Entries in the 'Holidays' Category

The Holidays Lead Us To Perfection

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus,” 23:01 – 23:2:  And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: The Lord’s appointed [holy days] that you shall designate as holy occasions. These are My appointed [holy days]. 

Holy convocation at different levels, this is the holidays.

Before you come together, people are seriously engaged in a spiritual work, trying to unite. This period is called the distance between the holidays. A parish of the unified masses to a new higher degree of unity among themselves epitomizes a holiday.

The Torah describes what sacrifices were made and what level of egoism over which people had to ascend in order to create a particular style of sacred assembly, which is called the Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot, etc.

Question: From a spiritual point of view, towards what point does the chain of events lead a person?

Answer: Towards reaching complete perfection. Of all the holidays, there are two most obscure: Shavuot and Purim. It would seem, especially the holiday of Shavuot (the receiving of the Torah), which lasts only one day and during which they only read very small portions to pray and they eat dairy foods. Receiving the Torah is an enormous celebration! What could be more important than that?  The custom to eat dairy food that day comes from the fact that it symbolizes the property to give, to distribute the property of the Torah.

We treat Purim as some children’s holiday. These are the two most hidden holidays because they have to be reached by very serious internal efforts. As a rule, the higher, deeper, and  spiritually stronger some states are, so they are more discreet, hidden, and humble .

Comment: We always talk a lot about the holiday of Passover, the exodus from Egypt, but this is only the beginning.

Answer: This is the beginning of all spiritual states. And besides, this is the beginning of the year, the beginning of the month, and the beginning of any calculation in spiritual work.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/28/14

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The Holiday Of The Fruit Trees

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Today [February 4th]is the Jewish holiday, Tu B’Shevat (Arbor Day). What is the spiritual meaning of this holiday from the Kabbalistic perspective?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah deals with the evolution of man until he reaches the level of the uppermost force of nature. In the meantime, this force is concealed from us, but we can discover it to the extent that we grow. The best symbol of growth is the tree. Therefore, the new year of the trees is celebrated on the 15th of the month of Shevat (Tu B’Shevat) according to the Hebrew calendar. During this time, the trees begin to grow again and to bloom, which means that nature revolves from withering during the fall until the summer when everything begins to open up and to bloom. On this day, there is a switch toward regrowth in the land of Israel, and therefore we celebrate it. This holiday is related to fruit, to the gifts of the land and mainly of the trees. This does not refer to what the land itself produces, the vegetables, but to different kinds of fruit. People eat fruit and drink wine.

This holiday symbolizes a person’s growth since man is called the tree in the field. The Torah says that a man, during his lifetime,  is like a tree in the garden. Therefore, he should be looked after and taken care of if we want him to bear fruit and not to grow like a wild tree.

It is emphasized that the holiday of Tu B’Shevat is not just a celebration of trees, but the holiday of the cultivated trees that bear fruit, which means those that were looked after and from which man expects fruit, just like a person who develops spiritually. In that case, we must take care of the tree: to hoe around it, water it, clean the fruit with steam, cover them from the cold, and prune the leaves and branches. There are 39 actions that must be performed on trees, and they are all an allegory of the spiritual work that a person must internally perform on himself. Then, he will grow and bear the right fruit. The holiday of Tu B’Shevat reminds us that we are a fruit tree that must bear good, sweet fruit. We must think about that and take care of ourselves properly.

Question: What is the meaning of fruit?

Answer: Fruit is the human part in us that grows so that it can be picked from the tree, blessed, and eaten. The fruit unites and integrates the common work of the Creator and man. Man must take care of the tree and exert himself in every possible way. The Creator gives the Light and all the minerals in the earth for that, and eventually, they receive the fruit. All of a person’s work add up to the fact that he now can eat that fruit in order to bestow for the Creator’s sake.

I wish everyone a happy Tu B’Shevat, and bless you all to grow and be a good tree!
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From KabTV’s “Tu B’Shevat” 2/4/15

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The War To Attain The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom Rabash, Volume 1, “The Miracle of Chanukah”: The Greek domination is opposite from the Jewish way. The matter of the Greeks means that they work only within reason, which means in the heart and the mind. Clearly at a time when the nation of Israel wanted to work above reason and disregard what the external mind obliges us to do, they couldn’t do so.

This is called the Greeks’ war, which is when the real work begins, which means that the nation of Israel wants to get on the track that leads to adhesion with the Creator. This path is called faith above reason. The Greeks, however, want to control the body, so that it would not give up anything if the mind doesn’t agree to it.

Indeed there are many materials in the wisdom of Kabbalah that are consistent with reason, logic, and a rational approach. Take Baal HaSulam’s articles about nature for example, about the upper Providence and the system of the upper worlds.

When we explain that to scientists and intelligent science lovers they are thrilled and immediately declare that it isn’t about religion but first-class science. Science is based on intelligent understanding, rational analysis, and facts. Science offers the opportunity for debates, research, and data analysis. How does that go along with faith above reason?

According to our current logic, the scientific approach is right and justified. But when we want to transcend the boundaries of the human mind and feelings, to expand them to greater dimensions above time, motion, space and above the sciences of this world, which are based on corporeal thoughts and feelings, there is no one with whom we can argue in our rational search for the truth.

In order to ascend, we must first connect new vessels of perception to our natural vessels. Expanding the mind requires special actions on our part, and here we should listen to the advice of Kabbalists who achieved this themselves and tell us how we should act.

If I want to enter a new dimension, above my human mind and feelings and to acquire new vessels of perception, I have to work against my nature. After all, I aspire for the “space” of the desire to bestow, and so I have to develop vessels of bestowal, which I don’t have.

The whole Torah, which means the Kabbalistic method, is meant for that. It is only in these new vessels that I will be able to perceive the upper reality, to understand and attain the forces, plans, programs, and reasons for everything that also happens in my world.

I discover these new attributes and everything that takes place in them according to my advancement in formatting the vessels that operate in order to bestow and not in order to receive. Thus I learn the actions of the upper force, which we call the Creator, since this force created my corporeal world.

I live in the corporeal world and at the same time develop additional vessels of bestowal that operate in an opposite manner. In this way, I discover the upper world and advance towards a perfect, eternal reality. I fight so as not to stay on the corporeal level but to ascend to the human level, to resemble the Creator.

I have to acquire vessels on the way, the attributes and discernments that are totally in bestowal, which means that they resemble the Creator. All the wars fought in order to ascend and to format ourselves on the new level that resembles the Creator are called God’s wars and we conduct them in order to get closer to the Creator and adhere to Him.

Some of these wars are Maccabean wars when a person concentrates his powers and tries to adhere to the Upper Light by connecting to other people who want to reach the same goal, despite his ego. This connection is so strong that the attribute of bestowal is revealed within it. The connection between them is ignited by itself and burns like the burning bush that burned before Moses’ eyes.

This is a totally internal war and its only goal is to transcend the forces of separation and to reach connection in which we will discover the Light for the first time. In other words, using the terminology of Chanukah, we will find the jug of oil for the candles and it will bring us the Light.
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From the Lesson “The Importance of Chanukah” 12/18/14

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What kind of a schism was happening among the people of Israel in the time of the Maccabees, to which the holiday of Chanukah is connected?

Answer: This was a very difficult period. Our ego was growing all the time and we were compelled to overcome it. At the same time and in several stages, we didn’t succeed in overcoming our ego, and so the Greek sensation arrived. This was the sensation that it was not worthwhile to always manage this inner struggle and connect with the upper force, but rather it was possible to live a simple materialistic life, which is convenient for the body and is what is done by all the rest of the nations.

This is called the Greek approach. The Greek within a person says to him: “The main thing is physical life! We build nice houses, celebrate and enjoy life. Join us!”

The Greeks didn’t intend to enslave the people of Israel, they only wanted this formerly great and strong people to become like the rest of humanity. The Greeks were the whole of humanity in those times, its most advanced part.

But the moment that the Jews broke their connection, they caused all kinds of troubles for themselves, also including those that came from the Greeks. If we belong to the people of Israel, we cannot tear the connection between us and the connection with the higher power and begin to live like the Greeks. This is not possible for us and inevitably something will happen.

The world suddenly will feel that its inner energy, its inner Light, has become exhausted. This feeling will appear in all the nations of the world, not just in the people of Israel for everyone will stop receiving the unique power through it. So all kinds of problems and troubles will come, and the nations of the world will blame them on the people of Israel.

This will obligate the people of Israel to connect and unite again, to join together like sheep that are surrounded by wolves. The moment that we unite, the Upper Light will again begin to stream through us into the world and everything will calm down.

Everything will be calm, the pressure on Israel will disappear, the tension within Israel will decrease, and once again, controversies will again return. We will again stop being concerned about our connection and unity, will separate and invite a new wave of troubles.

That is how these waves come one after the other. We are united and connected for a particular period, we do good things for ourselves and the whole world. But after that, we drift apart from each other again, which will be bad both for us and for the rest of the world. And so the disgruntled world comes to us and adds to our suffering, forcing us once again to connect.

We complain that history has repeated itself for the entire length of our way, for all of these thousands of years and throughout the generations. But, the reason for this lies hidden within ourselves. War flares up because of a clash between the two approaches: the former approach of the people of Israel and the approach of the rest of the peoples represented by the Greeks in the story of Chanukah.

When this Greek approach penetrates the people of Israel, it creates a schism. This is the same situation we are found in today! Apparently the people of Israel are in the land of Israel, but they are not a nation because if connection doesn’t exist between us, we are simply a bunch of exiles, an ingathering of exiles.

So it is not just that we cannot bring the Light to ourselves, which is the inner energy, the security, the health, the Light, through which everything in our lives is determined. Rather, we also don’t move this Light through us to the world in order to illuminate the rest of humanity.

Today we don’t have power because there is no unity between us. And so we cannot attract the Light to ourselves or disseminate it to the whole world through us. That Light that we must distribute to other peoples is not within us, so they blame us for all their troubles and disasters.

All the sufferings that they experience are derived from that same feeling that they must get something good from the people of Israel but are not receiving it. It is necessary to hear what they are saying. There are no people in the world that will not come with accusations against the people of Israel, from the nations in Latin America to Japan, from Australia to Iceland. And we see how forcefully they make this demand. And the worse it gets in the world, the stronger these demands will be towards Israel.
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From the program “A New Life” 12/11/14

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What exactly do we celebrate on Chanukah? What are we happy about, and how do we make our lives happy today not only on holidays?

Chanukah is dedicated to events that happened in 167 BC, the war of the Maccabees. But the war was conducted not only against the Greeks.

Between the people of Israel themselves there was a great schism that divided the society into two groups: those who opposed the invasion of the Greeks and those who supported it. The secular elite accepted new values that were brought to the people of Israel by the Greeks.

And the second group, that called itself the Maccabees, opposed the penetration of Greek culture into the Jewish people. In this manner, a schism appeared among the people, an internal ideological war. And all of this was under the conditions of a serious external threat.

Is it possible to see here some kind of parallel with what is happening in our day in Israeli society, which also lives under conditions of an internal schism and an external threat today?

Answer: Clearly, the situation today is much different from the wars of the Maccabees. This is because the Greeks didn’t come to conquer the land of Israel; they only wanted to instill their culture, attitude towards nature, science, and way of life into it.

This was the inner essence of these wars. They were intended to disseminate Greek materialism to everyone. The Greeks agreed that higher forces of nature exist, but they were very simple. The main thing was that a person should bow down to them, and he could then live however he wanted regarding everything else.

They didn’t demand that a person live according to the laws of connection and unity, as was customary among the people of Israel. So, many people willingly accepted the dominance of the Greeks. If a person accepted Greek culture, their statues, their stadiums, then he would become like them. Much later, the English and the French established colonies in African nations with identical goals by bringing their culture to them.

In other words, this was a war of cultures. Among the people of Israel, a war broke out because the people didn’t want to accept the Greek materialistic approach to life. This led to an internal schism among the people of Israel between those who accepted the Greek approach and those who opposed it.

A materialistic approach to life was accepted specifically by the elites, the military officers, the rich, the executives, and the highest strata of society.

Question: And what was the culture of the people of Israel in that period that they so much wanted to protect from the Greeks?

Answer: This was the same culture that manifested itself in the group of Abraham on the basis of, “And you shall love your friend as yourself.” It connected everyone through love and mutual bestowal. Each one understood that he was connected with everyone else and existed thanks only to this connection and unity.

Through the realization of a connection like this between them, they felt their connection with the higher power of nature. This is because there is only one higher power at work in all of nature, which can be called the Creator.

This power illuminates a person according to the law of equivalence of form. When we connect among us, then we also become singular, like this power. And so it begins to illuminate us and we feel it. We feel this illumination, the presence of this bright power among us, which brings us blessing and success in all of our activities.

This is like a good energy that is discovered in every person among the people of Israel and in all of these people together.

Question: If this force is the bearer of such goodness, why were the Greeks against it?

Answer: The idea is that in order to discover this force in our connection, it is necessary to conduct a struggle with our ego. This is because the ego pushes us away from each other and it is necessary to fight it all the time in order to have an inclination to be drawn towards everyone.

So we must awaken the forces of society that will obligate each one to be attracted towards it, to publicize this knowledge and call for everyone to be concerned about everyone else. This is called mutual responsibility. The main thing is connection and unity between us. We exist and win thanks only to this.
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From the program “A New Life” 12/11/14

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The holiday of Chanukah begins, reminding us of the victory of the Maccabees in the war with the Greeks. What does their opposition mean in a deeper sense?

Answer: “The Greeks” is my desire to enjoy; my egoism that tells me: “Listen, you need to rely on logic and instinct. We have to live by the mind, and you have it. You can arrange life rationally, evaluating and weighing every opportunity. Be like everyone else.”

This is the Greek approach. It is  correct and good, everyone likes it, and there is nothing to argue against. It is true that the world cannot realize it because our life is far from paradise. However, we simply have no other tools that are clear, true, logical, backed by science and psychology, based on a solid foundation, and understood by sense and reason.

But there is another approach: the “Maccabean.”

“No,” say the Maccabees, “we do not want to live in this way. We want to live by the laws that Abraham laid as the foundation of the Jewish people, the principle of love for the other as for oneself. This is what we must achieve.”

The Greek in me replies to this: “To be honest, you are one hundred percent right.”

But wait, how so? After all, he just stated the opposite. It turns out that both are right?

“Yes,” my Greek continues, “I would, of course, like to live according to love. But this is an unattainable utopia. Do you have a pill, which if swallowed, would ensure all the people of the earth will love each other? Can you impose unity, mutual help, mutual care, mutual guarantee, and equality everywhere? Are you able to make everyone friends?”

Thus, the problem of the Maccabees is that they are irrational and unrealistic. The same is said about the wisdom of Kabbalah: “Why is it needed? It is better to achieve real success in life. A slight interest in high matters might be useful, but to give them all of my life is too much. It isn’t logical.”

That’s why the Maccabees are initially small and weak. They have nothing that will convince me. A tiny Maccabee is hidden within me and a strong Greek is comfortably settled.  What should I do? What war will occur between them?

But I receive an answer that tells me: “Even if you give up the external picture, internally you understand that there is no other way, we need to achieve full unity, which is love, so that then you will start to build the appropriate group. In it, you will attract the Light, which is a special force that is inherent in nature that you can use. You have only a small spark, but nature has a huge Light, and you can attract it to yourself.”

Then you will see that the whole world was just a theater of illusion. It will fade and dissolve; like in Hollywood movies, it will vanish and be gone. Indeed, the whole picture was imaginary.

However, this will happen under the condition that you join your spark, your candle, with the great Light that fills the world. And in order to feel the need for this, you must make efforts that are contrary to your own mind.

Question: How could I explain this to my family who are far from such thoughts when the Chanukah candles are being lit? How can they be introduced, even a little bit, to this understanding?

Answer: The Maccabees won the war against the invaders because they became united. They went to the people and managed to bring it to unity.

Therefore, it is not necessary for us to bring calls for unity during war, when it is already happening. No, we must unite now and then there will be no war. By this we will neutralize all the evil forces.

So, let’s unite. What harm could there be? None. We need only to apply a little effort. That is what Chanukah tells us: by uniting, we will win our greatest victory.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/14, Writings of Rabash

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More Shade Than Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You said that a holiday hut, a Sukkah, symbolizes the soul of a person. How can one understand this?

Answer: A person sitting in a Sukkah symbolizes a desire. The measurements of the Sukkah symbolize the qualities of the human soul, and its roof symbolizes a Masach (screen).

That is, I don’t want to receive Light for my own pleasure, so there must be more shade than light in a Sukkah. This symbolizes my readiness to be satisfied with the minimum necessities, with everything else being for bestowal.

This is like the level of the Tzadik (Righteous), bestowal for the sake of bestowal. First of all, it is necessary to reach this to attain a beginning of resemblance and equivalence to the Creator. There are a few stages of approach to the Creator, and this is the initial stage.

The soul is our desire to receive, to enjoy, that is organized in a form like this by the right environment, the integration of forces, of preparation, as if it were found within a Sukkah. Certainly, this is not talking about a material Sukkah, but about such an integration of my desires within the environment that makes it possible for me to correct them gradually for the good of others.

On every day of the Sukkot holiday, we receive a new Light, with whose help we scrutinize our desires and correct them. The illumination that reaches us is called Ushpizin (guests). We receive honored guests in our Sukkah in this order: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David. They are seven Lights, each of them correcting in us a particular part of the soul: Hesed (the characteristic of Abraham), Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod and Malchut.

So, during the entire holiday of Sukkot, we correct ourselves by arranging festive meals for the Ushpizin. It is customary to eat and to drink only in a Sukkah because only there is it possible to make a correction.

During Sukkot we make blessings with four symbols: Lulav (palm), Etrog (citron), myrtle, and willow. Their form is similar to the innate characteristics of the four parts of the human soul—Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut—that together, comprise a complete HaVaYaH.

So, there is a tradition to choose the Etrog carefully so that there will not be any defects in it, for it symbolizes Malchut, the foundation of creation, the foundation of the soul. All of these symbols must be connected together, and then it is possible to bless, meaning attract the Light.

From the side, this process can seem like some kind of idolatrous ceremony. The person shakes the symbolic branches that are gathered together a few times, moving them in all the directions of the Light: right, left, middle, above, below, forward, and backward. However, if we read the explanation of the Ari in the book, Shaar HaMitzvot, it then will be clear that lofty spiritual activities are concealed behind this.

In fact, a person must carry them out within himself. The external actions are only a tradition, whereas the main thing is that agitation that he performs within his soul, correcting it. The correction of the soul is the purpose of a person’s life.

During each one of the seven days of Sukkot, it is necessary to carry out internal activities like these in a Sukkah that is built inside of us by attracting Ohr Makif there. If we arrange all of the parts of the soul to resemble the four symbols of Sukkot and we know how to bless them in all the directions of our desire—right and left, with bestowal and with reception—then, at the end of the Sukkot holiday, we reach the holiday of Simchat Torah.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/02/14

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why does the holiday of Simchat Torah (rejoicing with the Torah) immediately follow Sukkot?

Answer: During the seven days of Sukkot, when I am in the Sukkah, which means surrounded by the surrounding Light, I being am corrected. This Light reaches me through Scach (branches that cover the Sukkah), which itself, is a whole spiritual mechanism.

I have guests every evening, such as  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David, each of whom symbolizes a special attribute in a person. In other words, it is about forces that correct my attributes by turning them from evil into goodness.

I perform internal work on the entire path to perfection and use the Torah as the force of correction, and thanks to that, I am able to identify the evil within me and identify it to such an extent that eventually there is none left.

After this diagnosis, the Torah turns the evil in me into goodness and then I resemble the Creator, the absolute goodness. I am filled with love and bestowal towards others and through them to Him, since it is actually the same thing. Thus I discover what is called “the whole world is filled with His honor.” He is in everything that seems to me as being external.

Question: The holiday of Simchat Torah symbolizes joy. What is a person actually joyful about in this holiday?

Answer: It is that he has used the Torah correctly and has corrected himself in equivalence to the Creator.

Question: Why is it so delightful to resemble the Creator?

Answer: Since we reach adhesion and equivalence of form with Him, now we can bestow unto Him just as He bestows unto me. This is how we are made and there isn’t a more sublime state for us.

Question: But still, what is concealed behind that?

Answer: I was created as a desire to receive pleasure, so in a state of complete equivalence of form to the Creator, I receive pleasure from Him. By turning all the evil into goodness, into similarity to the Creator, I begin to receive all the goodness and infinite abundance from Him. It is because I also want to bestow infinite abundance.

Thus the festive symbolism of the month of Tishre describes the path to the end of correction, which results in the eighth day, Shmini Atzeret, after which there is nothing else to correct. The word “Atzeret” stems from the Hebrew word “to stop – Atsar,” which symbolizes the end of correction.

We compare this perfect state to a pomegranate. All my 613 desires are the seeds of the pomegranate that have finally changed from evil to goodness.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

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What Does The Creator Feel?

Laitman_043On the Sukkot holiday I hold in my right hand and in my left hand the “four species of plants,” connect them to my heart and sway, meaning that I seemingly attract Lights. All of these things are certainly symbols of internal activities for attracting the bestowal of the Creator, which I summon into myself.

Then, I raise myself, correct myself, remove the concealment, and reach revelation in its place.

All of the ceremonies of the Sukkot holiday are no more than signs and symbols of what is happening in the heart where a person makes his characteristics compatible with the Creator. So, he is called an Adam (man), from the word “Domeh” (similar) to the Creator.

The Creator is fully the giver. He is the characteristic of bestowal and love. There is nothing more than this. There is only complete bestowal, complete love, absolute, pure, perfect, and infinite, and it is revealed in us to the same degree that we are ready to absorb it, to bring ourselves in line with it.

In general, I can understand and feel every characteristic only if it is found within me.

When I look at some cockroach, I don’t feel that it lacks something, that it loves its children and right now, is running to them with crumbs of food. I don’t share any characteristics with it to be able to feel it.

However, if I would begin to go deeper to penetrate and explore, ultimately, I would feel the needs of the beastly level. People are able to be sensitive to animals they are close to, including pet owners or scientists who devote themselves to research.

For example, in my childhood, I had a friend who always had small animals living in his pockets: here a mouse, there a bird. He even would come to school with them, and, much later, he went on to study zoology. So, he understood them. He would find a white mouse and pet it, and the mouse wouldn’t run away.

He would say, “You know, he is not afraid to approach you,” as if he was whispering to it.

However, we need to develop other feelings within us to be able to feel the Creator. If my friend recreated the feelings of the mouse within himself, so we need to give shape within us to a feeling of the Creator, bestowal and love.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

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A Sukkah In The Yard And Also In The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Have I understood your explanation correctly, that in addition to the Sukkah that we build in the yard, it is up to us to build it also within the heart?

Answer: Absolutely. And the main thing is to build a Sukkah in the heart. After all, building a Sukkah in the yard is only a custom.

Building a Sukkah in the heart means organizing the desires, intentions, thoughts, yearnings, concerns, anxieties, gratitude, prayers, and everything that I have inside and separating them from the corporeal, beastly desires, which are the concerns for physical existence.

It is up to me to completely differentiate my physical part from the spiritual part. The physical part is concerned about food, sleep, and reproduction, and all of the ordinary human concerns. Whereas, the spiritual part is my reason for living, the goal of my existence, and the meaning of life. To attain the meaning of life, I must examine what desires within me are relevant to this goal.

The part of the desires that are dedicated to attaining the goal of life are called the soul. An entire person is desires. There are physical, corporeal desires that are relevant to this world, as they are with any animal; and there are desires that are beyond physical existence: “What is the reason for my life?” “Who is managing me?” “What will happen to me?” “When will this life be over?” “Must I live merely like a beast or is there something beyond this?”

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that a person must rise to another level beyond physical existence. Throughout life, a person must rise to the next level and begin to live on the level of the Creator. The next level is attained, thanks to acquiring the characteristics of bestowal and love, from which it is possible to see a reality that is beyond this world, to see a world of forces, an infinite reality in which there is no time, movement, space, life or death.

We reach an unlimited development that is called the world to come. And all of this happens during our lifetime in this world, here and now. As it is written: “You will see your world during your life.” We live in a period in which every person can attain it, to the degree that he desires it.

Developing within me characteristics of bestowal and love, meaning developing the soul, is called building a Sukkah within me. For this, it is up to me to scrutinize the desires that exist within me that are linked together and are on different levels of bestowal and reception.

All of these desires are only in regard to a relationship with others and are directed outside of me. No desire is directed towards me. When I compare all of these desires, seeing which of them are closer to charity, which are closer to overcoming, which are more or less limited, I build a kind of envelope around my soul that is like a Sukkah.

Question: Do I examine the entire system of my relationships with other people, and from these relationships build the walls and the thatch for the Sukkah in my heart?

Answer: In a sense this is correct, but it is not that simple. Much time is required to discover my desires and to see what they truly are. After that, when I read books of Kabbalah, I see that I am built precisely according to what is written in them, and so gradually a Sukkah is built in my heart as the outer clothing of this system of relationships.
[145071]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/2/14

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