Hoshanah is like a plea for salvation. A person asks the Creator to save him, and to achieve this state a person must go through many stages. When a person comes to study the science of Kabbalah, he does not know exactly what he is looking for at first.

Gradually, as a result of his studies, he receives new values in life and then begins to understand what is worth asking for, whom to ask, and what he wants to be saved from. He has to undergo very difficult internal scrutiny to stop asking for solutions to his life problems or salvation from minor or more severe obstacles.

A person does not understand whom to turn to, what other upper force, the Creator, or other nature? He knows only his material life, this world. Others, on the contrary, imagine the Creator is punishing them for misdeeds and ask for leniency. Time passes until a person understands whom and what to ask for after he despairs from understanding life, destiny, or revealing heaven with his own forces.

He feels a black cloud suddenly descending on him, and then, on the contrary, everything clears up and becomes transparent, understandable, pleasant, and easy. Then again, an incredible heaviness falls on him, a dullness in his mind and heart.

This is how we go through many states until we decide that we are entirely controlled from above because we are creatures under the control of the upper governance. A general upper force governs everyone individually and everyone together, doing whatever it wants with us. A person despairs regarding changing anything and loses all hope to influence the upper force.

It will take a long time before one finally believes the Kabbalists that we can change our fate. However, it is impossible to turn to the upper force alone because it hears only a complete request, that is, a group prayer, from ten people together.

Perhaps we gather ten people, but everyone asks for something different. How can we know the hidden aspirations of someone else’s heart that even the person himself may not be aware of?

We need one desire for all ten people, one common heart, and then the Creator will gradually perform the act of correction so we understand what we want and what is worth wanting, and move toward the state of “I am for my Beloved, and my Beloved is for me.”

In fact, this is the whole work, which is why we have fallen into the state called “this world,” into complete concealment, an imaginary reality as Kabbalists explain.

We imagine ourselves in some kind of world, on the globe, divided into different nations, in a vast universe. It is all an illusion. In reality, there is only the upper world. But where is it? After all, we do not feel it.

We do not have such organs of perception to sense that the material is illusory while the spiritual exists. We still need to come to this point to see that our current “reality” is only a screen hiding the truth and to reveal this actual world in our new senses. It all depends on our correction.

Instead of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste, we will acquire new organs of perception: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut. By rising above our desire to enjoy, in giving above receiving, in faith above reason, we will reveal the true reality.

We will feel ourselves existing in two worlds at once: in this world, in an imaginary reality, and also in the true reality, in the spiritual world. One world is depicted in the desires to enjoy, and the other in the desires to bestow.

The path is open before us. There is no doubt we are advancing, and the Creator, all the forces of nature are leading and accompanying us, organizing, gathering together, protecting, and screening.

We need to accelerate their impact on us because Israel, that is, people who seek to reveal the Creator, have the power to speed up time. If we work as a transitional channel between the Creator and all mankind, we will merit the Creator’s care and accelerate our development.

The night of Hoshana Rabbah is a common big, complete request, with all the forces and all the necessary corrections. The light that returns to the source penetrates through the covering of the Sukkah and corrects the desire to enjoy below the screen.

Thus we will become worthy of being one union. The main thing is not to forget that the ultimate goal is to correct the whole world and bring it to the Creator so He can rejoice in His creations. Let us strive and succeed.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, “Hoshana Rabhah”

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And now he can extend from the past work, when he was always thankful and praising the Creator for the Creator always bringing him closer, and from this he had gladness. Now, on Sukkot, he can extend the gladness he had then (Baal HaSulam, Shamati,  96, “What Is Waste of Barn and Winery, in the Work?”).

Question: What is the difference between joy in a permanent home and joy in a temporary hut?

Answer: There is a big difference because in a permanent dwelling there is a certain force, which is much weaker in a temporary dwelling like a sukkah.

Therefore, a person should exert more effort to have the same illumination in the sukkah that he had in a permanent home.

Question: Isn’t the desire to return to the joy in a permanent home self-gratification? If so, how can we resist it?

Answer: It can happen. How to counter this? Don’t succumb to all kinds of weaknesses.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/18/24, “Sukkot”

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Question: The four types of plants used during Sukkot—citron, palm, myrtle, and willow—symbolize four degrees we must go through. So why is it said that we must unite them? Aren’t we, on the contrary, striving to move from degree to degree? What is the essence of this connection?

Answer: The essence is to gather from each type what is essential in it for connection into a single bundle. This is a spiritual action, where we gather all four types of desires that can be attributed to bestowal. By uniting them, we receive a complete set of qualities that elevate us toward the Creator.

Question: In the process of spiritual work should we collectively search within ourselves for all these qualities of the plants, or should we find only the one we are currently on?

Answer: Find one of these qualities at a time. Then continue to strive toward a higher quality until you encompass everything.

Question: How can we correctly receive the manifestations of all four types in the soul?

Answer: According to the writings. In each of Rabash’s articles, something is discussed. You need to collect the actions described in each article, connect them together, and in the end, you will achieve complete correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/20/24, “Sukkot”

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We are not yet able to fully appreciate the greatness of the Sukkot holiday. It is a very significant and special holiday. During this time, the connection between all people and the Creator is revealed as we praise Him. He accepts our blessing, creates the correct connection between us, and elevates us to the degree of the final correction.

This applies not only to Kabbalists but to the entire people of Israel and, in fact, all the people of the world. Therefore, each person has the opportunity to thank the Creator for the spiritual elevation experienced during the holiday of Sukkot.

Sukkot is an internal state a person goes through on certain calendar dates alongside others who are in the same attainment and sensation.

The covering of the sukkah is made from what are called “the waste of barn and winery,” which come from places where human food is produced: bread and wine. Even from this waste, we can derive spiritual benefits if we relate correctly to everything given to us in this world. This means that I justify the Creator in all that happens and perceive everything as beneficial, even if it initially seems unfavorable.

In other words, I justify the work of the Creator completely, in everything He sends me, including the “waste of barn and winery,” and I thank Him for everything in the full measure. For me, the Creator is perfect and nature is perfect.

Everything that is revealed to me in my work to draw closer to the Creator is the result of the Creator’s work. Even the part of the work that seems like unnecessary waste, I must elevate and turn into a covering over my head, i.e., transform it into faith above reason, into holiness.

From one part, I managed to make “bread and wine,” and from what remained, which I couldn’t use as “food,” I make a covering above reason. I don’t discard anything from the Creator’s work; I even use the “waste” because the Creator commanded me to do so.

On regular days, I wouldn’t be able to use this, but Sukkot is a special time when there is no waste at all. Everything received from the Creator’s field can be elevated above the head as a roof. If I do this according to the Creator’s instructions, it becomes holy work.

Each Jewish holiday symbolizes and explains certain laws of nature, the nature of a person’s spiritual work, and their path of connection with nature. That is why it is so important for us to observe all the conditions of the Sukkot holiday. The further we progress, the more strongly we will feel this.

Kabbalists understand the forces at work each day and how to use them most effectively for the correction of the world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/18/24, Writings of Rabash Letter No. 36

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Question: Rabash writes those who have a point in the heart are given the opportunity to know they can enjoy spiritual things. Therefore, we look at those who enjoy material things as small children. Such a state can lead to arrogance. What should we do about it?

Answer: Nothing can be done about it. You just need to understand what I enjoy and what I strive for. Then, everything will fall into place.

Question: If joy is the illumination of the Creator and fulfillment, can we turn judgments into joy, and how can we do it?

Answer: For now it is enough to determine whether you are in a state of connection or similarity with the Creator or not. The rest will come.

Question: Through our prayers, requests, and appeals, we hold on to the Creator. We feel that we are growing in our own eyes all the time, and this gives us joy. On what point should all our attention and thoughts be concentrated?

Answer: On what I am doing for the Creator at the moment. Just because I feel good doesn’t mean anything.

Question: What is there to rejoice about on the day of judgment?

Answer: About the fact that we have tried during this year, as in prior years, maybe even more successfully, to raise ourselves to the level of the highest court. This is a very high level.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/24, Writings of Rabash “What Is Joy?”

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On the last day of the Sukkot holiday, we must combine all our requests into one big cry for salvation—Hoshana Rabbah. If we talked about it all the days of the holiday, studied, and wanted to feel what was happening to us, then, of course, at the end of the holiday we can collect all these occurrences and come to great salvation.

We want all the requests we raised during the holiday to come together and make us feel an immense need for great salvation.

We ask the Creator for salvation, that is for conditions under which the light can be revealed through us. We have been preparing for this all the days of Sukkot; otherwise, we would have neither the right desire nor the right shade. The cry comes through as a reward for the effort.

The Creator conceals how close we are to salvation with this shade if we turn to Him with this exalted and powerful request: “Creator, save us!”

Just as the Creator creates a shade for His light and gradually raises us stage by stage, we need to accept this shade and try to see it as a means to rise above reason, above the shade, to come to the light of faith. When we come to such a need, it is already the beginning of salvation.

The state when a person comes to the desire to live in the light of faith is called the night of Hoshana Rabbah. During all the days of the holiday, he revealed an ever-stronger inner desire for salvation, because every day, more and more light of correction was revealed to him. And he rejoices that he has reached a realization and a feeling that only the Creator can and is ready to save him.

The light of faith is revealed in the Kli that a person prepares by his refusal to receive the light directly and by his desire to remain in the shade. We need to achieve such a connection with the Creator when He shines on us, but we do not want to receive this light directly and push it away, wishing to resemble the action of the light in relation to the Creator.

Thus, our correct attitude toward the Creator is also called light. This is how we begin to feel the light completing all our work. The Creator gives us an example of how we can give to Him in the same way He gives to us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/23/24, “Hoshana Rabbah”

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Sukkot is temporary residence. …they said, “Leave the permanent residence and dwell in temporary residence” (Baal HaSulam, Shamati, 96, “What Is Waste of Barn and Winery, in the Work?”).

When a person leaves his permanent home, he finds himself in a state without a home. Therefore, he must surely find a place where he can “land.” This is a temporary dwelling. One begins to feel he can get comfortable there.

When a person reaches such a state, even while still in the process of searching, he begins to understand what his permanent home and temporary home mean. By agreeing to a temporary home, he feels how much the Creator brings him closer to Himself and is filled with a sense of happiness.

This is the Sukkot holiday, when a person leaves his permanent home and goes into a field or a forest, it doesn’t matter where, and arranges for a temporary dwelling for himself there.

Therefore, a temporary dwelling, a hut, is not intended for living in it but only for moving from one level to another. While a permanent home is a corrected Kli, it is a home we must return to.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/18/24, “Sukkot”

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Question: Perhaps the most important day for Jews is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It unites religious Jews and secular ones who do not follow any laws or commandments. This day brings us together.

Before this day, there are ten steps known as the Ten Days of Repentance. Please tell us what these steps are leading up to Yom Kippur.

Answer: These are gradual realizations by a person about how they live, how they have lived, and how they plan to live moving forward. Essentially, it is when a person reflects on themselves: who they are, what they are, and why they are.

Therefore, Yom Kippur is a special day. Everyone observes it in some way. Even if it is not outwardly observed, inwardly, a person still reflects on it.

Question: We ask for forgiveness on Yom Kippur. I might not even know exactly what I am asking forgiveness for, but I ask. How does this affect my life, even if I do it automatically?

Answer: The thing is, asking for forgiveness is hard work. It forces a person to think about his life, what he thought a year ago, and how he lived this past year. Essentially, it is a day when a person judges himself.

Question: Yom Kippur is also called the Day of Purification. What are we purifying ourselves from?

Answer: From egoism, from the things that spoil our lives and prevent us from being a united nation, striving toward the Creator. It is a very challenging day.

Question: Why is it important for us to ask forgiveness from other people before Yom Kippur? This is called Selichot.

Answer: Because it is said that if you are not forgiven by other people, even the Creator will not be able to help you.

The most important thing is to reach a level of connection with others where you ask for them and they ask for you.

Question: Should I ask forgiveness from others with the thought that they will forgive me? Or is it just because it is a tradition for this holiday?

Answer: No, you need to reach a state where you genuinely ask others to forgive you because no matter how strictly we judge ourselves, we often overlook things.

Question: What about when others judge us?

Answer: We must be sensitive and show maximal politeness, as every person in the community is completely equal to others. No one can escape their egoism or the harm we might cause each other.

Question: This is very interesting. It aligns all of us, right?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Whether it is an ordinary worker or a prime minister?

Answer: There is absolutely no difference.

Question: Is this through the act of asking for forgiveness and judging ourselves?

Answer: Yes, all members of society and the nation are neither higher nor lower. We understand that just as each of us stands before this great call from above, so must we act.

Question: We have been progressing step by step, and now we have reached the point where we fast on Yom Kippur. There are five prohibitions, things we cannot do on Yom Kippur. Could you please explain the essence of the fast? What is the meaning of these prohibitions?

Answer: The prohibitions on eating, drinking, and so on are all connected to the idea that people should humble themselves a little to realize that there is the upper force, and they must stand before it, completely detached from their egoistic desires, impulses, etc. This is the main point.

Question: So is this an external attempt to restrict oneself?

Answer: Yes, it is an external attempt, but it greatly affects people. When a person refrains from eating or drinking, reads specific texts, or participates in certain actions with others, such as praying, he elevates himself to a different level.

Question: Could you please explain what it means to be inscribed in the Book of Life? We often hear about being inscribed in the Book of Life. What does it mean?

Answer: The Book of Life is a book with blank pages where our deeds, whether good or not, are written down.

If you act righteously, then your name is inscribed in the Book of Life. There is the upper will, a hand that (as if) writes your name in this book.

Our actions are recorded, meaning they leave an imprint on the surrounding nature. We illuminate this nature with our deeds, and everything depends on how we understand which actions are good and which are evil and how we treat others—with good or evil.

Question: Could we imagine that all of nature is like a blank page, and we leave an imprint on it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What is desirable? Should we enter it with white letters, or…?

Answer: Ideally, with white.

Question: Why is sincere repentance before oneself as important as repentance before others?

Answer: It is an important act that a person can bring himself to—genuinely repenting for his actions and misdeeds over the past year. In this sincere repentance, he can ask not to be judged harshly for his actions.

Question: What is a person afraid of when he wants to be justified, not judged, as you say? What is he afraid of?

Answer: The most important thing is if the person wants the Creator to forgive him because he does not want to be distanced from the Creator. That is the main concern. Everything else is secondary.

Question: So is my fear of being distant from the Creator what I fear most?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: And everything else—health, money, whatever else….

My Response: Those things come and go.

Question: When we talk about being inscribed in the Book of Life, is this what it is about?

Answer: Yes, it is about not being distant from the Creator and constantly trying to get closer to Him.

Question: You mentioned that people judge themselves—whether they have the right goal in life and so on. Yom Kippur is just one day a year. Does it help a person find the path to the purpose of life and how he should live?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Comment: But it is just one day!

My Response: It does not matter; it is 24 hours. If a person spends them in contemplation, he can correct many things he has done.

Question: In just these 24 hours?

Answer: Yes.

Question: You made a correct clarification here, 24 hours gives me a completely different feeling. And if we break it down further into minutes and seconds, it is even more profound.

Tell me, we try to cleanse our hearts on this day, just one day a year. What prevents us from doing this every day? Something is preventing us.

Answer: Our egoism! It pulls us in different directions toward different goals, and we lose focus. But on this day, the entire nation around us is doing the same thing. People gather in prayer houses and read special prayers, and thus, there is a greater opportunity for people to delve deeper into themselves.

Question: Is it possible to take the feelings we experience on Yom Kippur and somehow carry them into every day of the year, extend them throughout the coming year?

Answer: Yes, there is a part of our actions that we experience as a kind of “small Yom Kippur.” In each daily prayer…

Question: After Yom Kippur? Daily?

Answer: Yes, there are elements present when we judge ourselves, feel that we are in the wrong, and ask for forgiveness.

Question: So is there a “small Yom Kippur” in every day?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this the way a person should live?

Answer: That is the way a person should live, of course.

Question: So should we judge ourselves every day?

Answer: This is present in our daily prayers, though not as intensely as on Yom Kippur.

Question: Indeed, the prayers of Yom Kippur carry such power! Can the prayer on Yom Kippur change a person’s destiny if he engages with it wholeheartedly?

Answer: I believe it can. It is a special state of the world, of nature, of the person, and the nation. Therefore, Yom Kippur can change everything.

Question: So, if we truly invest ourselves in Yom Kippur, could we even stop wars?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Does Yom Kippur help a person begin to live in a new way?

Answer: Possibly. How much it helps depends, but fundamentally, if a person wants to change, he should not wait for Yom Kippur. He should begin now. Then he will see that everything can truly be changed and that any day of the year is suitable for that.

Question: We have not spoken about Yom Kippur like this in a while. Tell me, you were talking about Yom Kippur just now, but there is a feeling that you were not just talking about a Jewish holiday, but about the entire world. Is that how you see Yom Kippur?

Answer: Absolutely! It is a day of atonement for the entire world. If a person treats the prayers as a kind of self-judgment, then in principle, it will cleanse him.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/7/24

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Question: What can be done to make the ninth of Av not a day of mourning? What state must we reach for it to become a holiday?

Answer: Change yourselves from those who receive to those who give, from those who hate others to those who love them, and this day will become a holiday.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/24, Writings of Rabash “Cast Their Seed Among the Nations”

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Question: What is the Kabbalistic meaning of the holiday of Shavuot?

Answer: The meaning of the holiday of Shavuot is the receiving of the instruction for revealing the Creator to the people living in our world. This is the Torah, or more precisely, the science of Kabbalah.

Shavuot is unique among all holidays because we received from above, through certain people, the revelation of the method that provides the foundation for revealing the Creator to people in our world. This method is called the Torah, or Kabbalah, or the true Torah.

Essentially, this is the only thing we need to achieve in this world. It is the goal we should strive for. Everything else is transient. Therefore, I very much hope that people, year by year, especially in connection with this holiday, will increasingly understand its significance.

Question: If we delve a little deeper into the essence of this holiday, why was it necessary to bring people to a state of hatred? As it is said: the children of Israel stood around Mount Sinai.

Answer: It had to be this way; otherwise, we do not feel the need for the method of connection within us.

If we feel that we can reach the highest level of our development—on the level of the Creator—as if on the top of a mountain, which can only be climbed if we overcome Sinai (the state of hatred between us), then the method of overcoming mutual hatred, mutual rapprochement, which allegorically represents climbing the mountain, can only be achieved with our active participation, our serious work on ourselves. This is the entire method of implementing the Torah.

That is why we received it. To the extent that we implement this method, we attract the upper light upon ourselves, which changes us, brings us closer together, and binds us to one another. This is what we must achieve.

Question: Why is it called the holiday of Shavuot?

Answer: Because it precisely measures the time from the exodus from Egypt: 49 full days, seven weeks, which we precisely measure from the rejection of our egoism (Pesach) to the state where we can receive the instruction for rising above it, that is, the instruction for changing our egoistic nature.

Breaking away from egoism for 50 days, we begin to correct egoistic desires into intentions for giving and loving. And then we reveal within them the upper force, the upper state, the upper world.

Question: What do I do during these 49 steps?

Answer: I correct all my egoistic intentions corresponding to each of the 49 steps—seven weeks. Everything else needs to be studied.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/11/24

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