Question: How can we begin to feel in the holiday of Sukkot all the concepts that you are telling us about: the surrounding lights, the upper force of nature?

Answer: By being among us and taking part in the holiday lessons, activities, and meals, one can sense this taste a little bit. However, in order to experience the true feeling of this holiday, an enormous preparation is required. As it is written, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

One can taste, see, and feel the upper Light, or the Creator, the overall force of all of Creation only after the work of preparation in which a person forms a special, altruistic organ of perception within himself.

To perceive any natural phenomenon, a specialized suitable instrument, a detector, is required. The Creator is a force of love and bestowal. If, inside of me, there also would be even a little bit of bestowal and love for my neighbor, then I would be able to feel the Creator and to reveal Him.

However, if there is no love within me, it means that the Creator is concealed. It isn’t Him concealing Himself from me, but I conceal myself from Him since, as it is written, “The whole earth is full of His glory.” This force fills all of reality, except for me. I do not have the power of love and bestowal, and therefore I am unable to feel that such a force exists around me.

I am like a radio receiver that does not have the required wavelength range, and therefore I cannot catch His wave and do not know whether He exists or not. For me, it is as if He does not exist.

This is what the entire work of changing oneself and correcting one’s attitude toward others is dedicated to, and with it I tune myself like a radio receiver to the Creator’s wavelength, the wave of love and bestowal.

This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah has this name. It is the science of receiving (Kabbalah), receiving the Creator’s signal. A person cannot reach this instantaneously. He needs to study in order to first feel what properties he has right now and what he needs to change in himself in order to reach the state of revelation.

The correct process is, as it is written, “From the love of the creatures to the love of the Creator.” We exist in the world full of rocks, plants, animals, and people so that we can exercise our correct attitude to them so as to develop inside oneself the sensitivity to that wavelength on which connection with the Creator is realized.

Question: Why is it that, during a holiday, a special feeling appears and is experienced by many people?

Answer: During the holiday, there is a small, general light, spreading between everyone. It happens because many people are awaiting the holiday. Their desire acts in the world and generates this illumination. However, it is still very far from the action of the upper Light that Kabbalah is talking about.
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From KabTv’s: “New Life” 10/2/14

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Question: What is the inner meaning of the Sukkot holiday?

Answer: Sukkot is a very important holiday because it celebrates a spiritual ascent. At the end of the year, we reflect on the results of our critical self-analysis.

If we’ve worked well over the course of the year, searching for ways to correct ourselves so as to return to the Creator, then we’ve discovered our guilt in a multitude of transgressions.

And this is precisely the result of our good work, scrutiny of ourselves, and our attitude toward the friends, which showed how full we still are of the evil inclination, hatred toward others, rejection, and egoistic calculations.

After sitting in judgment over ourselves, we deliver a sentence called the start of the new year—Rosh HaShana (head of the year). We want for the Creator, the force of love and bestowal, to be our head, our king.

Rosh HaShana is the coronation of the King as the greatest of all, embodying bestowal, love, warmth, and fulfillment. We value these qualities highly, which is why we extoll this force of nature and wish to become like it, up to total adhesion with it. This is the decision to make on Rosh HaShana, to continue to follow through on it.

Hence, there are two judgments on Rosh HaShana: one severe and one gentle, which precedes the ten days of repentance. During this time we must check our work on our unification and clarify how to achieve unity. After all, the more we correct ourselves uniting as one man with one heart, the more we resemble the one and singular Creator.

With this decision we draw the Surrounding Light, a special luminescence, and see which desires in us are not subject to correction since they cannot be corrected for the sake of bestowal and used to unite with the friends. The other desires, however, can be corrected and used to bring goodness, love, connection, and unity to the friends.

The ten days of repentance separate in all my desires the part that is not yet correctable from that which can be corrected. This separation is called “His left hand over my head”—a left embrace that leaves outside those desires that cannot be embraced.

And then begins the holiday of Sukkot, when “His right hand will embrace me.” During Sukkot, a special luminescence shines on those who wish to unite with all the creatures and cleave to the Creator, to the upper qualities of bestowal and universal love.

The holiday of Sukkot lasts seven days, in accordance with the lights that we need to obtain: Hessed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yessod, and Malchut, or the guests that take turns visiting the daily holiday feasts: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David.

It is written, “I have created the evil inclination, and the Torah whose Light returns to the source.” The Creator has made bad qualities, rather than good: the evil inclination, our ego, which prevents us from uniting, treating each other well, and bestowing to others.

Love of others is the great rule of the Torah, but we don’t want to observe it. The evil in us is everything that opposes our unification with others. This is the meaning of the excerpt, “I have created the evil inclination, and the Torah as a spice.” The Torah is not the physical book resting on the shelf, but a special method of utilizing the force of nature called “Light.” If I make use of this Light, putting myself under its influence, I convert all the evil, intentionally made by the Creator, into good.

From an egoist who rejects and detests others without any reason, I turn into someone loving, until I unify with everybody as one man with one heart.

Until Sukkot we engaged in judgment over ourselves, clarifying what can and cannot be corrected. And it turned out that we are full of evil, like a pomegranate that’s filled with seeds but is rotten through and through.

On Rosh Hashana we’ve decided that we want to become bestowing and raise the Creator, the force of love, to reign over us. Over the subsequent ten days of repentance we check the ten Sefirot of our soul, the ten parts of our desire, clarifying what can and cannot be corrected. For we contain impure desire (Klipot) that aren’t subject to correction, which we therefore simply restrict, separate, or freeze.

And the correctable desires become corrected in the days of Sukkot. This is the first correction of the desire, and it is done by virtue of the surrounding Light that shines on us. The symbol of the surrounding Light is the Sukkah, a special tabernacle or canopy.

We make a shade because we don’t want to receive the Light for ourselves, for our own benefit; rather, we desire change, connection with the Creator, the Light, for the sole reason of giving it to others. That is what a righteous person is—one who takes only what’s necessary for his sustenance, and gives away the rest. Such is the corrected reception symbolized by the Sukkah.
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From a KabTV’s “A New Life” No. 439, 9/30/2014

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 Question: The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is the most significant day of the year for the people of Israel. What is the spiritual meaning of this special day? How should we relate to it in order to correspond to its spiritual roots and to transfer our life to a new degree?

 Answer: The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is not simply a tradition. It reflects a special spiritual state in a person’s development. We shouldn’t look at this day separately, but as a part of the entire year’s cycle.

Upon the completion of a year, that being a cycle of internal changes, we evaluate everything that we went through, which is called “repentance.” Thus we decide that it is necessary to rise to a new degree, to begin the new year (Rosh Hashanah), cross to a new state, a higher, purer, more exalted one. So we crown the Creator, the force of bestowal and love, setting Him up to reign over us as the most sublime property.

This is when we begin to judge ourselves: are we truly in the property of bestowal? All our properties are divided into ten parts, ten Sefirot. And we are clarifying which desires in those ten parts can be corrected, and which cannot.

In essence, a person’s soul needs to be corrected. And a soul is all our desires, which are still corrupted and need correction.

 Question: What exactly needs to be corrected: one’s actions or the soul?

Answer: In our world, actions are performed with hands and feet, or through words. But the wisdom of Kabbalah explains that most important is a corrected intention, which is the true desire of a person.

Actions alone aren’t enough, because I can perform them simply out of habit. Then, it is actually more difficult for me not to do them than to do them. And these can be the actions that I otherwise would never have made in my life had I not been accustomed to them from childhood.

In this case, it is no longer fulfillment of a commandment but traditions instilled in childhood that are performed automatically. For someone it might be difficult to carry them out, but for someone else, it is difficult to not do them.

This is why we are not speaking about an action, but rather an intention. An action, after all, does not change: As we have been doing it, so we will continue. But in intention, in a person’s attitude towards the performed action, there is always change.

The key is a person’s attitude to those around him. After all, love for one’s neighbor as for oneself is the great law of the Torah. This is the point of view from which I need to check myself in order to see how much I am capable of loving my neighbor.

The upper force is a force of bestowal and love, and our goal is to become like it. This is why we need to reach the degree of man, Adam, which means similar to (Domeh) the Creator. But how can we check this? Where is that doctor who will irradiate me with an X-Ray and tell me exactly how similar I am to the Creator?

Such a doctor does not exist, so a person needs to check himself on his own. This kind of X-Ray machine requires a special Light, which checks us. This Light is called the Light that Reforms.

If I am studying the true Torah, namely the wisdom of Kabbalah, then thanks to it, I start to see the truth. I see how egoistic I am, what exactly is it in me that is bad, and what needs to be corrected, as if I shine an X-Ray on myself.

This is only visible to me and others may not notice it. And after I have seen myself on the X-Ray image, it becomes clear to me what needs to be corrected. The Torah arranges this image where I only see intentions, and only to the level of the depth which I am capable of correcting. Everything else I do not see, and it can remain until the next year.

Immediately after the onset of the new year, I find myself in these X-ray sessions, which are called ten days of repentance. I irradiate my heart, clarifying my intentions with respect to those around me in each action, and get back these images.

Kabbalah explains that Malchut ascends to Bina and compares herself to it. Malchut is our egoistic desire, which rises to Bina, the desire for bestowal, clarifying the extent to which it differs from it, how far we are from caring for our neighbors, from good relations, and how we are only thinking about our own benefit.

 Question: What is shown on these X-ray images?

Answer: This image is black-and-white. It shows how much white there is in you, that is, the intentions for the benefit of your neighbor. And the black color points to the intentions for your own benefit, which you can correct.

Thus, the scope of our work is revealed to us. This is personal work that is in store for each of us, but it is aimed at the commonality, at bestowal to all, and through them, to the Creator, which is from the love of the created beings, to love of the Creator. The Creator is a force, integrating everyone together, and not something that exists outside. It is written: “The Creator dwells among his people.”

Thus, if I strive to unite with everyone and want to turn into one whole with them, then I reveal the overall integral system that generalizes our unity, which is called the Creator. This is how it is revealed in our perception.

Therefore, during Yom Kippur we need to strive to love our neighbor as much as possible and wider, and even beyond the people of Israel, extending it to all mankind. This is the reason why during Yom Kippur it is customary to read the story about the prophet Jonah, whom the Creator instructed to lead the city of Nineveh, which symbolizes the world, to correction.
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From the TV Show “The New Life” #438. 9/30/2014

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The inner changes required for a person to connect with others to a complete adherence with connection, unity, and mutual sharing that balances us with nature is not a simple process. The stages of changes of this type are connected to a cycle that ultimately closes at a beginning point.

It is up to us to pass through this entire cycle, to correct ourselves, and transform into a useful part of nature, not a cancerous tumor within it that devours everything around it and destroys the globe. A person must be a source of health and comfort for all the good and balance in nature.

Every year these states return as in a spiral and repeat themselves on higher levels. Essentially, a year is the number of stages through which we must pass in our connection and in order to reach the goal.

This cycle of stages of correction was discovered by Abraham in ancient times. He taught his students who became the source of the creation of the Jewish people. So this is expressed in the annual cycle of the Jewish holidays.

We must understand that the Jewish holidays are not the tradition of a particular nation or of one people. Rather they are symbols of unique spiritual states in which we attain mutual bestowal, love between us on higher levels, and a greater depth of integration in this connection in heart and mind.

This is not a celebration of particular historical events that were experienced by some isolated people and not relevant to the general program of nature. These holidays reflect spiritual states of the people as a community. They are already latent in nature as particular levels of our equivalence with nature as we advance towards states of balance and harmony.

If we identify ourselves as a people and connect among us to one degree or another by attaining a particular level of unity that is latent in nature, then we specifically celebrate this event. When we rise a little further to the next level of connection with nature and equivalence of form with it, we again celebrate this attainment.

A person doesn’t establish the holidays for himself according to his decision; rather, he celebrates the attainment of similarity and adherence that already exists in nature. So these holidays cannot be changed.

In our state today we are completely opposite to integral nature. All of the parts of nature are linked one hundred percent in a unified system. Only the human species is found in total destruction and opposite the natural unity.

However, if humanity, or at least part of it, will begin to transform itself into becoming similar to nature, will approach its form of unity and totality, then we will reach a particular degree of connection. First of all, it is up to us to recognize that we hate each other. This is the nature with which we are born.

This is called “recognition of evil,” the awareness that our opposite nature doesn’t allow us to reach harmony and balance with it. For this we require internal scrutiny, and we must pray to Lehitpalel (incriminate –Lehaplil) ourselves. Such confession prior to Rosh Hashanah is called the “month of Elul.”

At this time, we scrutinize our true state in relation to that good and wonderful state of connection we must reach. This means that we discover what is said to be the corrected state, we compare it with our present state, we see the immense gap between them, and so we pray to Mitpalelim (judge ourselves).

We understand what criminals we are and what we must do with ourselves, so we begin to organize the work to begin to advance towards connection. The power that is found in nature and connects all of its parts we proclaim as the ruling power that controls us! This power holds the entire system together and becomes our goal. We yearn to resemble it. This is called Rosh Hashanah, the beginning (Rosh) of our changes (Shinuim) and the new cycle at the end of which we want to be like the general power that permeates nature.
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From the program “A New Life” 9/14/14

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The New Year is the beginning of a long chain of inner corrections that we gradually go through. We begin understanding our mission in this chain when we arrive at the Day of Judgment (Yom Kippur) where we judge ourselves in a strict manner.

We make a decision about what we need to do in order to attain the force which we have set as our goal. This force is united, and therefore, we also need to become as one man, uniting all of humanity.

This time, the unity includes not only the small group that once ran away from Ancient Babylon, and not only the nation of Israel. Now all of humanity has to reach unity with the general system of nature. That is how we understand the might and uniqueness of the Day of Judgment.

The culmination point of the Day of Judgment is when we read an excerpt from the Book of Prophets, Maftir Yonah, which speaks about Yonah the Prophet whom the Almighty sent to Ninveh to warn the people living there that the city will be destroyed unless they repent. History tells us that Yonah wanted to run away from his mission of bringing all of humanity to correction, where the city of Ninveh represented humanity. However, the course of events unfolded in a way where he understood that he won’t be able to run away and has to fulfill the mission that was entrusted to him.

The nation of Israel, like Yonah the Prophet, knows about its mission and has the power to fulfill it, and it must lead the whole world, the whole “city of Ninveh” out of its situation.

After that we have the holiday of Sukkot, when we sit in the shadow of a special tent—a Sukkah, or in other words, we cover ourselves with a screen. The four symbols of the holiday of Sukkot—the Lulav (palm branch), Hadassim (myrtle branches), Aravot (willow branches), and Etrog (a citrus fruit)—symbolize the full HaVaYaH, or the four stages of the upper force’s revelation in one’s corrected will to receive.

Our egoistic desire has four layers which we need to correct. Egoism is what stands between us, hindering us from uniting. If we can connect all these forms of egoism together (take all four symbols of Sukkot into our hands) and aim them directly at the force of unity, this means we perform the blessing called “Arba Minim.”

Sukkot is followed by the holiday of Simchat Torah (the Joy of the Torah), when we rejoice at the upper force which came to us all the time and helped us make the corrections and go through all of their stages.

Then we reach the holiday of Hanukkah—a state where we do not want anything. We only look at the holiday candles, but don’t use them. Hanukkah is a spiritual holiday because we only rejoice at the Light, at how the upper force sets in within us and separates us from our egoism or the evil inside us, while all of us together wish to connect to this force.

The next holiday is Purim, as opposed to Yom Kippur (Ki–Purim—like Purim). On Yom Kippur we observe a special fast, while on Purim, on the contrary, we eat and drink to our heart’s content, and rejoice. On Purim there is a commandment to get so drunk that you can’t tell Haman apart from Mordechai, a sinner from a righteous man.

That’s because we are no longer as ephemeral or devoid of all egoism as on Hanukkah, but on the contrary, we correct our evil. We correct all of the previous egoism and the evil inclinations against unity. That is why this holiday is opposite to the Day of Judgment, Yom Kippur, which is “like Purim.” On Yom Kippur the un-corrected desires merely become revealed, while on Purim they actually become corrected.

Now all the desires and aspirations can be connected into one whole. Every person can give others presents, demonstrating his love. That is how we reach the state where we do not differentiate between a sinner and a righteous man, since everything is corrected. You are permitted to do anything you wish, and it will be good! There is no difference between people. All of our aspirations, desires and thoughts are correct.

The following holiday, Passover, symbolizes our constant exodus from evil into good, from slavery to freedom. We come out of our egoism, “step over” (Pasah) it, becoming free of slavery, of the power of our egoistic desire which rules over us, and we rise above it.

Then we begin counting the days of the Omer, where we count the corrections of our desires until we reach the holiday of Shavuot—the Giving of the Torah. We discern that we have to receive the upper force, which will correct us, because the only thing we have inside us is the evil inclination. But in addition to the evil inclination, a means to correct it was created—the Torah, the Light that Reforms.

The holiday of Shavuot, the giving of the Torah, means that we have to receive the force for our correction from above. This force helps us to build ourselves, but we cannot remain in this state and so we break. This collapse is symbolized by the 9th of Av, which completes the cycle.

By building ourselves up and then breaking, we come to understand the reasons for our fall and the entire depth of evil. Prior to that, the evil was concealed and was not sufficiently apparent, but now we understand that we need greater correction of evil. By correcting it, we attain the end of correction.

It’s very much like promising yourself that you won’t eat any sweets, and then finding yourself in a confectionery shop where you are surrounded by so many delicious treats that you completely forget about your promise and the fact that sugar is bad for you. The pleasure enslaves you and you end up overpowered by it.

The same situation arises on the 9th of Av, but on a much greater scale. Yet through this collapse, we learn the depth to which we will have to correct ourselves in order to withstand the enormous “confectionery shop” which confuses us. That’s because we need to correct ourselves not just in relation to a tiny candy, but in relation to the entire, tremendous egoism.

That is how we attain the full correction. We attain unity and thereby reach equivalence with all of nature. But that is not enough. The story of Yonah the Prophet reminds us that we have to take care of the rest of humanity. That is when, after correcting itself, the nation of Israel passes the method on to all of humanity. It comes to humanity like to the city of Nivneh in order to correct it.

Thus, the entire world attains a state of prosperity, completing the cycle that is symbolized by the Jewish holidays.
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From a TV Program “A New Life,” No. 434, 09/14/2014

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Question: A new student who comes to the Pesach meal sees many religious customs and doesn’t understand what is going on.

Answer: These are not religious customs. All the customs of the Israeli nation stem from the wisdom of Kabbalah, and are transcendental and illogical. All this doesn’t exist in nature and so we don’t need to follow them blindly.

The 18 minutes during which the Matzo are baked, for example, are made of  the nine Sefirot of the Direct Light and nine Sefirot of the Returning Light. If we don’t manage to bake the Matzo during this time, a process of fermentation begins, which means that the egoistic desire will begin to swell and to rise. So we don’t eat leavened bread during Pesach since the fermented desire cannot receive the Light of Hochma (wisdom).

What does it mean to escape from Egypt? It’s a very quick transition when a person comes out of egoism and enters altruism, out of our world and into the feeling of the upper world, the feeling of the Creator.

Here, like in the time of birth, you cannot stall since you cease to be nourished by the previous system that provided you with oxygen and other nutrients. It operated upon you through the umbilical cord and your body functioned.

Now a totally different system operates upon you, as your lungs begin to receive oxygen through the air and you begin to breathe independently and to function; your temperature changes and totally new systems begin to operate, a different world and different senses. All this happens at once.

All the Jewish customs stem from the spiritual world and have no corporeal basis or justification. They gradually became customs of other religions as each religion received them in its own way and changed them to suit them.

For the Arabs, an offering is slaughtering a lamb. The word “sacrifice” stems from the Hebrew word “close.” The external customs of different peoples are not very different, but they all stem from ancient spiritual customs.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/14, Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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The vessels of bestowal are also the desire to receive, but it doesn’t receive yet in order to bestow. Suppose I am a guest sitting in front of the Host. When I see how nicely He treats me in the upper layer of the desire too, I am ready to treat Him the same way. His bestowal that is focused on me brings me to the correct response.

At the same time I am under His domination. He is so wonderful, good, and benevolent that this bestowal alone already corrects me and I am ready to bestow upon Him in response.

Thus I respond to the Light in the vessels of GE that are focused on bestowal in order to bestow. They also have a certain Aviut (thickness) but generally speaking I don’t object to the Host. When I absorb His love for me, I cannot harm Him in my desire to receive anymore. It’s hard to understand this since we would be ready to harm Him in a similar situation, because if He loves me, this love makes Him vulnerable and so I can annoy Him.

But we are speaking about the level of truth here: If I see that a person helps me from the bottom of his heart—even though it’s not easy and requires great effort—I establish the same attitude towards him in me. I don’t work in order to bestow like he does yet, but at least I “Don’t do unto your friend what is hated by you.”

Thus, although it’s only the upper layers of Aviut, I work with all its vessels, desires, engaging them just enough not to use their thicker Aviut. I use it only on the condition that I feel His attitude towards me as great love. In the meantime, I can respond only by belonging to Him and not more than that.

It’s about the animate level. I am like a dog at the feet of his master. I work with all my desires, but only in order to adhere to Him. I am inferior to Him.

This isn’t easy. Thanks to this, He can do what He wants with me. Here dedication, devotion, and a level of faith, bestowal, are required, but not more. I annul myself, “Use me as You wish, I am a tool in Your hands.”

But I still cannot operate myself on the human level; it is against my nature to be like Him. This is the next level that AHP connects to, to receive in order to bestow, not only the redemption from the desire but also in it.

In the meantime, however, I annul myself, and it’s this state which symbolizes Chanukah. I follow the Creator despite everything. It’s clear that I am fighting a war, I am killing my enemies, but only those who reject spirituality; “Live,” they say, “Don’t belong to the Light, don’t connect to bestowal.”

Question: I don’t understand what this has to do with the spiritual work.

Answer: Try to focus yourself so that you will not feel hatred towards anyone and so that you will not want to succeed at the expense of anyone. You will agree that everyone should feel good. Even if you don’t contribute anything, you aren’t disturbing. Try to reach this attitude above your desire to receive.

Imagine that we find a treasure worth billions of dollars. Now let’s split it evenly among everyone, including the two of us. Perhaps you agree now, but what if it’s already in your bank account? Believe me that it will hurt to relinquish every penny, this is our nature. So it isn’t easy to reach the level of to bestow in order to bestow. It takes forty years in the desert and eventually the miracle that is accumulated in small portions, time after time, happens.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/13, Writings of Rabash

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There is full abundance in the world, but we can’t manage to arrange it for life; like a family that has material prosperity but such a bad relationship with each other that it’s impossible to live together. Then there is no choice and people either get divorced, or like in our case, the only thing we can do is to connect. We cannot draw away from one another or get divorced because nature still forces us to attain mutual connection.

This is where the war against the Greeks breaks out, the war of how to continue: either in reason or above reason, which means by using the forces of receiving or the forces of bestowal. We see that it’s impossible to live operating with the forces of receiving. Even if nothing is lacking in the world, our life will become unbearable because of the terrible relations between us. Even if we create wonderful conditions, there is still the problem of the hatred and repulsion felt between us, and so nothing will help and we will ruin our lives until it becomes unbearable.

Thus, we reach the recognition of evil in human nature and understand that we only need to correct ourselves from hatred to love. Otherwise there is no chance of existing. The sooner we identify this only option, the better off we will be. Instead of sufferings and troubles that taint the existence of our big family, of all of humanity, we can reach a wonderful corrected life.

This is where the war erupts, each for himself and everyone for everyone else, in an attempt to help everyone leave the hatred and reach love. We feel that it isn’t in our power and that we need another partner here, which is called the upper force.

What’s more, in this process we begin to understand that it’s all predetermined. The problem isn’t that we have to simply make peace between us and forget the hatred we felt before. Everything is done on purpose with this intention in this way so that we will not be able to take a step away from separation, from the ego, from the hate we feel, towards connection, love, and bestowal by ourselves. Then we will need the help of the upper force and to connect to it so that we are adhered to it. Thus we discover the upper force, the only force that operates in reality.

This whole process is possible only by getting closer to the upper force that manages all of reality, that shows it in our minds, and changes reality if we turn to it with this request. Get closer to it and become increasingly more dependent on it. This is how we are incorporated in our root.

All these battles are divided into two major wars: The war over the vessels of bestowal and then the war over the vessels of receiving in order to bestow. The first war is called the Maccabean war. It’s in order to get rid of the current perception of reality and to move to the real perception of reality that allows us to see the spiritual world. Therefore we are only allowed to see the light of the Chanukah candles and not to use them. After the victory of the Maccabees, a second war breaks out in order to fulfill the desires to receive in order to bestow.

So Chanukah symbolizes the end of the first part of our work. The truth is that it is the most difficult half. Therefore, this holiday isn’t mentioned directly anywhere in the Bible but is only referred to by hints because it is the holiday of the Light, of bestowal. It’s impossible to express this correctly in our corporeal language and to describe this war clearly.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/01/13, Writings of Rabash

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First We Learn Not To Steal From The Creator

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Rabash, Letter 43, about the holiday of Chanukah: It says in the song “The Stronghold of my Salvation:” “Greeks gathered against me then in Hasmonean days. They breached the walls of my towers and they defiled all the oils.” To prevent extraneous thoughts and uninvited desires from entering the heart, it is necessary to build a wall that will guard against all the external.

This wall is called faith, and only with its help, a man has the opportunity to escape. The Greek Klipa was manifested in the fact that the people of Israel were guided by the external mind—the proverbial philosophy. And this is against faith … “They breached the walls of my towers and they defiled all the oils,” in other words, enlightenment and vitality, that came because of faith, became closed for the sons of Israel.

It is a very important letter. It puts us in the right attitude to life in our main war—the war against philosophy that wants to take the place of the wisdom of Kabbalah. “You don’t have to attain anything,” it says, “It is enough to reflect, imagine something. Indeed, you have the mind and imagination, and that’s sufficient. There is no attainment, so, study, imagine, discuss, and that’s enough.”

This approach of the Greeks leads us to an abstract form, moreover, not even the one that the science of Kabbalah talks about, not clothed once in matter and not abstracted subsequently, and thus not discussed. No, their abstract form was not clothed in matter because they were never in spiritual attainment. Instead of this, similar to many other religions and beliefs, the Greeks distorted texts that talked only about one thing: the revelation of the Creator to the created being.

Meanwhile, this is the whole science; our forefathers talked only about this; only this knowledge Moses received on Mount Sinai and wrote the Torah on its basis. It is about the revelation of the Creator to “Israel”: to those who are directed straight to Him (Yashar El) and come to the similarity of properties, to adhesion with Him. That is when the human being attains the Creator in his vessels, desires, corrected by the Light that Reforms (Torah).

If we read the primary sources, believing that they contain no attainment, that we need just to study them and follow the Creator’s orders, according to what we understand of the writing, by this we completely distort the Torah and instead of going towards adhesion with the Creator, we cling to our thinking. This is a real disaster.

And so from generation to generation, until the very end of correction, the war is waged between those who attain and those who imagine, “damned philosophers,” as Baal HaSulam calls them. We will also have to become engaged in this battle and take an active part in in, not leaving it to chance. It is in this war that we disclose the insignificance of the philosophical approach that allows discussing and philosophizing about what one knows nothing about, about what he did not attain at least by a bit of spiritual attainment.

This war is against all the concepts that contradict the wisdom of Kabbalah. In fact, a person has nothing to do in this world except reveal the Creator. He should do nothing else. That is why, if we talk about the philosophy of life, an approach to human existence, and not about departments of philosophy where they have empty talks on the basis of their own idle fancies, then this approach should be aimed only at the goal of creation, not at any other goal.

We proceed from here to Chanukah, the holiday that symbolizes this war and our success in it. Chanukah is a very spiritual holiday: Everything in it revolves around the “oil,” around the Light. And we need to correctly interpret its essence: Even if we are few on a world scale, but if we know the secret of “the jug with oil” and we ignite it, it illuminates the whole world.

We just need to build all the conditions correctly so that the disturbances become the “wick” for a person and so that the candle flame is intact. Thus, a person comes to the first spiritual degree that is called “Chanukah” from the words of the Torah “stand here” (Chanu-ko).

In addition, it is necessary to promote this miracle, and therefore, it is customary to put the lit Chanukah candles by the window, so that everyone sees them. It symbolizes our dissemination because we bring the world the message of how to come to the Light.

But when is a person awakened to this? When he discovers the “thickness” of his desire. And if he works correctly, he finds out that “the Greeks breached the walls of his towers.” If he does not have these disturbances, then he has nothing to overcome.

Coming to the Light is possible only through the revelation of evil when it breaches the walls, through the war and victory in it. And even after that, it is necessary to find a jug with oil and light it, so that there is a miracle.

So, in the end, everything happens by means of the Upper Force – a miracle…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: The ten days between the Jewish New Year (Rosh HaShanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is the period of repentance, or more literally, return (Teshuva). What is this action?

Answer: We are talking about returning to bestowal, to the state that preceded the breaking of the vessels. Bestowal means that I calculate my every action not in my desire but in the desire of the other. It is said about this: “Make your desire as His desire.” That’s what it means to love, to bestow, to try to neutralize one’s own desire, to become included in the desire of the other, to take his desire as if I am he and to try to fulfill it.

What exactly does the other person want? He wants to make money, to succeed in life, to get rid of someone, to use someone else, etc. Of course, I do not help him in this. No, being in the property of bestowal to some extent, I “integrate” in the other; I feel his properties and want to correct them. So, I have to make sure that he is corrected like me. I have to ask for him.

And I ask for correction for him; I want to carry his bestowal in everything. I accept his properties, intentions, desires, especially the bad ones, and correct them: I ask for correction for him. He is unable to ask himself, unable to understand that this is wrong, unable to “see the baby,” i.e., to look to the future. And I become the “head” for him.

That is why the letters of the word Israel (ישראל) make up the expression the “head for me” (LiRosh – לי ראש). I am doing spiritual work for the other, instead of him, I raise MAN—a request for correction—like the first-born and raise him to our common parent Partzuf Aba ve Ima. And from there, I get twice for myself to move into adulthood (Gadlut), which will allow me to form the genuine property of bestowal upon the other. And based on this property, I will start to bestow.

That’s what the action that we are talking about is. All this is also included in the correction on Rosh HaShanah. The New Year is in essence the peak, the result of the completed degree and ascent to the next one.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/13, Lesson on the Topic: Rosh HaShanah

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