A person is constantly influenced by society and reality as a whole, the universe and their surroundings. At the same time, one must constantly strive to connect the three points together: I, the Creator, and my actions (my present state), as if they form a unified whole.

The balance between the right and left lines needs to be reestablished every minute, renewed at every moment. In fact, you can never simply be in a state of balance. Spirituality is a constantly changing substance.

There are no moment in spirituality where you can reach a point and say to yourself, “Ah! That is it, I’m done!” There is no such thing. If you utter that “Ah!”, then you are already no longer in the state that you had attained. In order to find the strength to remain in balance, you need a group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/26, Rabash, “What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work?”

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Towers, pyramids, mausoleums—all of these are necessary; people need them.

Question: Even though they all deteriorate and will inevitably fall apart?

Answer: Yes, but in the meantime, we keep building them.

Question: Why is this urge within us?

Answer: We need this symbol. We are building a home for our egoism.

Question: So we need a symbol that we can constantly worship. Is this what is meant by “worshipping other gods”?

Answer: Yes. They may be temples; they may be pyramids; it doesn’t matter what form they take.

Question: When will we stop building them? When will we reach that stage?

Answer: Only when the Creator is revealed to us.

Comment: Lately you keep coming back to this very point, again and again.

My Response: What else could there be?!

Comment: At the same time, we don’t know when He will be revealed.

My Response: We don’t know, but this is the only way it can happen. It will completely encompass all our dreams, plans, our future—everything! In other words, when He is revealed to us, we will understand that all of this was complete nonsense and that we built all these things for nothing.

Question: You said that the Creator is mercy, that He is always goodness, love, and so on. Why, then, is this mercy so harsh? Why does it take so long? Why has blood been shed for centuries? Wars have continued for centuries, yet He still does not reveal Himself. Why?

Answer: He reveals Himself under certain conditions! What do you want from Him?! He must be revealed in a state of absolute unity between Him and humanity. But that unity does not exist. And so far, there has not even been any real movement toward it.

Question: Do you mean absolute unity among people themselves?

Answer: No, with people, the Creator’s unity with people.

Question: The unity of the Creator with people? Under what conditions can that happen?

Answer: If we become similar to Him in our qualities. In other words, if we become like Him, He will be revealed.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 7/31/26

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 250

How Do We Distinguish Between a Klipa and the Recognition of Evil?

We distinguish everything according to the way the light illuminates us.

From a Talk on the Article “What Are Holiness and Purity, in the Work?” 6/17/2002

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Sukkot 2003, Lesson 16 (10.17.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Studying with Friends

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After Yom Kippur, we essentially build our attitude toward the light so that it will begin to correct us. Preparation for perceiving the light continues from Yom Kippur until the beginning of Sukkot.

Before Yom Kippur, we have ten special days called the “Ten Days of Return,” when all of egoism becomes structured according to ten levels, into ten Sefirot. Each Sefira, each level, under the influence of this light from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, directs itself in such a way that it reaches Malchut. Malchut is the last, tenth Sefira, which feels completely isolated and opposite to the light. This is Yom Kippur, the tenth day.

These days are called the “Ten Days of Return” or the “Days of Judgment.” A person judges himself: Who is he, what is he, and in what way and what has he done with himself? He begins to pray and ask for correction through this light.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/25/26

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Question: By meticulously observing all the laws of the Sukkah, don’t we resemble idol worshippers?

Answer: You are asking: “If I work on the material observance of the commandment—building and decorating a Sukkah and carefully performing the rituals associated with the holiday—am I not violating the prohibition, ‘Do not make for yourself graven images or likenesses?’ In other words, am I becoming more attached to matter than to the spirit?”

For me, it is important not to become more attached to matter than to the spiritual, but to see in material objects only hints of the spiritual. It is important that these hints awaken questions in me about spirituality. How should I act internally toward the Creator regarding my inner qualities? If this is indeed what happens, then I am using the material expression of the spiritual correctly—branches and the literal meaning (Pshat)—for my personal spiritual advancement.

But if I really forget about the spiritual aspect of the commandment, about advancing through it, and about the connection between the material action and the spiritual intention that makes spiritual ascent possible, then indeed I have simply built a beautiful Sukkah, covered it with a beautiful roof, and sit in it, eating and drinking without thinking about spirituality at all.

I would not say that this is graven image or likeness or something forbidden, but in any case, the benefit is minimal. Perhaps at some point I will nevertheless develop a desire to attain the state of Sukkah in the spiritual sense—to build it within myself.

As Ibn Ezra writes, all the commandments were given to us not in order to “make idols,” but to correct the heart. If a person relates to willow branches, the etrog, the Schach, and so forth as attributes symbolizing the correction of the heart, wishing through them to connect a little more with the inner meaning and grasp the hints conveyed by these “branches,” then he truly sanctifies this world as well. The entire world acquires meaning for him.

But this applies only to those who use everything in this world for spiritual advancement.

Some people think that we are opposed to the mechanical observance of commandments. No, we are not opposed to physical actions at all. It is true that the importance of physical actions is somewhat diminished for us because we constantly think and work on how to fulfill these commandments in the spiritual, inner sphere, and carry them out within the person himself.

But when a person is already completely filled with the desire to perform a spiritual action and attain fulfillment of the commandment in its true meaning, then material things do not hinder him at all. On the contrary, they help him return to his intention again and again. He finds all kinds of nuances and pleasant elements in them that connect him with the same idea.

There are things that people often neglect. At the beginning, there may be periods when a person pays almost no attention to the material world or to carrying out physical actions. Later, everything, so to speak, returns to its proper place. This will come; there is no need to worry.

We should be more concerned about what we do not fulfill spiritually, which is a matter of bestowing upon the Creator. As for the material side, that will come. It is desirable to try to do these things in parallel—in the spiritual and material realms—although, in reality, one or the other occasionally falters.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/26/26

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Comment: Baal HaSulam writes that the commandment of the Sukkah symbolizes faith, and therefore stands above all the other commandments. On the other hand, we learn that the commandment “love your neighbor as yourself” is the one that transcends all other commandments.

My Response: Neither the commandment of Sukkah nor the commandment “love your neighbor as yourself” goes beyond all the other commandments. They include them within themselves. If it seems to you that this commandment is something greater, then it would appear as though there are 613 commandments, and the last of them is greater than all the others.

No, this commandment includes all the others, but is not an additional commandment, an additional action. It is an action that manifests as the sum of all the previous actions.

For example, suppose you have a cucumber, a tomato, an onion, dill, and parsley. You chop everything, and you get a salad. The salad is something new, but is there really anything new in it? There is nothing other than the combination of components that already existed.

The same principle underlies the commandment “love your neighbor as yourself” (the great rule of the Torah) or the commandment of the “Sukkah” as a synthesis of all the commandments. Combine all the commandments and you will get the Sukkah.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/26/26

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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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