Our unity above Pharaoh stands for the correction of the bestowing desires, which symbolize the holiday of Chanukah, the lighting of the Chanukah candles.

Every spiritual root must touch its corporeal branch once, and this is why all these events took place over the course of the descent from above downward. At first there was the exit from Egypt, the building of the First Temple on the degree of Mochin de Haya—a very high state. And then the fall from it, the breaking of the Temple and the Babylonian exile where the miracle of Purim took place. Then there was the correction and the building of the Second Temple on the degree of Mochin de Neshama. But we were not able to hold on here and once again were exiled. The war with the Greeks and the miracle of Chanukah happened during the time of the Second Temple—in the small state (Katnut).

And then the Greeks completed the separation from the spiritual, which corresponds to the First restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph)—the fall beneath the Machsom, the barrier that separates the spiritual and corporeal worlds.

And when we begin to rise from below upward—in the reverse order, we first pass the Machsom, then we acquire the spiritual vessels which correspond to Hanukkah, and then—Purim.

All miracles happen because of the Light that returns to the source, but they are realized through the connection in the group. Everything depends only on our connection. By connecting more—we rise and become free, and by connecting less—we fall and become exiled. Our ascent depends on the strength of our connection with one another, and our descent depends on our distance and separation from one another.

There is nothing else! We will continue to rise until we unite as one man with one heart, when “The Creator and His Name will be one.”

For this we need to reveal the entire system and see how complex and rich it is, and the enormous amount of connections we can reveal in it and use. Everyone connects with everyone else, repeatedly multiplying each other by mutual inclusion in one another, and this goes on infinitely, like in a holographic image.

And this is qualitative infinity, rather than quantitative—an infinite connection. Our connection keeps growing until the discrete, digital sum becomes analog, until there is no difference left between us, like droplets of water that merge into one great drop. This will mean that the final correction, Gmar Tikkun, has been reached.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/11, Writings of Rabash, “The Miracle of Chanukah”

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All holidays are symbols of man’s spiritual advancement. When I begin to develop the desire to bestow in me, I go through “repentance” (the period before the New Year, Rosh Hashanah), when I clarify my evil. In other words, I see how great my ego is, which I can’t resist, and I commit many crimes, as it is written in the Rosh Hashanah prayer for absolution: “We have transgressed, we have betrayed….”

And then I see that I must begin the path from the beginning and make a switch within me from being an egoist, who directs everything towards benefiting himself, to being a giver, who only cares for the benefit of another. After all, I begin to understand that I myself am the actual “another,” who seems to be a stranger to me. And the one I thought was me actually is not me, but an evil spirit, my ego, a serpent sitting in me which constantly demands fulfillment from me.

When a person develops this kind of attitude towards himself, as if he were a cunning serpent and others were him, his true “Self,” then this switch in consciousness is called the beginning of the New Year for him.

After this he has nothing left to do but correct himself, become like the upper force, the force of the Creator, a giver. Reception for our own sake gives us the sensation of “this world.” But when my “I” is directed towards bestowal, outside, towards the others, in this aspiration I begin to feel another, the upper, world.

Bestowal is when I love someone and want to give him pleasure, like a friend to a friend or a host to a guest. I care for him so much that I restrict my own desires and wish to not receive any pleasure, only thinking about his pleasure. And once I have this “shield,” which guarantees I do not receive for my own sake, I become ready to receive and thus please another.

Everything I receive is for him, like we tell a child: “A spoon for mommy, a spoon for daddy.” But it is not a simple action in the spiritual world. I must restrict my desire and open it for pleasure, only thinking about another. In other words, my heart and mind are in him, and then all the pleasure that goes through me only goes for the others.
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From the Night Lesson of Hoshanah Rabbah 10/19/2011, Shamati

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The aspiration to bestow to others forms in a person gradually, over the course of a long time, and it stands for the correction of desires if I am capable of restricting them because I see that life in egoism does not bring any joy. I attract a small illumination from Above through my study and efforts. And even though I don’t know what this Light is, it still corrects and changes me, gradually leading me towards the feeling of the value of bestowal.

I begin to feel that I strive outward, towards a fellow human being, towards a connection with all others, and perceive them as parts of my own soul. This is the result of the influence of the Surrounding Light. This change happens from within on its own due to my efforts, study, participation in dissemination, and connection with friends.

This is how I come to the decision that I refuse to continue being a receiver who takes more than is needed for living. I begin to hate egoistic reception. And my aspiration towards bestowal begins to develop from this point on, which also happens due to the Light.

What I do is to try, ask, pray, and demand, and in this way I force the Light to operate on me. And finally the Light makes a correction in me, after which I begin to feel an aspiration towards a fellow human being and true love—one that is not the object of my pleasure. This is because I have already built a barrier that does not allow me to enjoy egoistically, but only from actual bestowal.

The development of this kind of aspiration in man is called “the seven days of Sukkot,” when he begins to receive the illumination of the Surrounding Light that reforms. This Light forms the quality of Bina, faith above reason in man, a covering, a roof of a special structure built on Sukkot from the “waste of barn and winery,” meaning from the desires he previously neglected in his egoism considering them to be garbage. But on the contrary, in the desire to bestow he lifts them above his own head.

And finally, he comes to a state when he tests himself: whether all of his desires are directed towards bestowal. He checks his “shadow” for this: whether it is holy or impure. He hides himself from the Light, and by doing so he opens himself for the Light to later enter him and fill him with the intention for the sake of bestowal. Testing the shadow after the end of the holiday of Sukkot and the evaluation of whether it pertains to holiness or the impure forces, all these things are the establishment of one’s attitude towards his egoism and the transition into another dimension: that of bestowal.

I seal myself for my desire to receive pleasure, and I am only ready to receive for the sake of bestowal, thereby turning my reception into bestowal. I and He love each other, and this is why I receive from Him to please Him. But all of this happens after the test of my shadow and all the corrections that the holiday of Sukkot symbolizes.
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From the 1st part of the Night Lesson Of Hoshanah Rabbah 10/19/2o11, Shamati #8

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Shamati #8 “What is the Difference Between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra“
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Shamati #243 “Examining the Shade on the Night of Hoshana Rabbah”
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Shaar HaKavanot, “Drushey Chag Succot,” Drush 6
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In our world we all understand why children play games and what will happen when they grow up. But our world is a copy of the upper world, and this game symbolizes the fact that we have to advance slowly towards the truth, constantly choosing it from the opposite situation we are in.

The spiritual work begins with the fact that we are attached to false pleasures and actions that are totally egoistic. Yet we understand that we can grow only thanks to them, in order to have free will and to choose, to clarify our vessels, our attitude to the upper one by ourselves.

There is no other choice. Every time we fall and rise again, and thus we advance, as it is said: “A thousand times the righteous will fall and rise again.” This is how we move forward, and we have to be patient and to understand that this is the only way we will build a perfect, independent vessel. Whoever continues succeeds. The main thing here is consistency.

We see a copy of all spiritual processes in the corporeal life too. This is why we are born into it as small, brainless children; we play meaningless games and are unable to take care of ourselves, until gradually, thanks to these games, we grow up and proceed with more serious corrections. Many years go by until a person “stands on his own two legs” and is ready for life in this world.

Hence, after the Selichot (the ten days of Repentance), Rosh Hashanah (the New Year), Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the five days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, and the seven days of Sukkot, we reach the level of Shemini Atzeret (the Eighth day of Assembly): the unity with the Light. Gradually, day by day, we perform clarifications, the symbol of which is the covering of the Sukkah (Skhakh) made of “the waste of barn and winery.” That is, it is made of what a person disrespects and thinks nothing of, believing the food that we get from barn and a winery is most important, and not the waste.

But namely what seemed to him as worthless waste becomes the most important thing now. If I raise this “waste” above me and use it to cover my ego, if I hide myself under this covering, then I’ll be able to enjoy its shade. This is how we discover the upper Light, which is not revealed directly, without the shade. Thus, we reach the Sukkah of peace (Sukkat Shalom), under the perfect (Shalem) covering, the screen.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/2011, Writings of Rabash

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It is customary to celebrate the holiday of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) in a temporary structure built specifically for this purpose, the Sukkah. The covering of the Sukkah (Skhakh) is the most important part of it. Some people even kiss the covering because it symbolizes the screen, the shade that you built. But you build this covering from waste material, “the waste of barn and winery,” meaning from the places where we make bread, which symbolizes the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), and wine, which symbolizes the Light of Hochma (Wisdom).

When the two are connected correctly, a person builds a screen from this waste, meaning from what he has rejected and disrespected before. Now he raises it above his head, by faith above reason, and thereby builds a shade for himself, about which it says in the Song of Songs: “I sat down under his shadow with great delight….” Thus a person acquires the vessel, into which the Light clothes: the Light of Hochma enters inside the Light of Hassadim. Then the waste is not garbage anymore but something important to him. This is how a person advances spiritually.

The symbol of the waste that turns into the most important thing is similar to the way children grow by playing games. It’s just like a little girl, who as a child loved her rag doll more than anything and didn’t want to play with a real baby,  when she grows up, as an adult, she enjoys playing with a real baby and not a doll. It is the same with us. We can’t touch a true pleasure and understand that namely it is the real thing.

Until we grew up, we needed false pleasures, in the form of a plastic or rag doll, and we couldn’t switch to something real. This is the time of childhood! Until our vessels grew, we couldn’t understand that playing with a real baby can bring us pleasure.

However, when we mature, our vessels grow. Hence, our work is to raise ourselves. In spirituality we don’t grow like in corporeal life where everything happens naturally. If a person works in order to keep himself from getting off the path despite the obstacles, if he asks for the Light and enables it to operate on him, then he gradually obtains a desire that understands what true pleasures are.

The disregard he felt for the real baby becomes his corrected vessel for receiving the right pleasure. Now he understands how naive his play with the toy cars and the rag dolls was. But it was important because he grew thanks to it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Attainment is inner, and there is nothing outside of us. Everything that seemingly surrounds us is simply a temporary illusion, including this imaginary world, and even the spiritual world. But in the spiritual world we at least are aware that something only appears to be external to us because it becomes repelled by our ego.

We incorporate the desires of others into us to the extent of our ability to shade our egoism and conceal it, give it the intention for the sake of bestowal, and do it according to the principle of “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” the law of the Light.

The symbol of all these corrections is a special construction called Sukkah that shows us how to build the shadow. Our inner man will sit inside the Sukkah and take the four symbols of Sukkot with him: three that belong to Zeir Anpin (Lulav [one closed frond from a date palm tree], Hadassim [three boughs with leaves from the myrtle tree], and Aravot [two branches with leaves from the willow tree]), and the fourth one (Etrog [a fruit from a citron tree, similar to a lemon or grapefruit]) that belongs to Malchut. He will connect them together and begin to swing them: right, left, front, back, up, and down, in all six directions that correspond to the six Sefirot of Zeir Anpin (VAK). And at the same time he is inside the Sukkah where its three walls correspond to the three Sefirot of Hesed–Gevura–Tifferet (HGT). Sefira Netzah is the roof of Sukkah, and Sefira Hod is the ground.

It turns out that man unites with Zeir Anpin completely, which represents the higher qualities of bestowal to him. And when he connects with all these qualities in all the directions, meaning in all the qualities of VAK of Zeir Anpin, while he himself represents Malchut, by doing so he corrects and connects all of these qualities together.

And all this is done thanks to the shade, which can either conceal or reveal. A concealing shade is when we work against our evil inclination, the egoistic desire. And the revealing shade is when we ourselves write the letters of our work as if we were using black ink on a white background. This is how we create different forms of concealment, which are similar to the Light. Gradually, all of darkness becomes like the Light due to the creation of different shades (for example, in the form of wings).

Man does not connect to the Light but rather to its forms, and on the contrary, by concealing himself from the Light with the help of shades, he builds forms similar to the Light, to bestowal. This is our work. We work until we achieve equivalence of form and adhesion (Zivug) with the Light with the help of all the shades, all the forms of darkness, the “letters,” and collisions with the Light. And in the end all of darkness will shine like the Light.

Our work is to create forms of darkness, letter shapes, such as black lines and curves and to make them similar to the Light. This is why the symbol of all these corrections is the Sukkah covering. And all our work lies in finding out how to build this covering over us and sit in its shade, which will enable us to attain the Light. The entire Surrounding Light that reaches us and stays above the roof of the Sukkah acts in us, in the Sukkah, in a way that the forms of darkness shine like the Light to us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/12/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is the inner meaning of the holidays, of all the symbols that Kabbalists gave us: Rosh Hashanah (the New Year), Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)? Do they symbolize some special connections between us?

Answer: These are connections, but between the souls on high spiritual levels. The souls raise a prayer (MAN) to connect and to reach mutual bestowal, and from the mutual bestowal, their common vessel, they have an opportunity to bestow upon the Light, upon the Creator. These souls connect in Malchut of the world of Atzilut, and then in their prayer they determine to what extent they compel Malchut of the world of Atzilut to rise together with Zeir Anpin: either to YESHSUT or to Aba ve Ima, or that YESHSUT together with Aba ve Ima will rise to Arich Anpin, which in itself consists of many steps.

The ascent from Aba ve Ima to the head of Arich Anpin constitutes the essence of all holidays, Sabbaths, and the beginnings of the month (Rosh Hodesh). Even every weekday is a certain ascent of the souls with regard to ZON of the world of Atzilut. All the holidays, festivals, and special years (like Shmita [Sabbatical Year] and Jubilee) are special degrees that symbolize to what extent I compel ZON to rise upward and pass down on me the Surrounding Light so that I can bring about the general connection and create a corrected vessel.

Some ascents take place according to a plan from Above for the souls that need correction. And some take place due to a prayer raised from below.

Similarly, we too assemble in conventions and large gatherings, which allows us to feel as if we rise above our ordinary level. There are cases when this ascent occurs on its own, and we don’t know where it comes from. Suddenly our condition becomes more illuminated, more pleasant, and spirituality becomes more esteemed in our eyes. Similar ascents also occur on the spiritual ladder.

If you want to know the exact meaning of every holiday, you can refer directly to the Ari’s Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot (The Gate of Intentions) or to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 15 by Baal HaSulam. Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot explains every holiday in great length, but in a very dry Kabbalistic language: ZON rise to Aba ve Ima and Aba ve Ima to Arich Anpin and describes the finest details of every ascent. This is because every ascent, even the smallest one, is a whole world by itself. At this height, every minor difference between the levels leads to an immense addition of the Light.

At the end of all the holidays and ascents we reach the end of correction. Then all the holidays are annulled except for Purim because it symbolizes the end of correction—all the Light fills the entire vessel completely.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/2011, Shamati #85

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The purpose of the whole process that we are going through is the revelation of the Creator. We reveal Him by His actions upon us. For this purpose the Creator creates a system, laws according to which it exists and operates, and man in this system.

Then He sets man and the system into motion. A person has to listen to the influence of the Creator, to what is happening inside him and on the outside because it is all the Creator’s motions. As it is said: “There is none else besides Him.”

If a person agrees that everything comes from Above, from the Creator, he becomes sensitive to everything that is happening inside and around him, to the way that it affects him. Thus a person tries to understand what the Creator wants to reveal to him.

By analyzing all sorts of actions: good and bad, those that are close to him and those that are distant, those that he perceives as good or evil, a person begins to decipher the Creator’s plan concerning him. And when he discovers the great abyss between him and the Creator, the oppositeness of their thoughts, he begins to reveal the two opposites, one in contrast to the other.

On one hand, he feels that he wants to act according to his own nature. But since he has already discovered that it is better to follow the opposite nature, he understands that he should act differently. In such a way he discovers the evil inside him, the malicious thoughts.

But he is happy about it! After all, the more sins he discovers inside him, the more efforts he makes to reveal them, the closer he will come to a true prayer, meaning to the request to correct them. The request for correction is called “atonement.”

The malicious thoughts don’t need to go away, but they should be “sweetened.” That is, we have to acquire a new intention over all our egoistic desires that turn into bestowal.

The discovery of the sins and crimes happens with the help of a great Light, the Light of Hochma (Wisdom), that shines to a person and confronts him with the fact of how evil and opposite to the Creator he is. Then according to his exertion, he can approach correction.

All the corrections, just as all our sins, are the work of the Creator. Eventually, all the sins and their correction, all the Light that we draw to clarify the evil and to correct it, the Light of adhesion, is only to bring contentment to the Creator. It turns out that by revealing the sins and their atonement, a person reaches an embrace with the Creator and then adhesion with Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/6/11, Shamati #177

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There are three degrees of attaining man’s total adhesion with the Creator: embrace, kiss, and adhesion (union), which he achieves with the help of the system of connections he reveals. These levels are symbolized by the holidays at the beginning of the New Year: the New Year itself (Rosh HaShana) – an embrace from the left, and then an embrace from the right – the Light of Sukkot, which grows bigger every day until reaching the 8th day, immediately after the end of Sukkot (Shmeni Atzeret), when total adhesion is attained.

It is written, “His left hand is under my head and his right hand embraces me.” Then comes a connection called “kiss”—above Tabur, and then on the level of Yesodot—below Tabur, in the receiving desires when the Light of Hassadim is already present in order to draw the Light of Hochma into it for the sake of bestowal.

The whole world is now revealing the same degrees. And even though the world does not know what phases it is going through, it is still going through the same process. First the transgressions gradually become revealed—a bad sensation, a reason forcing us to reveal the evil because we feel bad. But we still don’t know why we feel bad and nothing goes right anywhere.

Then the next phase arrives where we begin to reveal that the reason for these failures is that we are not connected with one another and do not correspond to nature.

When the Creator turns to the world as a whole, to all the people, He remains in a certain concealment, and instead of Him, who is bestowing, He offers people a representative of Him—the surrounding nature with which we have to reach balance.
Instead of attaining love for friends and building a common spiritual vessel for the revelation of the Light of adhesion, people are simply revealing the need to unite in order to correspond to the global, integral mechanism that operates in nature and is now starting to envelop the human level as well.

Previously we thought it acted only on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, being the law of the universe’s existence. But we considered ourselves above it. However, now we are revealing that we are also inside of that same global mechanism, which is becoming expressed in us and is obligating us to also unite with one another and with all other parts of nature into one, single system.

It turns out that the “transgressions” are starting to become revealed not only for those who consciously aspire to attain the Creator’s revelation, but also for all of humanity, except they become revealed to it in a more concealed form. All people will have to attain correction, meaning unification among one another on all its degrees: “embrace, kiss, and union,” but they will have to do it in a slightly different form.

First come the phenomena that are given to us as preparation. And then, as the Rambam said, the secrets of bestowal begin slightly being revealed to the “women, slaves, children, and elderly,” meaning to all those who are not “men,” capable of independently overcoming (a man, Gever comes from the word overcoming, Itgabrut).

This is talking about all of humanity, which is gradually revealing the laws of the upper system. By virtue of this, every person also gains the ability to join those who belong to the “men,” those who will provide them with the Light of adhesion with the Creator.

Therefore, these holidays symbolize a quite lengthy process, rather than the several days they last on the calendar. Every new day is a new revelation—first of the left line, and the next five days are the revelation of the right line, and the dissemination of Light in the seven Sefirot of Zeir Anpin until the eighth day, immediately after the end of Sukkot, Shmeni Atzeret, which already corresponds to Malchut, the eigth Sefira, which follows it.

All of this symbolizes lengthy, scrupulous work and gradual progression through the degrees of the states.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/6/11, Shamati

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