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.
[57201]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/2011, Shamati #85

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In the past, Kabbalists who wished to reveal the spiritual world had to start in our world and work through it, through various sciences, with enormous efforts and suffering, meaning they had to pull themselves directly from matter itself to the revelation of the spiritual world and reveal the correct system of connections between people.

But then the compositions of the Ari were revealed, in which he explains about the inner connections that unite us through various special systems of relationships: ZON, YESHSUT, Aba ve Ima, Arich Anpin, and so on. By that he explains to us what forms of connection we can be in, how their different connections influence us, and how we can influence them ourselves and awaken these forms of connection. What happens there is the same thing as in our world, but in the quality of bestowal.

Just like in our world where we are able to activate certain types of connections so they would in turn begin influencing us, the same net of relationships connects us in the spiritual world as well, except that it is more internal. Thus, we go from materialistic psychology to the spiritual one, and then we reveal the true connection between the souls, the people living now and the people who lived before. It does not matter whether a person exists in this world right now or not. What’s important is to tune into this net. Then it’s as if our world evaporates, loses its importance because it is just an external imprint through which we have to enter inside.

The Ari described all of this, and the Baal Shem Tov taught how to work with all of the soul’s loyalty (Mesirut Nefesh), saying, “The Creator is your shadow.” And now, after all of this, by working in the group (which was restored by Baal Shem Tov anew, after Rashbi) we can draw the Light that reforms from this net. We do not simply attain it with our desires and forces, but attract an illumination called the Light that reforms, the Light of the Torah, the Surrounding Light, to ourselves from above, from this net.

After all, if we study the structure of this system and aspire to it all together, wishing to organize the same forms of connection among us, then it doesn’t even matter whether we understand it or not—our effort will awaken the influence of this force upon us.

It’s just like in our world: If we want to attain any system, then we become part of it, study it in various forms, and gradually begin to feel it. Suddenly, a picture of this system comes together inside of us and we understand what this is and how it is possible to connect and work with it. The same thing happens in the spiritual world: Only a person’s intention changes. When he becomes included in the upper system, he does it for the sake of bestowing himself to this system. The more he becomes included in it, the further he advances toward revealing it.

This requires great work with the teacher, the friends, the whole world, and the studies. All of this connects together.
[56245]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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You have to check whether you hate your enemies and opponents, or you understand that they are controlled by the Creator, who is protecting you in this way by not letting your opinions coincide with regular people and the material world and helping you follow just the primary sources. That is how you have to purify yourself, checking everything that is happening to you. Don’t regret or be worried about anything besides the purity of the path, so the goal of your private life and the goal of creation come together in one focus.

It doesn’t matter if you see that until this moment, you were confused by various egoistic calculations. You should always know that everything you have gone through until now amounts to “There is none else besides Him.” However, from this moment on, “No one will help me but myself.” If you are between these two conditions, then you really can say that you have reached the beginning of the new year, a new beginning.

However, the final goal that is present as far back as the initial plan has to be the attainment of love for one’s neighbor. If you have personal problems with someone, then you are no longer moving in the right direction. If you wish to rise above others, to acquire knowledge and fulfillment, or even if you want to bestow, you should also check whether or not this bestowal is egoistic.

That way, your calculations will become purer and purer, until you finally reach the first day of the New Year, when man was created. Everything begins with creating yourself.

This will occur each and every time: There are four new years, each having its own calculation and a new beginning, until a person completes all of his corrections.

The verification is to check to what extent your inner judge is not bribed, how honest and sharp he is, like a brave warrior willing to rise above all of his personal calculations. And this is not easy. This requires one calculation after another, until reaching the entire depth that a person is allowed to delve into.

However, all of this is not intended for you to nag at yourself, but on the contrary, to aspire “to see the Light in the Light of the Creator.” One should try to see everything in the light of love for the neighbor, and check oneself in relation to this standard. And don’t pay attention to all of your collisions with others because this could be the Creator’s way of confusing you by making you see others in this way, or confusing them by setting them against you. It is written, “Don’t judge another person until you are in his shoes.” Maybe the other person is so much higher than you that you simply haven’t matured enough to understand him.

Just be loyal to the Creator at all times, and advance with this.

Therefore, if we have the teaching of the Rabash, his articles that explain how to unite into a group, as well as articles by Baal HaSulam and other Kabbalists, showing us the path and containing the Light that reforms, then the longer we check ourselves according to these primary sources, the more correctly we will advance. And the most important thing is not to be afraid of anything!

We shouldn’t be scared that the path is so difficult, burdened by so many doubts, which our ego awakens in us with its constant calculations. We shouldn’t look at this, but try to attain repentance as fast as possible, which is a spiritual calculation, and raise ourselves to the beginning of the new year, the new level. The goal is reached by one who gives up everything else for it.
[55778]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/11, Writings of Rabash

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Holidays and special days described in Kabbalah are not dates on the regular calendar, but the attainment of one’s own, special, personal states where a person makes a fundamental inner calculation with himself. If a person reaches this calculation, it means he really has a new beginning, called the new year, Rosh Hashanah. And accordingly, he attains the holiday prayer.

Every holiday is a spiritual calculation and a prayer because there is nothing besides the correction of our desires. But the beginning of the new year is special because it comes after many discernments. It comes only once a person has checked himself completely, discerning all of the desires that become revealed to him, because every higher level includes all of the previous ones as a tiny part of it.

However, when a person makes a calculation with all of his actions and thoughts, he sees that he did not attain success, that he does not advance because he wasn’t created for spiritual ascension at all. He is then overcome by burdensome thoughts about spirituality and by doubt and envy toward others. He wants to be above them and thinks, “Why them and not me?”

After many calculations like this, having become completely lost in them, he finally feels that he needs a new beginning. There is no way out because all of these calculations, discernments, criticisms, envy, and hatred do not change for years. And the only thing left for him is prayer, a cry for help because only the upper force can help. This inner cry is called the prayer of Rosh Hashanah, the new beginning.

Before this happens, a person seems himself as completely lost. He sees that the whole world disagrees with what he is doing and he himself also does not understand what is happening to him or what this path is. All of this criticism comes from his egoism.

That is why the prayer talks about reminders, the need to analyze all of one’s desires and actions, and about blowing into the horn (Shofar) because we have to elevate our spiritual path regardless of anything (in Aramaic, Shufra means beauty). That is when one has to turn to the primary sources in order to advance.

There are many opinions and people in the world influencing a person, imbuing him with their thoughts, and pulling him in different directions. Yet one has to place a strict judge above himself and constantly verify himself with the primary sources to the extent one understands what is written there. In spite of one’s ego, one’s desire to rise, profit, and become higher than others, one should strive for the opposite, wishing to acquire only the force of bestowal and to dissolve in the nation within which the Creator dwells.
[55785]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What does it mean to ask the Creator? Do I have to acquire His attributes for that?

Answer: To ask is to search, demand, and even ask for my own transformation. After all, I have to express my own desire for it. I sentence myself (this is the meaning of “to pray” or “Lehitpalel” in Hebrew), I investigate which attributes I lack and how I can attain the force of bestowal.

This force exists inside the society. Therefore, if I enter the society, develop a desire to “clothe” in my friends with all my heart and soul, and connect with them internally so as to totally dissolve in this connection, then I will find the power of bestowal there. This is exactly what I pray for.

I pray to reach such a state in which I will see that everyone is perfect and connected. This situation is called Shechina (Divinity), the general gathering of souls (Knesset Israel). I want to be there, and I pray for the connection that brings together all the souls yearning for “Yashar-El” (straight to the Creator) to be realized in me.

I don’t turn to some external power or desire that exists independently, or to some imaginary figure. All the prayers are aimed at Malchut (of the world of Atzilut or the world of Infinity), to the connection between us, in which we discover mutual bestowal. I want this state to be revealed to me, and this is what is ask for.

This is a very delicate point, and we have to be careful not to start imagining some statue or figure, but only the state in which we are connected and incorporated in each other, tied together in complete bestowal. More correctly, it should be called an attribute and not a force because a force may seem as something distant, while an attribute is what I intend to acquire myself. These are very slight differences, but they determine the cleanliness of my attitude, and hence they are so crucial.

It says: “There is none else besides Him,” however, we have to imagine this as our state in a perfect system. Then we can be sure that we won’t be mistaken.
[55348]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/2011, Shamati $#240

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Our problem is that we cry out from the pain that our egoism has caused us. But the Creator is deaf and unreceptive to this kind of cry. We can cry as much as we want. We have witnessed terrible suffering throughout history, but the upper force doesn’t seem to pay attention to it.

This is because the purpose of creation, the Thought of Creation, and its entire system is built so as to bring the egotistic desire to correction, to the intention to bestow. If we don’t cry in order to acquire the attribute of bestowal, but on the contrary, we demand good for our egoism, we get the opposite result and only make our situation worse. We invite a much stronger negative effect, from which we will learn how to cry out correctly.

This is the problem of humanity, which doesn’t understand the upper governance. All the heaviness that we feel, all the hardships, and our disagreement with the Creator stem from the fact that we don’t understand His plan and expect Him to change and to do something for us. But He won’t do anything! There is a plan for the correction of the shattering, and I need to use it. That’s all.

If I don’t do that, I can cry just as everyone has done for ages, and whom did it help? By our crying, pleading, and attempting to fill our ego, we only increase our desire to receive and we receive harder blows until we reach total despair, which we are starting to feel now. This is so that we will finally understand that salvation will only come from our correction and not from egotistic demands. There is no one to ask from!

It is only possible to turn to a corrected system, which is one level above me and which I perceive as total darkness since it is a system of bestowal. If I want to adapt to it and be like it, I can ask for that. This is what I will receive—if I really ask for this.

My request will be fulfilled if I ask to bestow in order to be the one who bestows, and not in order to feel better.
[55351]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/2011, Shamati $#240

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Question: How can I reach the demand for the Creator if I feel that I am nothing compared to Him?

Answer: Our work is not to engage in soul-searching, but to focus on our environment. There is nothing more we have to work on but our attitude, our coming closer and connecting with others, which stems from the shattering of the vessels.

The Creator is what is revealed in our corrected vessels. We should worry about the vessels because the upper Light is at absolute rest. The more the vessels become equal to the Light, the attribute of bestowal, the more they reveal this attribute, and this is called the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.

How can a radio receive and transmit signals? After all, these sounds do not exist in the air? It is because we “arouse” in the radio the same radio wave that exists outside. According to the equivalence of form, these two waves unite and begin to resonate. Thus they produce the result of their unity in the radio, which we hear as sound.

Clearly, we cannot hear radio waves; our ear does not detect such frequencies. However, this main, “carrying” wave has some extra element, harmony. And if we reach equivalence with the main wave, we begin to hear this extra element, the hidden voice inside.

All our senses work according to this principle, and this is how we have to tune ourselves to the connection with the Creator.
[55354]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/2011, Shamati $#240

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Question: How can one reach a prayer about bestowal instead of about oneself?

Answer: This is called a “prayer of many,” and it is only possible to reach it by virtue of Light. If I wish to reveal my true desires in order not to be in an illusion that I already exist in the spiritual world and bestowal, and if I wish to understand my true place, then I need the Light to illuminate myself to me.

The revelation of evil is only possible under the condition that the Light precedes the desire, when I want it myself. And then the Light comes and reveals this desire to me, and I see one against the other. As a consequence of this, I strive to goodness, wishing to replace my intention.

We need to change our intention. This is the only action that works as a trigger and causes this overturning. The Light brings me from an egoistic intention to an intention to bestow. Therefore, we need to aspire to this force that performs all the changes in the creature.

The Creator created my desire that acts as evil, and He can also turn it into good. An egoistic intention is revealed from a breaking. When we become more distant from each other, this is called evil. We reveal the extent of our unification above this separation.

It is impossible to destroy the separation as if it didn’t exist. The distance stays, but we build connections of love above it and thus reveal 620 times more Light! You discover resistance between souls, and precisely in this separation, instead of the Light of Nefesh de Nefesh, you reveal NRNHY, like in a light bulb filament.
[55051]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Without mentioning the science of Kabbalah in our dissemination, we are simply telling people that mutual guarantee will provide them with a good life. In that case, how are we different from other organizations that hand out similar promises?

Answer: It’s bad if you don’t feel the difference.

The modern person is experiencing a global, integral crisis. In this way, the Creator is showing him that he is connected with others the wrong way and that he has to reach mutual guarantee. There is a method that will help him unite with others correctly and to start living a good life. This method operates by creating the appropriate atmosphere, a “shell” out of the environment, which gives a person the explanation of how to live together and lead a good, healthy, safe life.

A person hears this and understands that there is no other solution. And others hear the same thing, so it’s easier to make this happen conjointly, together with them. A person learns to unite with others the right way, and in the process he attracts the Light that reforms to himself. This is the same thing that children do while playing, becoming older and smarter in the process.

Thus, when a person finds himself in a bad situation, he uses others to attract the Light, and gradually he starts valuing the force of bestowal. He holds it in high regard and it becomes the highest value for him. And suddenly he begins respecting it so much that even when everything in his life is going ok, he does not abandon bestowal, wishing to enact it regardless of his sensations. That’s because he attributes the primary importance to it.

That is how a person becomes spiritual, going from the egoistic intention, Lo Lishma to the altruistic one, Lishma. And there is no chance that 99% of the population will reach correction in any other way. Can you recommend anything else besides the Torah?

I think the problem is an elementary misunderstanding of how to advance AHP. We have known how to correct Galgalta Eynaim since the times of Babylon, but to correct AHP, this is the only means we have.
[54407]
From the New York lecture #2, 9/12/11

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Question: While reading The Zohar, should we try to search for the connection between us in the mind or in the sensations?

Answer: We should search for it in our sensations. If we’re unable to find it, the mind should assist us. However, first and foremost we should try to find an emotional connection.

The Zohar describes the already existing connection between us. This connection will reveal itself as Malchut of the world of Infinity, full of the Light of Infinity, the presence and the revelation of the Creator. This is what we must aspire towards.

Hence, when reading The Zohar, we try to imagine the correct connection between us. Today the necessity for this type of connection between all of humanity is becoming apparent. This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is being revealed to everyone. It demands from those of us who have received an awakening and have begun to study a bit before the rest to disseminate it in the entire world so that everyone could realize that we are in a crisis, that our current connection no longer works, and we must reveal a new connection between us.

This new connection cannot be discerned in the natural, egoistic way, as it was done before because this connection already exists in the global, integral system permeated by mutual guarantee, the system that is somewhat becoming revealed in the world. Therefore, a problem arises: A better type of connection manifests to us, but we still relate to it egoistically. The crisis is the gap between the desired state that is becoming revealed in the world and the actual state we are in. This is a crisis.

The reading of The Book of Zohar, the study of Kabbalah in its entirety, and all our efforts should lead us to a state where we become similar to the connection network that is being revealed between us. After all, it’s being revealed as far more corrected than we are in our broken state. When we analyze the situation, we ourselves say that the world has become interconnected, while we have not.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/2011, The Zohar

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