When we begin our quest to find the Creator, He plays “hide and seek” with us. He “hides” and at the same time directs us forward. In this search, the holiday of Sukkot carries a certain sensation of warmth. It’s as if somebody tells us: “warmer, warmer, hot…!” Something unusual emerges, something in the mist, the contours of a new step that lies between the Creator and us appear.

Let’s talk about the symbols of Sukkot and their meaning in our quest.

First of all, we have to know the system we are in. Any measurements we make are done in accordance with certain standards similar to the measurements of the parameters of any physical system. For example, one liter of water weighs one kilogram. This measurement allows us to weigh various objects by placing a load equal to one kilogram on one of the pan of the scales. One way or the other, we always compare our actions with some standard that is based on well-known parameters.

However, our spiritual path begins with emptiness, a state of unawareness. While we head towards the Creator, we should turn the darkness into the Light, concealment into revelation, insensibility into sensitivity. At first, we don’t know what is missing. Later, we feel the deficiency as if we “taste” this insufficiency.

Let’s say, I am full, I don’t want to eat, I don’t even think about food. A little while later, I feel that I wouldn’t mind having a snack. The desire grows in me. To put it metaphorically, I would say that some time ago my life was easy and serene, but at some point there appeared a curtain, a veil.

In Kabbalah, the absence of hunger is called a “double concealment” since not only the object of my desire (food) is out of my attention, but even the hunger itself is unnoticeable. Then, when I feel the first signs of hunger, a deficiency, I begin searching for the ways to fulfill it.

On our spiritual path, we have to feel the concealment, the “hunger.” That’s why our work at the very beginning of the autumn holidays that begin in the month of Elul and continue further on during the New Year (Rosh Hashanah), throughout the first ten days of atonement, on the judgment day, is to reveal the deficiency, to sense a need for the Creator.

Then, the holiday of Sukkot comes, a festival of “huts.” A hut symbolizes the dome of the world: above it, there is the Light. We are inside the “hut,” sitting in relative shade. It’s not the Creator who hides from us; it’s we who “obscure” Him in order to further reveal Him gradually, to the extent of our abilities. “Being in the hut,” means that we are approaching the revelation, even though we still are at the very first stage of it.

This state triggers the Surrounding Lights (Makifim): the Creator can be felt only from a distance. Our “hug” with Him is not yet obvious, not clarified or recognized. In Kabbalah, this state is also called the Light of Hassadim, the “embrace” of the right arm.” “His left arm is under my head, His right arm embraces me,” as it is written in the Song of Songs. On the left, is an embrace of the harsh properties of judgment (Gevurot), on the right, there are hugs of mercy (Hassadim).

Even though we are behind the curtain, we still make efforts to recognize the One who threw it on us. In other words, we diligently work to turn the concealment into revelation. The Creator approaches us accordingly, to the degree of our exertions.

This work starts with a “zero,” when we don’t even feel that there is somebody who hides from us. “Where is He? Is He inside me? Is He in my thoughts and desires?” All these questions require a meticulous search, profound understanding and deep penetration in the material. Then, He will appear.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

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Question: Your explanation of the essence of Sukkot is that it is a correction of desires by the Surrounding Light. Why is it different from what we were taught at school? We were told that Sukkot reminds the Jews of their escape from Egyptian slavery and of their life in tents in the desert.

Answer: Do these explanations really contradict each other? “Egypt” (Mitzrayim) symbolizes staying inside one’s evil nature (Yetzer-Ra), being in exile, consenting to obey Pharaoh’s authority that rules over our egoistic desires. It was the Creator who made egoism. That’s why He keeps saying: “I hardened the Pharaoh’s heart!”

Later, we go out of Pharaoh’s “jurisdiction” by initiating the process of self-correction. The holiday of Sukkot is a symbol. The only thing the Torah describes are methods of self-improvement in the heart; it is not about historic events. Today, we should implement this story.

Each Jewish holiday, as well as any event mentioned in the Torah, denotes ascents and descents of the power of bestowal and love, or various deviations from observing the instructions given in the Torah. The entire Torah is based on the law of “loving our neighbors as ourselves.” Reaching this kind of love is feasible solely by correcting our egos. It’s viable only with the help of the Torah, the Returning Light. That’s what we are trying to achieve.

Question: Why do people sit in a special “hut” called a Sukkah during this holiday?

Answer: The size of the Sukkah accurately corresponds to the dimensions of the soul. Only inside of the soul can desires and lights be calculated. In the Sukkah, we use “amas” (cubits, ells) as measurement units. This explains why there are rigid requirements for constructing a Sukkah. We should observe the rules of what the walls of a Sukkah should be like. We make the roof of the Sukkah from the “waste of barn and winery,” etc.

All these requirements stem from the spiritual roots. They are all about a special combination of receiving and bestowing forces that are essential for our soul (a desire to receive) in its pursuit to become similar with the Creator. The soul works in both receiving and giving desires just as hearts and lungs constantly contract and expand.

The Sukkah should be built in accurate correspondence with the parts of the soul: ten Sefirot of the Direct Light and ten Sefirot of the Reflected Light. That’s why it cannot be higher than 20 amas. There are firm rules that regulate the time when a Sukkah should be built and what materials are suitable for it, i.e., “pure” enough (oriented to bestowal) to construct it.

A soul is a desire that is fully focused on bestowal to our neighbors, that is; it’s a structure that is totally opposite to the evil inclination, to our genuine nature. Unless we start self-correction, we have no soul.

The Sukkah symbolizes the soul, meaning the corrected desire. It is aimed at loving our neighbors. That’s why while building a Sukkah we have to take into consideration very many conditions. There are 613 desires in the soul: 248 bestowing desires and 365 desires to receive for the sake of giving. All these desires are inside us and we must start correcting them.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/30/14

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From the book The Essential Secret of the Jews, M. Brushtein

The Postulates Of The Theory of Integrality

We “play” in meaningless games instead of devoting time to the “human degree.”

We do not see the end and therefore cannot justify the current state.

Nature strives to equilibrium.

We are in a closed sphere. External information is not available to us.

We are looking for a place in the world in accordance with our properties.
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Question: Is it possible to say that the four plant species (Arba Minim) that characterize the Sukkot holiday symbolize the characteristics of the Creator?

Answer: The Creator has no characteristics. It is I with my desire who identifies Him with seven characteristics. Since I am a “point of desire,” I feel the Creator with feeling and intellect, with desires and thoughts. By means of thoughts I scrutinize the desires, that is how mind and feelings work in partnership so that with them I will search for the Creator.

What measurements do I use?

With my normal senses, without thinking, I distinguish the “outlines”: This is blue, that is red, that is a high note, that is a sour taste, and that is a burnt odor. Even in spirituality everything is measured in relation to myself. I can say that I perceive the characteristics of the Creator because I attribute them to Him, but essentially this is just my perception.

Question: When a person goes out to find the Creator, what exactly is he looking for? What is this “Creator”?

Answer: This is what sustains my life, my existence, what determines everything that happens and will happen with me. All this is attributed to some first cause that precedes me, that is prior to my previous nonexistence and my present existence.

I am in a world without knowing what a world is. The Creator molds a feeling like this in me. It seems to me that there is a world, but I am not sure about it. I only know that I feel that within me. If I had other characteristics, as it seems, I would feel it differently.

But in fact, what and how I feel is not important to me. Rather, what is important is that there is a prior first cause that shapes me, that provides this feeling for me. It is concerned about me, and in fact, at every moment it supplies within me everything through which I feel and what it is that I feel. This first beginning is the “Creator.” For from His side, He created me.

And whereas, from my side, He is the “Creator” (Bore) because He is conceived by me according to the principle “Come and see” (Bo-Re). He created me and located me in a point in time within a particular reality. And from this I can explore, scrutinize, feel, and understand Him. He seemingly manages and plays with me, giving me the possibility of knowing Him.

Question: This is like a game of “hide and seek”?

Answer: Not completely. Yes, He is concealed, but this is so that I will understand Him. By my conducting searches for the Creator, I examine what is Him and what is not. Among these possibilities I find intermediate, “limited” forms, and that is how I begin to discern, to understand Him, to shape in my mind and heart a model (template) called the “Creator.”

Here it is important to remember that I don’t perceive the Creator Himself, this is impossible. Within me, within my desires and thoughts, I construct some kind of image, some kind of likeness, that is found within me but corresponds to Him. This is what is called, “Come and see.”

Ultimately, I am working against my desire to receive. And by molding the image of the Creator, I can provide the conditions through which, with my desire, I will yearn to resemble Him and not yearn for pleasures.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

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Question: At the time of the Sukkot holiday, why is it customary to go outside of your house where you live all year and go to a temporary structure, to a Sukkah? What does this mean in a spiritual sense?

Answer: Going out to a temporary structure symbolizes the beginning of spiritual advancement where we constantly leave a previous state and enter under the influence of a higher level. In order to enter under the influence of what is higher, it is necessary to change your location, your level, all the time.

The seven days of Sukkot are seven levels of ascent from state to state, from one spiritual Partzuf to another. Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut are seven Sefirot that differentiate my present state from the next state.

Sefirot are degrees of correction of the soul that determine how much my desire to receive is corrected for the sake of bestowal, a bit more and more, until I enter the next level.These are called seven Sefirot, moving from receiving for my own sake to bestowal to others and, after that, from the bestowal that is attained to greater and greater bestowal. During all seven days, I advance more and more in the levels of bestowal and love.

Question: Why is it necessary to build the Sukkah under the open sky?

Answer: This is because I don’t want to exploit the bestowal of the Creator for my own pleasure. Rather, I want to receive power from Him only for my own correction. This is specifically what the roof of the Sukkah symbolizes.

If I am not yet corrected, I receive the Light of the Creator for my own correction, and, if I am corrected, then it is for transmitting it to others. The more I receive the Light, the more I will be able to transmit it onward.

Throughout the entire year, the Light bestows in order to show me my egoistic characteristics. After this, on Rosh Hashanah, it shows me the goodness of the Creator.

Then during the ten days of repentance, the Light comes to differentiate Malchut from Bina within me, the desire to receive from the desire to bestow, the letter “Hey – ה” from the letter “Vav – וץ” After that, Sukkot arrives in which we receive the same illumination, but it already has corrected us.

During all seven days of Sukkot, we receive Light that corrects us to a state of “bestowal for the sake of bestowal,” and with the completion of these corrections, we celebrate the holiday of Simchat Torah (Rejoicing in the Torah). We use the force called Torah and rise to the level of  righteous.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/2/14

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From the book The Essential Secret of the Jews, M. Brushtein

What the Force Majeure Has Done

“Withdraw yourselves from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for in what merit is he to be esteemed?” (Prophets; Yeshayahu- Isaiah 2:22)

One of the first forces majeures described in literature can be considered the construction of the Tower of Babel. As we know, people wanted to get to heaven, but … builders suddenly ceased to understand each other, and the project was stopped. A typical force majeure.

This comes from history less ancient.  

Alexander the Great did his best, fought. He conquered a territory from the Indus to the Danube, formed the largest country in the ancient world. And then, as it happens, there was a force majeure. Alexander was bitten by a mosquito, a virus carrier – according to one version, or was treated with poison – according to another. Whatever it was, the great conqueror died at the age of 32 – and that was all. The empire collapsed, and the planned campaign into China did not take place.

From recent history.

People built and built socialism, and then decided to rebuild it. And then there was a force majeure. And capitalism emerged.

By the way, why was socialism needed to be built and capitalism appeared by itself? Maybe it’s because the conditions were ripe for capitalism and not yet for socialism?

But back to our topic. How do we manage to live like this?

We are constantly in circumstances of force majeure, but prefer not to notice this. Even a classic is not a decree.

“’I beg your pardon,’ retorted the stranger quietly, ‘but to rule, one must have a precise plan worked out for some reasonable period ahead. Allow me to enquire how man can control his own affairs when he is not only incapable of compiling a plan for some laughably short term, such as, say, a thousand years, but cannot even predict what will happen to him tomorrow? ‘” (Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita)

Seriously, in front of us, there is a special method of management that we don’t understand. Its essence is to be hidden from us – those who are governed.

Everything is under control, everything without exception. We have no doubts with respect to the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature. We have doubts with respect to ourselves.

At the time, the area of unexplained phenomena of nature included almost everything. From thunderstorms to gravity. Then, this endless cycle of ambiguities began to decrease.

Observation and discovery of laws of regularity have become a science. The human being began to feel, if not God, at least His deputy. Those phenomena which are not subject to the laws of regularity, he called a coincidence, an accident, an event, or even the fate of the force majeure. Once calmed down, and everything was back to normal.

How the human being manages to feel himself to be the boss when the infinite force majeure lives next to him is impossible to understand.

On the other hand, the perpetrators of force majeure can be seen by everyone.

“Any philosophy agrees,

that there is no escape from the Jews in the world,

science just still is not clear

how they make earthquakes.”

(Igor Guberman)
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From the book The Essential Secret of the Jews, M. Brushtein

Fundamental Principles of the Integral Theory

Long Before The Big Bang

Kabbalists have reported that the count of all that is, in general, began with a “plan” or, in other words, with the advent of a “program.” From that moment, we can talk about this. The point that was at the origin of “everything” is called the root or zero.

The author of the “design” is sometimes called the “Creator,” and sometimes – “Nature.”

In Kabbalah, these concepts are interchangeable, even Gematria – the numerical values of these words in the “mother tongue” of Kabbalah Hebrew – are identical. (Yehuda Ashlag, A Sage’s Fruit: Letters of Baal HaSulam)

A few words about the “design.”

“The ‘desire to receive’ in all its variety was included in the Thought of Creation from the very beginning.” (Yehuda Ashlag The Science of Kabbalah [Pticha]) It is also said that the “desire to receive” was created to receive pleasure from the Creator (Nature). Incidentally, the word “Kabbalah” in Hebrew means to receive. Thus, the “science of Kabbalah” is the science of receiving pleasure.

Any plan eventually assumes implementation, especially if it is the plan of “everything.”

And, indeed, a process began, as a result of which everything that we know and that we do not know appeared. In a word – everything.

Below, we show this grand and fateful process in a simplified, schematic form. To illustrate the phenomena accompanying it, we decided to use help of some well-known people.

Phase 0

The Purpose. The essence of the plan is to create the Created Being (a Desire), which is capable of receiving endless pleasure from the Creator.

“Is it not a true and only natural pleasure, whereof there is no satiety?” (Francis Bacon)

Phase 1

Creation begins to receive pleasure and becomes aware that it is a receiver, and the Creator is a giver, and therefore it ceases to receive.

“Eternal pleasure equals to eternal deficiency.” (William Shakespeare)

Phase 2

The created being attempts to give pleasure to the Creator, but is not able to do this.

“Pleasure is a feeling which the soul would rather experience than not experience.” (Stendhal)

Phase 3

Creation has returned to his role – receiver.

“Variety is the mother of enjoyment.” (Benjamin Disraeli)

Phase 4

Creation is trying to get pleasure, but not for himself, but for the sake of the Creator ...

“The art to increase pleasure lies in the ability to be stingy with it.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
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Question: What do anti-Semites of all generations want from the Jews?

Answer: They want to stop feeling that the Jews “command” them; they strive to end the sensation that the Jews are the reason for all their problems. Their claims to the Jews are very natural and correct.

Question: Correct?!

Answer: Yes! According to nature, everything they say is absolutely right. The Jews are the bearers of the ideology that harms the entire world.

“What’s wrong with us? We don’t harm anybody,” the Jews exclaim. In fact, without knowing it, they are lying. They are guilty. Today, they bring disasters to the world because they are separated. Accordingly, if they manage to change, they will attract immense happiness to this world.

The world thinks that they can get rid of the Jews, but this is an error in thinking. We have to show the world the real way out of this problem.

Anti-Semitism, the question of the attitude toward Jews, and everything connected with this issue will continue to expand, become stronger, and soon will replace all other most obvious and blatant problems worldwide. No matter what happens, whatever trouble or disaster occurs—wars, afflictions—everything will be blamed on the Jews. “If there is no water in the tap, the Jews drank the water…” (Russian satirical song). Nothing can be done; it’s a law of nature.

For how long will this situation last? It will continue until we, the Jews, will change the trend of things so that everybody reaches complete balance with the Creator and rises to His level. Until then, their accusations,in fact, will be natural and correct.

They just have to understand what exactly they demand from the Jews. As soon as we comprehend these issues ourselves and start moving in the right direction, they will realize it through us and help us. In this way, we’ll attain the level that Abraham wanted to reach in ancient Babylon.

Therefore, we currently are in the most critical point. Here it is! It’s right in front of us! It is happening as we speak! From this point on we have to start growing very rapidly. In other words, we will have to connect with each other and show the entire world the way to reach ultimate peace, the best eternal and benevolent state.
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From KabTV’s “Babylon Yesterday and Today” 9/3/14, Part 6

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The huts during the holiday of Sukkot symbolize our embrace with the Creator. We arrive at connection with Him through the help of a special surrounding illumination, called the Sukkah, (hut).

We work before the Creator, adapting ourselves to Him, and this relationship is described as the actions of a person with four species of plants (arba’a minim) in the hut, that is, in the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif).

In order to bring oneself into compliance with the Creator, I hold etrog (citron fruit) in one hand and, in the other, lulav, hadassim, and aravot (a palm branch, three boughs of the myrtle tree, and two branches of the river willow). The last three species represent those properties of mine that I need to coordinate with the Creator.

• Three boughs of the myrtle tree (Sefirot Hesed, Gevurah, and Tifferet)
• Two branches of the river willow tree (Sefirot Netzach and Hod)
• A palm branch (Sefira Yesod)
• Etrog (Malchut)

Adding them together throughout the seven days of the holiday of Sukkot, I cling to this unity in thoughts and desires, connecting in this way to the Creator in the streaming Light. After all, the Lights also come gradually and are called by the same names: Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut.

As a result, if I use everything that I am given in the right way, then I correct myself and come to a full embrace with the Creator, which is called the “Joy of the Torah” (Simchat Torah) since I used all the Surrounding Light that was working on me, helping me to achieve adhesion. The Light that corrected me and led me to adhesion with the Creator is now called the Torah.

As it is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created for it the Torah as a spice, for the Light in it reforms.” The evil inclination is that very layer of concealment. I use all the Lights that come to me, and thanks to that they convert this exact concealment into revelation, and where the concealment was greater, deeper, and darker, then more Light is revealed.

This is how I come to the holiday Simchat Torah, to the burst of joy that comes immediately after Sukkot.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

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Question: The idea that the shade of the Sukkah symbolizes the need to settle for little frightens me since I want to feel that I am in the world of Infinity that is full of love and forces of bestowal. What restriction does it refer to?

Answer: The whole world is open before you. Go ahead. Go right back to the Creator! Sukkot is only the beginning of the year.

There are still many more states ahead in which you will work hard. After Sukkot, there is the holiday of Simchat Torah (rejoicing with the Torah), and then there is Hanukkah, the “Festival of Lights” when our practical correction to bestowal begins.

The light of Hanukkah symbolizes complete bestowal, and so it is impossible to use the Hanukkah candles for light, but only in order to see them. As it is written, “These candles are holy,” and Holiness is bestowal. Afterward, we attain an even a greater correction and reach the holiday of Purim.

Purim is directly opposite to Yom Kippur (Kippurim). On Yom Kippur, we decided that we cannot do anything with our absolutely terrible egoistic desires. In Purim, they all are corrected to such an extent that we cease to clarify them. We can eat and drink as much as we want, and we are sure that it is in order to bestow and that everything will work out for the best.

Question: How does a Sukkah that we build in the yard symbolize the Sukkah that we must build in our heart?

Answer: Building a Sukkah in the heart means to create the conditions in which our desire to receive will be corrected by the Surrounding Light, which means that all our intentions will be focused on the benefit of others.

Therefore, it is customary to invite guests and to receive very honorable visitors in the Sukkah: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David. They symbolize the Lights that come and correct a person.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/2/14

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