Why is fulfilling the commandment of Sukkah equivalent to all the other commandments? It is because the Sukkah symbolizes faith, and faith is the screen and reflected light through which a person can perform the commandments. Bestowal upon the Creator (Hashpa’ah) is called a commandment (Mitzvah), equivalence with the Creator is called a commandment, adhesion (Dvekut) with the Creator is called a commandment.

A commandment is working with the desire to receive for the sake of bestowal, which is possible only according to the measure of the screen and reflected light.

Therefore, Rabash says that all those who betray faith receive a curse. That is, one who is unable to work with the intention for the sake of bestowal, who has neither a screen nor reflected light, has no faith, and then instead of a blessing, he receives a curse.

Conversely, those who preserve their faith will face no obstacles. Therefore, the main thing is to work on maintaining faith and ensuring that faith prevails over reason.

Thus, one must always be concerned with the intention to bring contentment to the Creator, so that only the magnitude of the intention to bestowa becomes the magnitude of the Kli (vessel) with which the person works.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/26/26

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Question: What is the essence of the connection between faith and the “covering of the Sukkah” (Schach)?

Answer: Schach and faith are one and the same. If they are the same thing, what connection can there be between them? If they were two different things, I would explain the connection between them, but this is simply one and the same phenomenon. We are not speaking at all about a material roof made of plants. When we speak of the covering of the Sukkah, we are referring to the screen that a person builds above his head.

Schach symbolizes things that were once alive and growing, but have now died, things that have reached the end of their life cycle. A person once enjoyed these things, but now they are dead to him; the spirit of life has departed from them. In his eyes, they have lost all importance and are entirely unsuitable for his advancement. He then takes these things, which have no importance for him anymore, and raises them above his head.

The Schach is constructed of objects that have practically no use: scraps of wood, leaves, and branches that cannot be used for anything other than perhaps burning them to heat a little water. What else can be done with these objects? It is impossible to build something from them. The covering of the Sukkah is not made from standard building material, such as solid timber. There are specific laws concerning this.

When a person raises things that have no importance according to the perceptions of his desire to receive above his head, it means that he is proceeding by faith above reason. Then the Schach is faith, while his knowledge is located inside the Sukkah.

A person is ready to work with his knowledge, which is smaller than his faith, or to use it only in accordance with the measure of his faith. This is called having his entire vessel of reception under the cover of the decision not to receive for himself, under the cover of the Schach, the screen. Then a person sits in the shade of the Sukkah, whose shade must be greater than the sunlight entering it. There must be so little sunlight in the Sukkah that it is almost imperceptible.

Today, we cover the Sukkah with thin slats. Rabash made sure that they were placed so closely together that almost no light could enter through them. It was not a matter of seeing the sky or the stars, only the faintest trace of light. I once asked why. It looked almost like a house. The roof was unattractive, but it was truly a roof. I was told that this was the custom: to make it very dense.

This is one of the symbols indicating the immense power and strength of the canopy, the force of mercy. This is what one must be concerned with rather than the amount of light filtering through the roof.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/26/26

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Question: Is faith always the most important thing that a person must attain first?

Answer: It is not merely the most important thing. Faith is the only thing we must attain, and nothing else besides it. “The righteous will live by his faith.” Besides the screen and the reflected light, the light of Bina, in which the Ohr Hochma (the light of wisdom) is clothed, there is nothing else. Therefore, this is the only thing we should be concerned with.

What is the connection here with the holiday of Sukkot? After a person has passed through the period of the exodus from Egypt and received the Torah, through its light he sees himself as weak and contemptible in his original qualities, with which he was created.

In this way, he attains a full awareness of his soul, which is represented by Yom Kippur (the Day of Judgment), and approaches the stage of his correction called Sukkot. Sukkot is Schach (the covering of the Sukkah), and Schach is the screen and reflected light.

What does “Tzel” (shadow) mean? “In His shadow I sat, and I delighted…” To delight while sitting in the shade means to delight in bestowing upon the Creator, rather than in the Light that comes without being clothed in the shadow, that is, without being clothed in the light of Bina.

These are all symbols. In essence, we should see this in every commandment and in every matter: There is nothing besides the light, the Kli, and the screen between them; everything, in essence, comes down to one thing.

Sometimes, when we do not understand very well what is being discussed, we begin to enter into the details of a commandment. In general, such a major commandment as Sukkot, which is equal in importance to all the other commandments, is more or less clear, and all the actions involved in carrying it out can easily be imagined.

However, there are commandments that speak of particular corrections of the Kli during the Second Restriction (Tzimtzum Bet), of attaching the ascending AHP de Aliyah, when one makes a correction on Yesod rather than on Malchut, and so on. Here, the problem arises of how to accurately grasp all kinds of particular states. But in general, the essence of all spiritual actions, which are called commandments, is the correction of the screen. The size of the screen is called the measure of faith, and through faith one receives knowledge, the revelation of the divine.

The revelation of the Creator can also occur before faith appears, in order to give birth to it. This is called, “Know the Creator, your Almighty and serve Him.” We need the revelation of the Creator also because in this way the screen manifests within us and is built. If we ask the Creator to reveal Himself for this purpose, it happens, and a person, bowing before the Creator, submits to Him. This submission is our screen.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/26/26

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On Yom Kippur, a confrontation takes place between the entire Kli (vessel), which is revealed in all its egoistic depth, and the light that must correct and fill this Kli.

Therefore, on Yom Kippur, a person does not eat, drink, or wash, has no marital relations, and does not anoint himself with oils, because oil symbolizes the light of Hochma, the body symbolizes the desire to receive, and the external reception of the light of Hochma symbolizes the process called Sikha—smearing or anointing. It is also forbidden to wear anything made of leather, because leather is considered a covering, an external garment, whereas at this time everything is exposed; there is not yet an external Kli.

A person has internal and external Kelim. The internal Kelim were formed in one during the Second Restriction (Tzimtzum Bet). These are the Kelim for the lights of Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshama. But for Haya and Yehida, for the light of Hochma, there are external Kelim, the Levush ve Heichal (garments and a house, walls).

We have three qualities that exist together within us: Shoresh, Neshama, and Guf (root, soul, and body). In addition, there is a garment over us and walls around us that we build as our own.

Garments and walls also exist in the material world because of the imperfection of our Kelim. If we were internally complete, we would not need clothing, as Adam HaRishon did not, nor walls, that is, any space in which a person resides.

These categories, these Kelim, would exist within us. But now we partially compensate for their absence through clothing and through a house. All this results from the defectiveness of our Kelim, from human imperfection. After correction, this gradually enters within a person, and he no longer needs either garments or a house.

The light that comes to us on Yom Kippur shows us how imperfect our Kli is; all its negative qualities are revealed within it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/25/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

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What does it mean that the Torah (from the word Horaah, instruction or method) is acquired? Everything is done only through light and vessels; there is nothing else. When one receives the light that can gradually correct the vessels, it is necessary that this light and the Kelim not simply exist as two things opposite one another, but that the light first enter the Kelim and impart its qualities to them.

This occurs after the upper light called Moses (from the word “Limshoch,” to draw, to pull egoism from below upward toward the light) descends. Moses embodies the aspiration of all a person’s qualities to be corrected and to attract the upper light to themselves. That is, after Moses draws this light to himself, since the soul initially possesses only a single quality, the point in the heart, the soul must undergo a shattering.

We know that every connection begins with the breaking of the Kelim (vessels). Subsequently the qualities of the light enter the qualities of the Kelim and establish a connection between them. Only afterward, through a different light, the light of correction, do the sparks of the light that fell into egoism during the shattering begin to align the ego with themselves and correct it.

Thus, the breaking of the Kelim must take place. Moses receives the Torah and descends with it from the mountain to the remaining qualities (the people) while they are making the golden calf. Moses symbolically breaks the tablets; that is, the light enters the vessel, and the breaking occurs.

The process of the breaking of the Kelim had already occurred in the world of Nekudim and with Adam HaRishon. Now the same thing is happening. It is one and the same process without which there would be no connection between the light and the Kelim. The light breaks these vessels.

This takes place on the 17^th of Tammuz. Moses breaks the tablets and the light enters the vessel. Then some time passes until the first of Elul, a new month, followed a month later, after the new moon, by the New Year (Rosh Hashanah).

This means that Moses again ascends Mount Sinai and receives the second tablets. In other words, the light within the vessel is processed again, and it again becomes possible to rise and ask for the light of correction. When the light of correction descends upon a person, they begin to see themselves within this light.

Once again, just as the first time, Moses remains in contact with the light for 40 days, at the level of Bina. Then he descends, meaning that the light begins to pass through to all the remaining qualities, to the entire people.

The descent of the light to Malchut and their complete opposition is celebrated among us as Yom Kippur. Through the shattering of the soul, a person begins to understand that they do not have a single good quality, and that everything must be corrected. But they learn this because within every egoistic quality of the soul there are already sparks of light that fell during the breaking when the light first entered. Now a second light shines, the light of correction, akin to the second tablets.

There is a difference between the first and second tablets, just like there is a difference between the First Temple and the Second Temple. Here, another light descends, the light of correction. It no longer needs to break the vessels, enter them, and mix with them. Instead, it must shine from afar and gradually correct the vessel. It possesses different qualities.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/25/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

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Question: Were there Kabbalists who violated the rule against touching the secrets of the Torah prematurely, before they had completed their own corrections?

Answer: I do not want to go into this because we are not yet capable of discussing such topics. Questions will immediately arise: “How did they do it? For what reason? Why did the Creator allow this? Where was the general and individual governance? Was it a mistake or to the contrary?” There are many stories, and it is not for us from our degree to analyze them.

Why do we go above reason in order to ascend from degree to degree? Because the mind of the higher degree is literally opposite to my mind. I am simply incapable of discussing such degrees. We can only, so to speak, console ourselves with the formulations, and make some understanding in order to continue on the path.

In the same way, children are told fairy tales and fables so that they will grow. And when they become adults, they see that everything is somewhat different. However, they cannot yet grasp with their minds the full complexity of human relationships and world processes, and that is why they are presented with these things in a simple form corresponding to their understanding, and thanks to this they grow.

It is the same for us. It is impossible to take such questions seriously. It is good that they exist, but we must understand that every question is a Hisaron, the fulfillment of which can be seen not at our degree, but many degrees higher. Therefore, the question is different: how can a Hisaron (lack) arise in me, the fulfillment of which lies, say, ten degrees higher? What does its present revelation mean?

Actually, this is not even a question, because from this I must derive the understanding that I actually need to possess a yearning to reach the highest degree—even if an unconscious need.

I will put it differently. There must be a Hisaron, a need for a state of infinity within the limits of my current level, but a need for the state of infinity. Because at every degree it is precisely infinity that is revealed, only to a different extent, first a little, then a little more, then even more.

It is perfectly normal that I have questions about the highest degree because I must strive for infinity. In essence, I am already in it now, but only a very, very small measure of infinity is revealed to me, although it is revealed in every detail. In every detail, but in a very, very limited way. Limited, but equally present in all those details.

And if the smallest degree of infinity is revealed to me, then it will be revealed in all the details that exist in infinity. However, in my eyes it will appear so unclear that it will seem very small, very vague, but infinite to me.

Therefore questions will arise throughout the entire path up to the final goal, even at the smallest degree.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,’ in the Work?”

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Question: It is written that a person should sell everything he owns and marry a daughter of a sage. Why must one marry the daughter of a wise man?

Answer: The “wise man” or “sage” is the Creator. One who studies His wisdom is called a “disciple of the sage.” The vessel, the desire for this, is called the “daughter of the wise disciple.”

We have a desire to receive. In its corrected sate it is called “male” and “woman” in the uncorrected form. There are various designations, but by marrying the daughter of a wise disciple, i.e., acquiring the desire to receive and correcting it into an intention for the sake of giving, in an effort to become a disciple of the wise, with the help of this desire, a person comes to work for the Creator, to become like the Creator.

Question: What is this special Kli of a wise disciples daughter? After all, every vessel is a desire to receive.

Answer: Indeed, in the end, all desires will turn into proper vessels to the degree they are corrected. However, this is not yet so during the process of correction. During the process of correction, there are many desires that a person must conceal one should not to work with all them, but rather filter out the few that can be brought to an intention for the sake of bestowal, to work for the Creator.

Question: When does it start? Once people come to “religion,” that is, to the right intention?

Answer: Before a person became “religious,” a material desire to receive already formed within them. What I mean is that before a person began to correct himself, he was already walking in the middle line (Daat, Tifferet, and Yesod), yet his desire to receive was aimed at himself with the intention to receive. When he starts working for the sake of givinbestowing, he brings everything in line with this intention and screen, which is called becoming “religious.”

Then a different kind of work begins: a person filters out his desires, selecting the right ones he can work with. Some desires are impossible to work with at all; for example, the stony heart (Lev Ha Even), the prohibitive commandments speak about it.

A person takes the desires he can work with, according to the extent and form it is possible and how they can be combined, and begins to refocus them on the intention for the sake of giving. This is how he builds his middle line.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/26, Rabash, “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter”

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Question: Why did a person have more strength for giving before they came to “religion,” that is, before they acquired the right intention?

Answer: When the desire to receive is revealed to a person in the ordinary way, as it happens with everyone, the person sees that in one part of this desire they can receive, and in another part give.

In some cases, I derive pleasure from giving, and in others from receiving. In each person, these qualities are mixed in their own way; based on these we can tell whether a person is good or bad, whether their actions are wonderful or repulsive. However, all of a person’s desires, both giving and receiving, are directed toward their own benefit.

When a person begins to compare themselves with the true properties of bestowing, which are devoid of any intention for self-benefit, they evaluate everything very differently. Then, both acts of receiving and giving appear to one as essentially the same from the start, for they all serve the single intention: to receive. Consequently, they are all flawed. The person sees a twofold evil in themselves.

First, he previously thought receiving was normal and natural; now he realizes it is bad. Secondly, in the past, when he gave, he thought he was performing good deeds, he had motivation and a sense of self-importance; he felt like a worthy human being.

Indeed, we derive pleasure from giving; it boosts our self‑esteem, feeds our pride, and so on. Even the lowest, most terrible person experiences such feelings; it seems to them that they are giving up something for the sake of others. Now, however, he sees that what he deemed to be to his merit—acts of giving or expressions of his own humanity, was also for the sake of receiving something in return. Thus, a person becomes a villain twice over in their own eyes.

They feel that all their actions are bad, awful, and the urge to give something to someone feels even worse, which plunges a person into despair. Furthermore, beyond the all-encompassing intention to receive, even stronger desires are revealed to them. The person suddenly realizes they do not care about anything: let their children perish, let the whole world disappear, it makes no difference. Their ego is so locked within itself that it takes nothing outside the boundaries of his own body into account.

Then the desire to receive presents an even grimmer picture: they do not care about anything outside themself nor about what will happen a moment later. Let me perish in a second, I am alive until the next second and that is enough. The desire to receive focuses so intensely on this particular point—the present moment and only within itself—that this point becomes its absolute limit. A limit in both time and space.

Therefore, we reveal not how great our desire to receive is, but the extent to which it is locked within itself. It is endlessly absorbed in itself, indifferent to everything else! It is immense precisely because of this terrible quality of inwardly directed self‑sufficiency.

Then a person finds themselves in a state where they do not know how to escape this condition. They feel very bad. If they had simply acknowledged this within themselves without the accompanying realization of its nature, they would not feel anything negative; they would accept that is just how I am. We see that many people in the world commit terrible things, and they even feel better than those who seem to be doing good.

The problem is that when a person is about to “return to religion,” i.e., to acquire a middle line, to work in Daat, Tiferet, and Yesod, they see themselves as bad in relation to the surrounding light. They become split, experiencing a terrible feeling from comparing themselves to the standard, to the properties of the surrounding light. They simply go crazy; such moments are so intense. This is the beginning of the recognition of evil.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/26, Rabash, “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter”

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Comment: Rabash writes a lot about the different states a person goes through.

My Response: When you read or listen to articles or read my books, you cannot determine how it will affect you; you cannot determine the direction of your thoughts. And why would you? You just have to accept it, listen to it, pass it through yourself like through a grinder, and that is it. It enters through your ears, but what it does there is not important. It does not matter at all! It is not your job to determine how this should work.

This is exactly what I was asked online: “How does one attain a particular property?”

I wrote: “How can a person determine which property they should attain? How do you know you are meant to reach that point? Perhaps your turn to reach it won’t come for another year? In the meantime, you have to go through other things. Do you know your soul’s structure? Do you know what you should be thinking right now? You only obligation is: “What is in your power to do, do.” You attract the light onto yourself and it acts on your structure.

Chemists know that a large molecule has billions of parts, and they are all interconnected. In the spiritual molecule, everyone is connected to everyone. In material life, this presents a problem. However, in the material world, we want to simplify everything. But each has its own character within the same structure: one is bigger, the other is smaller, and the connections between things change.

The structure is the same, but each part has different mass, and each connects to the others in its own way. It is like us all having the same skeleton, but the difference is between the inner parts, inside the bones.

So how can I, in such a complex system where I do not feel or know, or can barely hear anything at first, determine what is more or less corrected in me? What nonsense!

So what can I do? I can only bring a powerful light, and the more it shines on this large molecule, the more it will develop. I can only increase this light’s glow with the help of the science of Kabbalah. That is it! There is nothing else we can do here. We can only intensify the light shining on the structure of the soul. Adding a bit more and more effort.

You start thinking and comparing things because you work with your head and your heart. But your work is already the result of how the surrounding light has affected you and prepared your head and heart for work. There is no way for you to have done it first.

But if you want the light to do something faster next time, by all means. This acceleration may not be so pleasant: falling, flying off, getting up. But you cannot escape this; you can only accelerate your development. When you act in this development, your attitude toward it brings you a different sense of development. That is, even bad things seem good to you. You perceive them as such because they appear to your senses in a good way.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/26, Rabash, “What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator?”

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Comment: We say that the group is the most significant factor that drives a person forward.

My Response: The group gives a person an understanding of many different things, both positive and negative. Perhaps you are asking whether I can buy friends with money.

Let us say that I am a rich and have a lot of money. Then I can buy ten, or even better, a million people who will constantly tell me about the importance of the goal.

Will this work or not? Yes, it will. After all, right now I am in my desire to receive, in a state of animalistic urgency, and that is what gets impressed by what it hears and sees. If I could buy a million people with money, people who would tell me about the importance of working for the Creator, and perform in front of me as if they were one with the Creator, and so on…

That is, I direct a grand production, and I immerse myself in the action. And even though I myself paid for it and gave the order to act, and I know that all the actors are acting for the sake of earning money (the desire to receive), nevertheless, a minute later I am already under their influence. They give me strength, impressions, and elevation, and I advance and gain spiritual value. And they receive their salary.

This is because I must be under their influence, based on my desire to receive. And there is nothing wrong with this desire. It receives from this impression. This is exactly what we demand from the group. Otherwise, I will need a different kind of society, people like Rabbi Shimon, Baal HaSulam, and others like them.

And here they say: “No, be in a group with ordinary people just like you, people who just want to move toward their goal, and make efforts in the game together.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/24/26, Rabash, “What ‘Israel Do the Creator’s Will’ Means in the Work”

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