and stable, but today everything is changing, unexpected, and uncertain. We could have built a good life for all of mankind, but the ego didn’t let us do so, and half the world is starving. In the 21^st century, millions are wandering from one country to another, everything is unstable, changing, uncertain, and unsure.

The message of Sukkot is that only if we change our values will we be able to build a stable, good, and beautiful world. The essence of the change is switching from self-love to love of others, to caring about everyone.

The immigration of millions from one country to another is part of the evolutionary program of nature. We may be afflicted by natural disasters that will cause millions to wander, the Japanese, the Chileans, and others.

The only practical solution is to explore nature’s program in depth and adapt to it. The sure thing we can rely on is universal knowledge, the connection to the upper force of nature. The formula of holding onto the upper force is the rule of “love thy friend as thyself,” of changing our senses and the world.
From KabTV’s “New Life 629 – Sukkot And Temporariness,” 9/27/15

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New Life 443 – Simchat Torah
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What is the Torah, what makes us happy on Simchat Torah (Rejoicing in the Torah), how do we reach this unlimited happiness, and what do we discover when we reach it?

Torah means the Light of the Torah. It is a unique force that reforms a person, changing the evil inclination to good.

• The Light in the Torah locates the evil in us and then transforms it into good.
• When the Light transforms the evil in me to good, it makes me similar to the Creator.
• A person who reaches this exalted state, merits to feel what Simchat Torah is from a spiritual aspect.
  Simchat Torah comes after Sukkot, which symbolizes the seven Lights that come to correct a person.
• At the end of the process of correction, complete bestowal and love for everyone are built in a person, and through them to the Creator.
• But aren’t there those who study the Torah in whom we don’t see love for others? Right, that is because there are special conditions for this.
• One must specifically learn Torah from books of Kabbalah that are designed for our generation, and with the right teacher. Kabbalah is called the hidden Torah because it makes what is hidden in me visible.
• In  the period of exile, Kabbalah was concealed from the general public; today it is again revealed to everyone.
• Simchat Torah today is from our having received the possibility of revealing the Light that Reforms to the entire world.
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  From KabTV’s “New Life 443 – Simchat Torah,” 10/5/14

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New Life 628 – The Secret Of The Sukkah
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

I remember that there were no Sukkot when I was a child living abroad. When I became interested in the depths of the Torah, in the wisdom of Kabbalah, I discovered the reason for our customs. This is how I discovered the secret of the Sukkah: The Sukkah is a symbol of a new world that we can build for ourselves.

The Sukkah is a new world that we build from the waste materials of the granary and the winery, of materials we can lay our hands on and don’t consider important at all. My world is made of things that are important to my ego, and I don’t feel things that are not important to me at all. If I change my attitude so from now on, everything that is unimportant becomes important; I will live in a new world.

A great part of reality is concealed from me at the moment since I have gotten used to not paying attention to it since I was born. Today what’s important to me is what is good for me, and what is good for others is not important to me. This is the whole idea of the Sukkah.

I would like to be connected with everyone, to reach “love thy friend as thyself,” at least for a week.

The waste materials of the granary and the winery: “granary (Goren)” refers to wheat, to bread, and “winery” refers to wine.

The waste materials of the two are usually unimportant to us. Why is “love thy friend as thyself” important? It is by this attitude that I transform myself and build a new world.
From KabTV’s “New Life 628 – The Secret Of The Sukkah,” 9/27/14

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New Life 442 –  The Four Species
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What does the Sukkah symbolize in the context of our relationships with the upper force; how do the four species symbolize our accommodation to it, and which emotions does a person experience in searching for it?

All of our work in Elul, Rosh HaShanah, and Yom Kippur is to discover our lack of the Creator, and then comes Sukkot.

The Skakh (thatch) symbolizes that we already made the shade that conceals the Creator so that we will gradually discover Him. The Sukkah symbolizes that the Creator embraces and surrounds us with His Light. The four species symbolize that a person will adapt himself to the Creator.

The seven days, Lights, Ushpizin (guests), build seven characteristics in me that are imperative for sensing the Creator. Holding the four species symbolizes the desire of the person to accommodate himself to the Creator.

The Creator is entirely bestowing and loving. I can understand and feel Him if bestowal and love are within me. Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut—these are the forms of bestowal of the Creator to us. A person cannot relate to the Creator better than through his relationship to others. Through others we reach the Creator.
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From KabTV”s “New Life 442 – The Four Species,” 10/5/14

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New Life 440 – The Sukkah In The Heart
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

What does the Sukkah and its special structure symbolize? What is the meaning of the lights and shadows that are typical of this holiday, and what does it mean to build the Sukkah in the heart?

The Creator is the general force of all of reality and He is absolute love and bestowal. Every natural phenomenon is felt only after a person prepares the right sense for it. The Creator is the force of love and bestowal. If there is a little bit of love and bestowal in me, I will feel Him. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the wisdom of absorption and of how to tune ourselves to the same wavelength as the Creator.

The covering of the Sukkah symbolizes the Masach (screen), meaning that I don’t want to receive this illumination for my own pleasure but for the correction. The soul is not in the Sukkah that we build in the yard, of course, but it is our desire that is aimed at bestowal. How can we aim our desire at bestowal unto others? By the Lights, the forces of correction, called Ushpizin.

The four varieties (used in Sukkot) represent the four parts of the soul, י-ה-ו-ה – Yod – Hey – Vav – Hey. The etrog (citron) is very important since it represents the Sefira of Malchut, the foundation of our creation. We hold the four varieties together and move them from side to side. Other than the external custom, we also have to move the soul from side to side.

In addition to the custom of building a Sukkah in the yard, we also have to build a Sukkah around our heart. That’s the main thing.

Developing our love and bestowal, just like the Creator’s, is called building a Sukkah around my soul. Seven Sefirot separate me from my next state. Sefirot are the levels of the correction of the soul. The covering of the Sukkah symbolizes the fact that I don’t want to receive the abundance for my own pleasure but so that it will correct me. After Sukkot, Simchat Torah, and Chanukah comes Purim, the end of correction, when everything is permitted.

Building a Sukkah in the heart is establishing the conditions for our desire and our intention to be corrected to love and bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 440 – The Sukkah In The Heart,“ 10/2/14

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New Life 439 – The Lights Of Sukkot
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

What is the internal meaning of Sukkot? What do the lights, that are typical of this holiday, symbolize and how is that related to the transition of a person from evil to good?

On Rosh HaShanah we crown the force of love and bestowal. During the Ten Days of Repentance, we separate the desires in us that can be corrected and those that cannot. The seven days of Sukkot are seven special illuminations that turn the evil in us into goodness.

The lights that come are called Surrounding Lights. They symbolize the Sukkah and the Sukkah covering. The measurements of the Sukkah match the measurements of the soul. In the Sukkah, these are Amot (the length of a forearm), in the soul, it refers to desires and Lights.

A soul is a desire that is totally aimed at love of others. Repentance is the examination of the heart: which desires are in me and to what extent I am willing to work for the sake of others. Sukkot are the Lights that correct the evil in us into goodness until Shemini Atzeret (the eighth day of Sukkot) when there is nothing more to correct.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 439 – The Lights Of Sukkot,” 10/2/14

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Question: On the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), there is a custom to pray and ask for forgiveness for all the sins you have committed. Can we, indeed, receive such forgiveness from above?

Answer: This calculation is not with some kind of deity that watches us from above, but with the common system of nature, where we exist. A person must bring this system to the absolutely perfect form with respect to himself so that everybody in it is connected and receives through him a force of goodness that fills everyone. Each one must do so: any man and woman.

The only way to correct our sins is to move forward and correct the past through this advancement. There is no need to eat at yourself about past sins, we must always look forward. Everything I’ve done until today wasn’t done by me, but rather because the program of nature was unfolding this way.

However, my innocence for the past crimes doesn’t relieve me from the obligation to correct them. After all, the problem exists! Therefore the Creator tells us that He created the evil inclination, and every day this action of creation is updated; in other words, this evil is renewed every day.

He himself confirms that everything we did until present day is recorded on his account. But the state we are in today,  we need to correct ourselves. Nobody blames us for the past; however, we must repay our debt.

Question: Then what does it mean that transgressions can be in relation to the friend and in relation to the Creator?

Answer: Asking friends for forgiveness for transgression means to scrutinize and correct our relationships with everyone, one after another, point by point. And if I relate to the system in general, in the integral form, addressing its common quality, called the Creator or “come and see,” then I make a calculation with respect to Him. After all, I created this “place” and corrected it.

To ask the Creator for forgiveness means to ask everybody together for forgiveness. Then I discover that there is a force within them that connects everyone. And if I caused this, it means I reached full repentance.

If in the connection with others I connect with the Creator, then my plea for forgiveness was accepted. The Creator fills the system that I have constructed and it becomes me.

Connection with other people is what leads us to the connection with the upper force, the plea for forgiveness from everyone is the repentance before the Creator, and the blessing of everyone is the blessing of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/27/16

Related Material:
Whom To Ask For Forgiveness And For What? Part 3
Whom To Ask For Forgiveness And For What? Part 2
Whom To Ask For Forgiveness And For What? Part 1

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New Life 438 – Yom Kippur
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What is the spiritual meaning of the Yom Kippur customs and how do they awaken us to scrutinize our internal desires and intentions in our attitude to others, to connection, and to true love?

Almost everyone goes to the synagogue on Yom Kippur. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, Yom Kippur is a very special state in the cycle of the year for a person who develops spiritually.

We are used to examining our actions, but we should also examine our intentions, especially with regard to others: Where do I stand with regard to the upper force whose nature is love and bestowal? The examination, just like an X-ray of the intention of the heart, is done by the Light that comes from studying Kabbalah.

The Ten Days of Penitence are ten X-rays of the heart, which show where I am for my own sake and where I am for the sake of others.

The Torah requires a person to correct his heart. Nature, God, examines only the intention in the heart. The fasting symbolizes the need to first stop receiving for only my own sake, restriction. Then we can bestow. We learn from the story of the prophet Jonah that we have to put ourselves aside and act for the sake of others. A person cannot turn to the Creator if there are people he has hurt in the world.

True reconciliation with others is not that they should forgive you, but that you should build in your heart whole love for them.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 438 – Yom Kippur,” 9/30/14

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New Life 434 – The Meaning Of Israeli Holidays
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What are the spiritual meanings of the holidays of Israel, how are they connected to realizing the goal of our lives, and what is the difference between them and the holidays of other nations?

Abraham studied the trend of developmental in ancient Babylon. He understood that everything advances toward connection. Abraham discovered that humanity must come to identity with nature, balancing and harmonizing with it. To be balanced with nature, we need to understand this enormous system. It is profound.

Abraham discovered the law by which all of reality evolves toward general unity, and humanity is a part of this. The process of rapprochement of mankind’s union has steps, such as during the course of human life. The connection is expressed in “What is hateful to you, do not do to your friend” (Shabbat 31a), and after that, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). Abraham told this to the Babylonians. Most of them didn’t want to hear it. Tens of thousands followed him to love of others. The stages of development on the way to connection can be given the name, “The Annual Cycle.” It repeats on every level.

It follows that the holidays of Israel are spiritual and not a commemoration of historical dates as with other nations. The holidays of Israel are determined by nature as states of development on the way toward complete connection.

• From the start, we are within the connection and harmony of nature in an opposite state of division and destruction. It is necessary to do some soul-searching. This is called the month of Elul.
• Crowning the power that connects all parts of nature—to rule over us: Rosh HaShanah
• Connecting all of humanity to this, not just us the people of Israel—Yom Kippur—the reading of the book of Jonah.
• On Sukkot: we connect the four species together, corresponding to the four stages of correction of the egoism that separates us.
• Simchat Torah (Rejoicing of the Torah)—we are happy that the upper force connects us.
  Chanukah–a spiritual holiday above the ego.
• Purim—we correct the entire ego, all of the bad tendencies that were in us, and we can celebrate.
• Pesach (Passover)—symbolizes how we always depart from the slavery of egoism to freedom.
  Counting the Omer —we count how many of our desires we have already corrected.
• Shavuot—the giving of the Torah, the power of correction. Through the Torah we build ourselves, but we cannot hold onto this and shatter.
• Tisha B’Av—from this we learn the depth to which we truly must correct ourselves through complete connection.
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  From KabTV’s “New Life 434 – The Meaning Of Israeli Holidays,” 9/14/14

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Question: Why is there a tradition of redemption before the new year (Rosh HaShana), and sages warn that the Creator records all our actions and presents us with an account? It sounds as if He prescribes us penalties for our misconducts?

Answer: This is very simple. We all are linked into one closed system that connects us to each other with billions of strands: all of the people, stones, plants, and animals. Everything is connected together; therefore the “penalty book” is this network itself.

Every time I make some movement, not an external one with the arms or legs, but an internal one, regarding the connection between us, becoming closer to people or farther from them, it is immediately realized and felt in our connection. It means that I am already recorded in the record book of nature for the benefit or harm I have caused. There is a general account of how much I affected the system, since it is integral and closed.

It is like the cells of one body, where each is linked to all others. So it turns out that all my actions and influence on the system are recorded in it and change it in some way.

Moreover, I am not in some single point of the system, but spread over all of it, among all the billions of people, animals, plants, and inanimate matter, and affect them all. I am in absolutely everyone and bring them either to unity or separation with my actions. It means that I am recorded in the book.

Our egoistic desire is growing every moment because evolution moves forward steadily, and we develop from generation to generation and during our entire life. Therefore, every day I must care about correcting all missed opportunities to connect all the people into one system.

If I neglect my duties, then I contribute to the general separation. Even my ignorance doesn’t relieve me from the punishment. Since I don’t contribute to the connection, I lead to the discord.

If when getting up in the morning I don’t act in order to unite the entire world, or at least the entirety of Israel into one family, it is called behavior that is detrimental to the system. After all, egoism is constantly growing and we don’t correct it, we don’t fix our connection.

If I did something bad or good to one person, it affects the entire system. And even if I simply did nothing good, it also counts as a wrecking, because in the meantime the egoism that separates us has grown. All this is recorded on my account into two columns: debit and credit.

Question: If I ask for forgiveness on the eve of the New Year, will all my debts be written off?

Answer: Nothing will be written off. The idea is that the person makes an internal calculation with himself and decides that from now on he must cause only the connection of the system. He truly repents for his past and makes a decision for the future. These aren’t empty words with nothing behind them, but are the result of a serious preparation.

He swears that from this day he will constantly check and correct each of his desires. Eventually we all should come to the state where the whole system is corrected. Nobody will make this correction instead of us. What I can correct or damage inside my soul, like in the cell of a body, nobody can correct apart from me.

Therefore, my redemption doesn’t cancel past sins, but gives me an opportunity to start as if from scratch and correct them. Due to the fact that from now on I start to do good deeds, I add my past wrongdoings to them and correct them.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/27/16

Related Material:
Whom To Ask For Forgiveness And For What? Part 2
Whom To Ask For Forgiveness And For What? Part 1
Repentance

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