When I build a Sukkah above me – a covering for my egoism, and when I hide my egoism in its shade, I conceal 99% of my desires to enjoy from the Light,  and I am then able to see 1% of the Light. I leave just one thin ray of Light (Kav Dak), and in it, I see the Creator. I then begin to gradually reveal new inner qualities that are illuminated by this ray, which are called Ushpizin – Guests. These are my corrected qualities, which have been attached to bestowal.

That is how gradually, over the course of seven days of Sukkoth, all my qualities undergo a change. I realize that besides the studies and many other activities I have to do, I was supposed to unite with other souls, but somehow I always forgot about this. It just always seemed unimportant, like the garbage or leftovers of my spiritual work.

But if I raise the importance of these “unnecessary things” above all else, above my own head or knowledge, and if I make them important by building a “ceiling” from them that will rule over me, then inside this tent, I will be like an embryo that is preparing for birth and turning upside down. By flipping over into a “head down” position, I change my values.

I am then able to enter the Sukkah – the covering for my will to enjoy. This is a covering that a person builds over his own egoism, instead of the Creator having to conceal Himself from the person.

The Sukkah, the canopy that we build on the holiday of Sukkoth, symbolizes the concealment (screen) that a person has to build over his desire at the first stage of the spiritual work. He does it by collecting all the “leftovers” and raising them above him, thus pacifying his ego. Now his ego is in concealment and he is ready to sit (to be in a state of smallness) in this Sukkah for all seven days of Sukkoth (designated HaGaT NeHY), until all his desires will come under that canopy.

What takes place there is a revolution, similar to how a baby turns head down in the mother’s womb preparing for birth, or like the earth is ploughed by turning its lower layer inside out and bringing it to the top. This means that the things that used to be important for egoism now lose their importance, while the things that were unimportant – bestowal and unity – become the most important. That is how the leftovers of the previous state are used to build the new level. In this manner, we use the Light to build one level after another out of our desires.

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A question I received: When a person is on the path of spiritual development and is going through the period of concealment, he feels lost and confused. He understands that egoism is evil, but he is unable to part with it. Where can he find the strength to do this?

My Answer: We go through many different states throughout our life, and the states are different for every age group. At every moment in time, all kinds of inner changes take place in us with the speed of atoms spinning inside us, faster and faster. These changes take place inside our desires, on an unconscious level.

For several billion of these inner actions, there’s one instant when a “number shifts” inside us, like in a meter with many cogwheels spinning inside it, when suddenly the meter shifts from “0” to “1.” After that everything spins around inside for a long time again, and then the number jumps from “1” to “2.” This is what happens inside us as well.

This is why we have to allot some time for these actions to transpire. The same thing usually takes place in our regular lives: we often find ourselves in a situation that drags on and on, until it’s suddenly over “by itself.” And when you’re in that situation, you know that you have to change, but you just can’t.

It takes time for things to change. Meanwhile, we have to act as an “ox in a yoke,” since we can’t tell exactly what is happening to us, we don’t understand the actions taking place.

Later on, when a person enters the spiritual world, he begins to understand everything. He acquires new desires of bestowal, and through them, he is able to discern billions of actions in a single instant. This becomes simple, like his body.

However, today the same actions are also taking place inside us, infinitely fast. We have to be patient and wait, meaning that we have to continue along our path. At one point, the present state will reach an end, the “number will shift,” and we will agree to bestow.
(From part 1 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, on Shamati #18)

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We live in an integral system, where any change is reflected in all the spiritual worlds, in all ten Sefirot. Therefore, any time I change anything inside me, this causes a change in every single person and even the entire universe. And each particular change in a person, in turn, causes new changes in everyone, and so it goes. This process comes to an end when the whole system reaches its final restful state. At that point the beginning and end unite into a single, unchanging, eternal state.

The spiritual world is not built on a piecemeal foundation; it is not made up of separate pieces. It is whole, complete and integral. And even though we treat each other and our surroundings in a “linear” fashion, in actuality we are speaking of an analogous, integral system that eventually “calms down” and becomes balanced out.

A person has to be an active part of this process until he comes to encompass this entire system, until he takes this entire system into him and it becomes his nature. This is why our task is not to gain an external understanding of the science of Kabbalah, but to make internal changes in accordance with the system we are studying. We need to completely absorb it within. Only then will everyone be incorporated in each other according to the principle of love of others. We will then attain full control over our eternal, complete, and integral existence.

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Out of all reality, I perceive only the things that are worthwhile for me, from the standpoint of profit or loss. Everything else I do not perceive. I may be surrounded by thousands of other things, but I remain indifferent to them all. And if I am indifferent, I simply don’t see them.

In this regard, a person does not have to change in any way, or transform himself into a “winged angel.” He only has to annul his limitations and open up his senses so as to see, hear and sense the world that exists outside him. And that is done by perceiving everything “for the benefit of others.”

Then you will truly sense the world outside yourself, and exist in the World of Infinity. But where is this World of Infinity? Is it behind some star or galaxy? No. It is here and now.

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An editorial in the news (translated from blog.liga.net): Even supposing that the crisis will soon be over, there still won’t be enough work for everyone. People are buying fewer products because they have less money, and in addition, a person without work is a dangerous thing. The only solution is for people all over the world to change their value system and their notions of what they are willing to pay money for.

The crisis is making us realize what is of true value in the 21st century. It is preparing us to change our life values, and to understand the new values for which we are willing to pay money.

If the world’s richest people were to gather and form a world government based on these new values, then the world structure could change. But apparently, such an intent cannot appear without a crisis.

People’s consciousness doesn’t change in conditions of comfort. Stress, or a crisis, is necessary. Everyone needs it – whether they are workers, the middle class, retirees, or homeless – in order to ask themselves the main question: What are the new values that are important to me today?

I have yet to find one person who could give me a straight answer of what to do. Managing the crisis lies not in changing the situation in the external world – since all of this is just vanity of vanities, but the change needs to occur in the human consciousness. That is where all the roots and causes are found.

My Comment: People are already guessing that the crisis is not in finance, but in the need to change our general attitude toward life, ourselves, the world, and Nature. The problem is that we understand that we need to change, but we don’t know how and what to change, and we won’t find these things out by ourselves. We will keep receiving blows, but we won’t know how to evade them correctly.

Nature demands that we rise to the “human” level, which is a level we know nothing about because its qualities are opposite to our current level.

We will develop and eventually recognize the evil of our level, but on our own we will never be able to understand how to shift from evil to good, because this transition involves a new consciousness and new qualities on our part. That is why Kabbalah is being revealed today, as it is the science about revealing our next level.

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Symptoms: America is in agony. All people can think about is healthcare reform.

Medical history: Everything began with the money factor being introduced into the doctor-patient relationship, which threw greed into full gear. Now every player in the health care system is looking to save money. This is how the law of mandatory insurance came about.

The system is tried and tested: the first several thousand dollars must be paid out of one’s own pocket, and then an additional $20-30 for each visit (besides the insurance). Drugs are ridiculously expensive, and doctors are prescribing them by the dozen.

Doctors pay one third of their salary for insurance, in case their patients decide to sue them. And why shouldn’t the patients sue when there’s good money to be had? You don’t even need start up capital to sue a doctor. All you need is a lawyer who will sue and retain 30-50% from the award as his fee. And so the wheels keep turning on this well-oiled machine known as “The Healthcare System.”

Prescription: We must change our relationships with one another. If the pharmaceutical companies were to think about curing people, rather than maximizing profits by pushing drugs, if the insurance companies were to concern themselves with maintaining the public’s health, rather than expanding the business of being sick, if the doctors were to stop being afraid of insurance companies and of their patients, and start treating them according to the accumulated knowledge and experience of their profession, and if the patients were to regain faith in their doctors… well, there simply wouldn’t be any need for reforms!

But in order for that to happen we must recognize the evil and greed of our highly developed egoism. 51 million dollars have already been spent just on advertising for this reform. The greed clouds our vision and prevents us from thinking of our neighbors. But gradually, we will begin to understand that unless we change our attitude to others, we are bringing ourselves closer and closer to our collective demise.

(Sent to me by Dr. A. Angelov, from the Bnei Baruch group in Boston, Massachusetts)

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In the News (from arxiv.org): “Testing the link between terrestrial climate change and Galactic spiral structure” We confront past suggestions of a close link between terrestrial climate change and the Sun’s transit of spiral arms in its path through the Milky Way galaxy. We use new information on spiral structure based on CO data that does not make simplifying assumptions about symmetry and circular rotation. Comparing the times of these transits to changes in the climate of Earth, not only do the claimed correlations disappear, but also we find that they cannot be resurrected for any reasonable pattern speed.

My Comment: All the changes that occur in Nature are influenced mainly by human behavior, or rather, by people’s thoughts and desires. The problem is that this influence is hidden from us and thus we erroneously focus on and measure our external influences, such as gas emissions and solid waste pollution.

However, even though the pollution on the Earth’s surface seems enormous, its influence on climate change is actually negligible. The greatest influence comes from our egoistic thoughts!

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In the News (from Physorg): “Twitter ain’t cool, British teenager tells global investors” 15-year-old Briton has set the financial world abuzz with a research note penned for a major US bank in which he reveals teenagers’ media habits – including that Twitter is just not cool. The research note – which has been circulated to Morgan Stanley clients – reveals that while teenagers consume a huge variety of media, from television to computer games to the Internet and music, they are unwilling to pay for it. “They rarely listen to the radio or buy CDs, preferring to use websites that stream music or to download it illegally,” teenager Matthew Robson wrote in his report.

Robson says teenagers watch television but do not have time to watch regular programs, particularly when they can watch them afterwards online, and says his peers have no time for outdoor advertising or banner ads on websites, preferring instead viral marketing. The report concludes with a helpful list of what is hot and what is not: anything with a touch screen, mobile phones with large capacity for music and “really big tellies” are desirable.

My Comment: People don’t even imagine how much technology will change their lives, culture, relationships and preferences. Ten years from now, the world will be very different, emptier. As people become more and more interconnected, they will expose the emptiness between them, and thus they will face a crisis of man living in an empty world.

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A question I received: Please show me practically, using examples from history, how do Reshimot change?

My Answer: The periodical change of our attitude to life is dictated by the changing “genes” in us (Reshimot, which comes from the word Roshem – “recording” in Hebrew). The stages of egoism’s changes are recorded inside each of us from the beginning, when the common soul divided into many souls.

Reshimot are revealed in us in an increasing, consecutive order: 0-1-2-3-4. Therefore, at the beginning stages of their realization in us, the Reshimot brought forth a small egoism in us; and in those lives we were “naïve” – slaves and masters. Then, as more advanced Reshimot surfaced in us, when we were born in the next epochs, we desired to be freer, to be workers, such as vassals or serfs. Women were married off without their permission, and this was considered “correct.” They loved their husbands because their small egoism did not get in the way. This was the accepted norm.

And after that, as more advanced Reshimot were expressed in us, we desired to be “free” workers for hire, employers but not masters. We desired freedom and equality (including for women), and so on.

Reshimot elicit desires in us, and the desires provoke the mind to achieve what we desire. Today we can see nations in whom different Reshimot were expressed in the same epoch, and therefore we don’t live in one cultural zone, but in different cultures and formations. However, globalization is bringing about a quick realization of Reshimot in every person and in everyone together.

In regard to choice:

• marriage (voluntary – through love, or forced – stealing the bride, paying a ransom, marrying by the father’s order, and so on),

• power (coercive – although later accepted and loved, like in Russia until today; by election; or inherited),

• place of residence (being attached to the place, having a residence permit, a passport system, free movement),

• and according to other signs, one can tell which Reshimot were realized in a nation or a civilization.

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A question I received: Several years back, AARP (an American organization that cares for the welfare and rights of senior citizens) sent out a request to attorneys to provide services to underprivileged seniors at a discounted rate of $30 per hour (an average attorney charges $150-$300 per hour). Almost every attorney refused. Then the organization changed their strategy. They sent out the request again, but this time they posed the question differently: would the attorneys be willing to help and provide free consultations to seniors in need? This time most attorneys said yes. Why?

My Answer: Because then it’s not work anymore, but charity. Cheap work degrades people, whereas free work (charity) is respected.

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