The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) October 21, 2024.
Part 1: Rabash. 892. An Article for Sukkot
Reader: Hello, we are reading from the Writings of Rabash in the Hebrew version, it's the third volume on page 2057, article number 892, an article for Sukkot. You can ask questions at kabbalahgroup.info or on the Arvut system. Everyone who's asking questions here in the hall is requested to stand up, hold the mic close to the mouth, and speak clearly and loudly.
Reading: (00:34) 892. An Article for Sukkot – Twice.
“You shall sit in Sukkot [huts] for seven days; every citizen in Israel shall sit in Sukkot so your generations may know that I placed the sons of Israel in Sukkot when I brought them out from the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 23:42-43). Rabbi Eliezer says, “Actual Sukkot,” and Rabbi Akiva, “Clouds of glory.”
How can there be such a gap between them? One interprets a corporeal Sukkah [sing. for Sukkot], and one interprets a spiritual Sukkah, which is “clouds of glory.” However, they are Panim [anterior/face] and Achoraim [posterior/back]. On the part of the awakening from below, the making of the Sukkah is an actual Sukkah. On the part of the awakening from above, it is the “seven clouds of glory.”
“Sit” means “dwell,” as in “The concealed things belong to the Lord our God.” The sages of ethics interpret that the matter of “Go out from permanent residence and sit in temporary residence” is so they will know and notice that this world is like a motel and temporary lodging.
It is written in Psalms: “You hide them in concealment of the face from the conspiracies of man; You conceal them in a Sukkah [hut] from the strife of tongues.” RASHI interpreted “the conspiracies of man” as “the connection of wicked, who connive in order to harm them.”
We should understand what is “concealment of the face,” since the rule is that the face is revealed, and how is the face related to the Creator? Also, what is the meaning of “You conceal them in a Sukkah from the strife of tongues”? What is the difference between Sukkah and concealment of the face? We find the words, “sitting in the upper concealment,” and the meaning of “upper concealment”; what is “lower concealment”? We also find, “His concealment is straightness.”
We should ask, If it is concealment, how do we know that it is straightness and not a circle (perhaps this is the meaning of Yosher and Igulim [straightness and circles, respectively], where in the quality of Igulim there is no concealment, but the light shines equally to the small and to the great, and this is the Reshimot [recollection] from the world of Tzimtzum [restriction])?
“Straightness” means according to the line that was done in the Tzimtzum. Accordingly, what we see, that there is concealment, is straight, as in “straight thinking.” (The matter of Panim means revealing of the Panim and concealment of the Panim.) The Sukkah is made of four walls and a thatch, but the place of the Sukkah is ready, for one can build one’s sukkah on the ground, which is the substance, and on this substance we make a form, the form of a Sukkah.
We should understand the meaning of walls and the thatch, which is waste of barn and vineyard.
It is known that there are four sides, and above and below. These are called HGT and Malchut, and Netzah above and Hod below.
In the Shema reading, we say “In the name of the Lord, God of Israel, Mi-KeEl [Michael] to my right, and Gavri-El [Gabriel] to my left, and Uri-El [Uriel] before me, and Raf-El [Rafael] behind, and over my head, the Shechina of God.” Why is nothing said concerning below, which corresponds to Hod? Below is discerned as the ground, which is man. If he does a Kosher [proper] Sukkah, he is regarded as Hod, called “the beauty of the Sukkah.” But if not, the Hod [beauty] becomes Daveh [pain-stricken, same letters as Hod].
In other words, nothing should be implied concerning the place of the earth. Rather, what one extends and aims in all five Behinot [discernments/qualities], in this way it will appear in the earth, which is the quality of man, who extends from the root of Malchut, called “she has nothing of her own.” In other words, she has nothing of herself except what she is given. Thus, it depends on the form of the Sukkah.
M. Laitman: Well, let’s read it again.
Reading: (07:33) 892. An Article for Sukkot.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:47) First, I want to say that yesterday our Ten sat at the Sukkah and we did a big action to sit at the Sukkah. We got importance and we came to the Sukkah and we sang songs, it was very nice. And he speaks here about a Kosher or a proper Sukkah, I don't know how much it was a Kosher Sukkah. What is the deal here where he's talking about a Kosher Sukkah? It's not enough that we come with the right intention, and he really differentiates here a Kosher Sukkah from an un-Kosher Sukkah?
M. Laitman: It means that we have to build the Sukkah according to the requirements, according to the laws that the sages have determined. And there's a great deal of detail in it – the width, length, depth, height, all sorts of things. When to sit there, how to sit there and how to enter, how to exit? What you can and cannot do, what you are not allowed to do in the Sukkah; there are many laws.
Student: Who teaches us? We really came with the right intention but we really don't know if we did that?
M. Laitman: Ultimately, what we must do is what you do, which is to enter the Sukkah, have a Tallit, a prayer shawl, four species. And you have to wrap yourself in this prayer shawl and pray for the four species in the Sukkah.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:41) Why does the Creator seat the people of Israel in a Sukkah after the exit from Egypt?
M. Laitman: Along the way from the exile into Israel, they went through this time that we call, Sukkot. Therefore, according to the commandments of the Creator, they celebrated Sukkot, made Sukkot, and sat in them.
Student: Why is it precisely in a desert?
M. Laitman: It's in the desert because all of our exile is like a desert with no life.
Student: Precisely from this state of exiting Egypt and something dry that has no, seemingly, what is that state?
M. Laitman: Well, they had life and livelihood in Egypt, sometimes it's written about Egypt that it was like it was very good for them, relative to the ego – the will to receive.
Student: Again, even after the exit from Egypt in the desert, they went through a certain Tzimtzum, restriction before they built the Sukkah.
M. Laitman: No.
Student: Because you told me or I heard that before you build a Sukkah, the process is first to make a restriction. Not annulment, nothing like that, but before we make the Sukkah.
M. Laitman: No, it's the other way around, to build a Sukkah means to climb up a degree, to do something, to reach a temporary abode. Although you're outside of all the matters related to home, you have no home or anything. But you are on the way from exile to the place you will later refer to as the Land of Israel. But for the time being, you have nothing and that's why you're building the Sukkah.
Student: How is it possible to make a screen without a restriction?
M. Laitman: I don't understand what you're talking about.
Student: In the process of making a screen, we do that in order to be awarded with being able to have the light of Ohr Hozer, the reflected light.
M. Laitman: So, what?
Student: Usually it's a restriction, a screen, and only then can we receive the reflected light.
M. Laitman: I don't know, I can't quite understand you.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:05) Spiritually, what does it mean that a person makes the Sukkah?
M. Laitman: It's a commandment that he has to build a Sukkah because the Patriarchs on the way from the exile from Egypt to Israel, they built a Sukkah.
Student: That our forefathers built a Sukkah, okay, nice, so what now? What does it mean that a person makes a Sukkah, spiritually speaking?
M. Laitman: Spiritually speaking, corporeally speaking, we have to observe the commandment of Sukkah. We have to build a Sukkah according to the conditions, according to the rules. And sit in it for seven days. Why do we do it today? Because it says so.
Student: How is that beneficial to our spiritual progress?
M. Laitman: It's beneficial, extremely beneficial. First of all, we learn about it from our teachers, from Baal HaSulam, from Rabash, how much they were concerned with the Sukkot. To have a Sukkah as Kosher and as qualified as a Sukkah they can get. They made it with a great deal of adornment.
Student: I understand, so we built a Sukkah, we sat in it, we worked with this Lulav, we did everything we needed to do. Now internally, what does it mean to build a Sukkah? What does it mean that a person builds a Sukkah on the internal level?
M. Laitman: It means that we are creating or making a vessel. Or although we understand it is only a temporary vessel, we prepare it, nevertheless, according to the commandment of our teacher.
Student: Why is it temporary?
M. Laitman: A Sukkah in and of itself is a temporary thing. It exists for seven days.
Student: But what's so special about this temporary vessel, this Sukkah?
M. Laitman: Lights, surrounding lights, where for an entire week we are under the influence of the surrounding lights that pass through us and become our inner light.
Student: I understood from study this week that the Sukkah, the thatch, we build from waste, that is the intention that we do. But what is the construction of the Sukkah, itself? What does the person build here? What does he make here? What Kli, what vessel?
M. Laitman: A vessel of Sukkah, the Sukkah itself is a vessel.
Student: And from what does he make it?
M. Laitman: From the waste of barnyard and winery; from all kind of pieces of wood.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:06) I paid attention that he writes here, that the four sides are above and below. And they are called HGT and Malchut and Netzah, above, and Hod below. Where is Yesod, where is that Yesod against in the Sukkah?
M. Laitman: That's what's written.
Student: Because the person it says is the basis, which is Ho. Where if he built a Kosher Sukkah, which we need to understand, so he is called Hod. But he doesn't write about Yesod. What is Yesod, is that the ground of the Sukkah?
M. Laitman: I don't know, if he doesn't say it, I don't want to determine anything.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:58) He says here that the Sukkah is so that they will know that and pay attention that this world is like a motel and a temporary lodging. What does that mean?
M. Laitman: That we are here only temporarily in order to observe a few rules the Creator wants us to observe and then we transition to a different state.
Student: What does that mean for us? Not to identify with life, to look at it as something temporary? What does that mean?
M. Laitman: But everybody understands what's written in the simple text. And that's how we should treat it.
Student: And in any case, he is adamant that this temporary residence, that it needs to be the most beautiful and most adorned. And you said that if that would even move a little thing in the Sukkah, he would immediately pay attention. From that, what does that need to be, what does our attitude to the world need to be?
M. Laitman: That in our attitude, the way we relate to small things even. In the commandment of the Sukkah, we can probably change our spirituality by a great deal to advance us toward a goal.
Student: At the end of the article, he says that there's this structure with HGT and all the Sefirot but it's a foundation that we build on the desire. And the person is the outcome of all of that. We always say that we need to invest in the connection between us. And in the yearning to connect with the Creator. And from that we get this outcome called man. Is he speaking about that same thing here? That the Sukkah is a certain structure of connection between us, and at the end man is the outcome of those efforts?
M. Laitman: Yes, you can say it this way. A person is a result, an outcome.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:58) He says that the person is an outcome but there's a matter here of, it's not so clear that Malchut is active, so what does it mean that it has nothing of itself? Who is it that acts, who is it that builds?
M. Laitman: The person.
Student: There is this awakening from below – what does it mean that it has nothing of itself?
M. Laitman: That's what we call Malchut, it has nothing of itself but because it serves all the qualities that come before her. Then consequently she receives, she acquires everyone's qualities.
Student: That's in terms of its intention.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: When it writes at the beginning of the article, when he writes about the clouds of glory. From the awakening from below and the awakening from above, he calls that spiritual and corporeal. So, what is that, is that relative?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:24) What is the difference between a Sukkah, like he writes there that on behalf of a corporeal person and the seven clouds of glory? These are two forms of concealment?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, what, in any case, is the difference between them?
M. Laitman: The difference between the seven clouds of glory – a Sukkah, is mostly about the thatch. When a person wants to have a thatch, a Masach, a screen between him and the Creator where he can relate to his Creator in a certain way. Then the festival becomes an adapter of sorts between the person and the Creator, the surrounding light. That's why this is how we relate to it, you can see it with all the customs.
Student: In a temporary residence, a person has no connection with the Creator?
M. Laitman: There is but the apartment, itself, is not supporting any connection; whereas, the Sukkah does.
Student: This connection because Sukkah is a commandment, it's a command from above that a person needs to do? It's not that out of the process of work he goes with that connection but there is the correct time and the correct state where then he can exit the temporary residence and enter into connection with the Creator, with the surrounding light, as you said. The rest of the time, what happens, the rest of the time of the work, what kind of connection does the person have?
M. Laitman: Different connections, different connections but not like the ones in Sukkot.
Student: What is the unique connection of Sukkot?
M. Laitman: The special link or social connection is through those vessels that a person reveals during that week of Sukkot, his connection with the Creator.
Student: These are vessels in which a person cannot be in connection with someone during a temporary residence?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What's he lacking in them?
M. Laitman: Mostly surrounding light.
Student: But the surrounding light is always outside of the vessel?
M. Laitman: No, in Sukkot it's different, it's different; nevertheless, we draw the surrounding lights during Sukkot from the outside to the inside, we pull it. That’s it, the Sukkah is a sort of an instrument through which we receive the surrounding lights, otherwise, you can't. There's no, you don't know how, you don't feel it, you don't know how to connect to these surrounding lights.
Student: Sukkot, the thatch that is made of waste is because in the temporary residence he cannot receive in those vessels? That is why it is considered waste?
M. Laitman: All the conditions of Sukkot exist and exist in a person who wishes to carry it out because it's the will of the Creator. And it's not like the way you want to ask it now: Why is it not in the permanent lodging, and so on and so forth. Rather, it's the desire of the Creator. It's the will of the Creator for this to happen in these conditions.
Student: So, on the person's behalf it's on the sensitivity of the state that the Creator gave him this opportunity?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: That opportunity doesn't always exist?
M. Laitman: No, of course.
Student: Why?
M. Laitman: Only in Sukkot. Why, I don't know, it's the will of the Creator, that in this time, under these conditions, a person can acquire the upper light as surrounding, that's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:20) When he says that the life on this earth is temporary. So, we need to be on this planet as guests, which doesn't take place on this world. But that's our responsibility, to act as guests, to come and act according to the rules of the place. Secondly, between the concealment and the revelation, he writes: “How is it possible that there will be so much of a distance between one another, where one is a corporeal Sukkah and one is a spiritual Sukkah, which is clouds of glory, which are Panim and Achoraim, where on one part of the awakening from below the making of the Sukkah is an actual Sukkah, and on the part of the awakening from above, it is the seven clouds of glory”. The feeling is that these physical actions, we cannot connect them to spiritual actions. But to know that there is always this connection between each and every state, the physical and the spiritual, that is a question.
M. Laitman: Yes, yes, nevertheless, to associate all our actions relative to the Sukkah, the Sukkot, from corporeality to spirituality.
Question (MAK 4): (37:51) How do we build a Kosher Sukkah in the Ten?
M. Laitman: I don't know what this question means. If you have an opportunity each Ten could move to a new place and build a Sukkah there from the waste of the barn and the winery.
Student: How does the Ten connect to this instrument, which is called a Sukkah?
M. Laitman: The Sukkah is like a home except temporary and you connect to it. You connect greatly according to the judgments, you need to respect it, greatly. What can I say, I don't know. People are kissing the Sukkah, the thatch, they place all kinds of valuables into it. That's how it is, it's here that we don't pay attention to externality so much, but in truth, you can walk into certain Sukkahs. Well, even Rabbah used to. He came with his Sukkah, they decreed, or they judged it to be the most beautiful Sukkah in Bnei Baruch.
Student: Without building a Sukkah in the Ten will we not be able to enter the spiritual world?
M. Laitman: I cannot say that but it's a commandment that a person must perform, each one. You don't need to wait to have several friends and then you do it together. You are by yourself, in the forest, in the field, it doesn't matter. You must build for those seven days a Sukkah.
Student: It's written, exit a permanent residence and enter a temporary residence. What is the difference between them?
M. Laitman: That one is temporary, one is permanent. Temporary is for seven days and the permanent is for as long as you want, there's no limitation.
Student: When a person exits a permanent residence and enters a temporary residence, what should he pay attention to, what intention?
M. Laitman: He is now fulfilling the commandment, the Mitzva, to sit for seven days in this temporary lodging.
Question (Women Rehovot): (41:41) What's the meaning of sitting for seven days? Not just in Sukkah but Hanukkah, Pesach – all these holidays have seven days.
M. Laitman: That's how they decreed it. That's what they determined and the sages explained to us what to do.
Question (Women PT): (42:08) I heard that you spoke now that the surrounding light progresses a person. In what does the surrounding light progress a person in the work? Is it in the connection with the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes, the surrounding light connects a person with the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:40) What is the action of sit or dwell? What do you need to do in the Sukkah?
M. Laitman: To sit, meaning in all of your free time when you don't need to connect yourself to something, so you are in the Sukkah.
Student: Spend as much time as possible in the Sukkah?
M. Laitman: As much time as possible, yes.
Student: Should a person think about the Sukkah, have a certain attitude toward it?
M. Laitman: We study, usually.
Student: So, simply study.
M. Laitman: Yes, we take a certain book and we study; it's very respected.
Student: And a small thing, typically you build the Sukkah for the family. It's more about passing the time in the Sukkah, sitting there.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: This construction process, itself, for a person, is there any additional value to it beyond, you know, can I be a guest in other people's Sukkah?
M. Laitman: There's no problem with that.
Student: So, it's enough to be a guest.
M. Laitman: Sukkah means a place where we sit for seven days.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:18) Just to see if I understand correctly, the meaning of Sukkah is building of the screen. You say that surrounding lights are Sukkot but the thatch is the screen. He builds it and he doesn't use it yet because there's no inner lights, only surrounding lights in Sukkot.
M. Laitman: No, there are also inner lights. The person who is in a Sukkah receives from all that external influence upon him, he also receives the inner light.
Student: I thought from the entire explanation is that the meaning of Sukkot is the building of the screen before a person begins to work with it.
M. Laitman: No, that is really a use.
Student: So, from everything we learned in Sukkot, what is the difference between when a person builds the screen, arranges it? Or the screen comes to him from above?
M. Laitman: The difference is that it builds a person and that it comes from above.
Student: What's special about this holiday, as we learned, is that a person generates the opportunity in which he can acquire surrounding lights, right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Creating this opportunity brings him closer to the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: That's a result of from below up – the awakening from below.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: We also learned that if a person does not perform this concealment, they come and they do it to him from above.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What should I invest in this holiday to learn about these insights in the Ten, the friends?
M. Laitman: To invest in the connection between the friends and to rise, to come in yearning to the Creator.
Student: Which will be the thatch?
M. Laitman: No, simply to raise your deficiency to the Creator.
Student: How does the thatch that we build between us in the group, in the Ten, between the friends, in the connection. How does this thatch look relative to the Creator, what does it look like?
M. Laitman: It is a Masach, a screen under which we exist. We sit together and that is how we relate to the Creator, through that screen.
Student: Can we say that we collect the common coarseness and we raise it?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: All the objections to connection that we identify between us, we raise that too?
M. Laitman: That too.
Student: And when it's above our heads, what is the work then?
M. Laitman: That in such a way we raise it above our heads, that screen. Where we want, through it, to be connected with the Creator.
Student: For these resistances to be what? The potential for turning to the Creator?
M. Laitman: I'm not going to interpret for you in that way.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:16) On the one hand, we build the Sukkah from the waste of barn and winery, it's a temporary lodging. On the other hand, they say that adornment is important.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: For whom do I adorn it? I could make it comfortable for the ego, I could put an AC in there. Is it for bestowal, for the Ushpizin, for the friends? What is the matter of adornment, here?
M. Laitman: The matter of adornment is that I relate to this Mitzva, this commandment, generally, as very important. It's very important to me and I want through it to feel that I come closer to the Creator.
Student: Because of the commandment, it's written and so you do it.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But who's it for? Because I'm about to receive, or the intention is for the Creator? Who do you do it for if not for yourself? It could be egoistic, I'll build my Sukkah, it's the most comfortable and everything, so it's not exactly temporary. I understand it's a Mitzva, it's a commandment, but what's the meaning of the adornment?
M. Laitman: The significance is a Mitzva, a commandment; that I am commanded to build this Sukkah through which I build this closeness to the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:09) A quote from the Bible, it's about every citizen in Israel. What does it mean, why is it every person in Israel?
M. Laitman: I don't know but it says that it's really necessary for, it's an obligation for each and every one. It's an obligation for each and every one.
Question (Kyiv 1): (51:01) What does it mean with our intentions to build a temporary lodging? If we say that the building of the spiritual degree has to be eternal, that I'm going to bestow to the Creator all the way, what's the meaning that this is a temporary lodging?
M. Laitman: We want to enter into a special connection with the Creator, which is called Sukkah. And when we build that connection, it should be clear to us that there are these walls and a roof, meaning the Sechach, the thatch. Where accordingly we want to be connected between us and with Him, with the Creator, that is all. And the rest of the conditions are nourished within the Sukkah which relate to the details of the connection.
Student: What is this connection of the Kabbalistic Ten with the Creator through this thatch? What does a Kabbalistic Ten go through when you place a concealment on the light of the Creator? What kind of experience do you accumulate from that?
M. Laitman: They receive the surrounding light which brings them a feeling and knowledge of their connection with the Creator.
Student: What does it mean that you acquire surrounding light if you conceal the light?
M. Laitman: It means that they conceal themselves, somewhat, through which they receive but differently through the surrounding light.
Question (Haifa 1): (53:41) The commandment is for every citizen in Israel to build the Sukkah. If I want to make sure that all the desires in Israel will be in order to bestow, then I must correct my seven Sefirot, is that correct?
M. Laitman: Correct.
Question (Turkiye 2): (54:22) How can a person come to the revelation of sanctity or of concealment in his Sukkot?
M. Laitman: During Sukkot there are additional lights that come to us if we observe the conditions of the Sukkah. How do we do that through the correct incorporation between us and from between us to the Creator where we observe the conditions of the inner and outer lights or the inner and surrounding lights. And then we, through that we enjoy from this addition of light.
Question (Kharkov): (55:20) Seven days in the Sukkah, seven days a week, are they different from the day in the Sukkah? And is it the seventh day, like Shabbat, in which you need to be especially prepared?
M. Laitman: No, the seven days in a Sukkot have an incorporation between these days themselves and between the days of Sukkot. And the outcome of this incorporation comes in a special line, in the connection of the two of them. That is a quite complicated question.
Question (Women KabU 2): (56:43) In the fourth paragraph, it's written that you hide them in concealment of the face from the conspiracies of man. Does this mean that what goes on in the Sukkah is protected?
M. Laitman: Right, the Sukkah is also protection.
Question (KabU 14): (57:18) How do we make all of corporeality and our corporeal desires subservient to the goal during Sukkah?
M. Laitman: That's a problem, we'll need to learn that but that's still before us; it is still before us.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:10) You said that the thatch, the screen, is the main thing. You said that the thatch, the screen, is the main thing in the Sukkah, it symbolizes the screen. So, what are the four walls that support the screen?
M. Laitman: These are conditions for which the screen will be placed above you – the main thing is the thatch.
Student: Can I understand what are these conditions?
M. Laitman: They are depicted, they are written in the books. Meaning, we need to observe the conditions of the construction of the Sukkah. And it is written about that very precisely with all kinds of depictions. And in that way, we correct the soul.
Student: No Translation
M. Laitman: Building the Sukkah means building the soul under new conditions. And when we build it or finish building it, then we receive a corrected soul. Where in practice we ourselves built it even though we did so with the forces that we received from above.
Student: It says, conceal it from those who conspire and from multitude of tongues, languages.
M. Laitman: That, it is worthwhile in every Mitzva there is a concealed part that we need to conceal from others, maybe even from ourselves. And to reveal only in relation to the Creator.
Student: Is that what we need to be aware of in this time?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Unity 3): (01:08:11) I understand that your Sukkah is Bnei Baruch; a thousand friends are sitting there. How would you recommend we build a Sukkah, here?
M. Laitman: I didn't understand?
Student: I understand that your Sukkah is the building you created, Bnei Baruch, that has many friends, men and women. But what would you recommend to us to build? How can each one build his own Sukkah, not even everyone together?
M. Laitman: You don't need to build that with material. Simply to depict to yourselves that you are ready to find yourselves in that state for a week, a full week. To work, to do everything possible but that is your inner state, that is what is important. I think that toward next year we will be ready to build between us a spiritual Sukkah, and then everyone, we will all feel how we are in it.
Reader: (01:02:53) We will go to the next article from Rabash Article 284.
Reading: (01:03:26) 284. I Have a Minor Mitzva [commandment], Whose Name Is Sukkah
July 1962, Antwerp
“I have a minor Mitzva, whose name is Sukkah [a Sukkot hut]” (Avoda Zarah 3). Why is it called “a minor Sukkah”? It is because there is no shortage of money in it.
We should understand why specifically Sukkah is regarded as having no shortage of money in it, since a Sukkah certainly costs more than other Mitzvot [pl. of Mitzva], such as a Mezuzah [a case affixed on the doorpost containing excerpts from the Torah], for example. According to what is explained in The Zohar, a Sukkah is called “a shadow of faith.” Baal HaSulam interpreted that the word Sukkah comes from the word Sechach [thatch], which covers the mind, since faith is considered specifically above reason.
Hence, in the future, when everyone seeks reward, we should interpret that it pertains to people who are from the descendants of Israel. If they did not engage in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] for the sake of the Creator, they can ask for reward for their actions, what they intended while they engaged in Torah and Mitzvot, but the Creator pays only those who work for Him (as in the story that was written in the books, about someone who was learning for a cat).
At that time, the Creator tells them, “Observe a minor Mitzva,” namely faith, meaning when you perform Mitzvot, your intention should be Lishma [for Her sake].
In this there is no shortage of money, meaning they do not need to do other works or Mitzvot for the sake of the Creator, but through that same Mitzva that he does and for which he spends money, for the Lo Lishma [not for Her sake]. Because when working for the sake of the Creator, all he needs while doing it is the thought, and thinking does not cost him money, for in any case, he is performing the Mitzva.
However, his intention is for the sake of others. Hence, when he aims for the sake of the Creator, meaning with faith in the Creator, called Sukkah, he has no shortage of money. At that time, through faith in the Creator, it turns out that he works for the sake of the Creator, and then the Creator pays his reward to all those who work for Him.
M. Laitman: Any questions? Again.
Reader: Rabash, Article 284.
Reading: (01:07:05) 284. I Have a Minor Mitzva [commandment], Whose Name Is Sukkah
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:41) In the article it’s clear, except it's not clear why it's called a light, or a minor Mitzva. To do this work above reason is the challenge of a person's life. Why is this called a minor or a light commandment?
M. Laitman: It has no action that is corporeal but only thought.
Student: What's more difficult than aiming the thought?
M. Laitman: Yes, that's correct but, therefore, that's how they speak – that it's a light Mitzva. You don't need to work, to gather money, to do something forcefully for days and nights, etc. It's an easy thing which has no corporeal measurement.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:11) He speaks here in the article about how faith is called specifically above reason, and you need to have a thatch which covers the mind. Yesterday, we had a meal, a very powerful meal, today, we're going to have another meal. What to do when a person is inside the meal and he's got a great deal of impression, he's impressed, inspired. How to work with it, you have to work above reason, you have to place a concealment. How to work within this impression, this inspiration?
M. Laitman: I don't know, you need to seek how to carry that out to the very end, that desire that surfaces.
Student: Maybe, nevertheless, when we're together with all the friends and we're singing.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It's truly this great joy and gratitude to the Creator. Maybe the intention gets lost but you don't think about it. You're simply in the general spirit of the society.
M. Laitman: Which is something special.
Student: Very, so what to do inside that moment?
M. Laitman: That you are all together.
Student: Yes?
M. Laitman: Well, what's the question?
Student: Should I stop myself, I don't know, to try not to get overly excited and begin to work, to place a thatch, as he says, on this impression?
M. Laitman: The inspiration doesn't disturb you; on the contrary, why do you want to erase your inspiration?
Student: I don't want to erase it. I just want to know if it's okay or not, how to check myself or not to check.
M. Laitman: Whatever comes to you comes from the Creator. And even on all kinds of transgressions, it doesn't matter. It all comes from the Creator and you need to know how to respond to it, correctly. Because through your response, you change your attitude, your relation towards the Creator. And you come closer to Him or God forbid, the opposite and so on.
Student: Exactly what kind of reaction is the correct one when we're all together, when we all feel so close as one man in one heart? What is the proper reaction toward the Creator?
M. Laitman: To be as one man, like you said, one man with one heart.
Student: Is there something else we need to place into it, another type of reaction, a response, another thought?
M. Laitman: A lot of things; from this moment on, you can do all the actions, whichever you want.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:56) Usually we say that the thought comes from the desire and we don't want to enter all kinds of scrutiny but we need adhesion.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What thought is Rabash talking about here which is to observe this nearing the Creator?
M. Laitman: If you're directed towards Him in order to come back, to come close to Him, to hold on to Him, to hug. To bring yourself to His degree and to incorporate there in the Creator. That is what you want, that's what you're asking for and that's what you're expecting.
Student: And then my thoughts support the actions, like a corporeal action?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Then after that the hearts are drawn after that?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:08) The actions that are being described here, how do we do them in the Ten? What does it mean that I perform them, these actions?
M. Laitman: The actions that you want to do, have to be, to happen in the Ten.
Student: How does it happen, does it truly need to be in practice, when I'm feeling the friends?
M. Laitman: Could be so, that you talk to them, that you pray for them, or that together you pray. And in this way you want to attain that desired state?
Student: Can I also imagine that state, as if I'm sitting with the friends without feeling them in practice, truly?
M. Laitman: Well, let's say so, yes.
Student: What's preferred?
M. Laitman: Preferred? Preferred is to do it with all your hands and legs, and mind and heart.
Student: It turns out that I'm somehow in some imagination, I can imagine something, like as if I'm with them. But in practice, we're not together, really, we're not really building it.
M. Laitman: Okay, that's good, too, that's also good. He writes that a person is in some kind of distant place, from home, from friends, and so on, and then he imagines for himself that he's with them together. And how they're sitting together with him and everybody. And now he wants to pass through them the best possible feelings.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:07) These concepts always repeat themselves – the permanent and temporary dwelling. A house is really a place with light with correction inside; what is this dwelling, this house?
M. Laitman: House is a vessel.
Student: Without any relation to whether it's correct or not?
M. Laitman: Well, with, without, it depends what you're talking about.
Student: A Kli is a desire.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: There are desires that are permanent and desires that are temporary?
M. Laitman: Right.
Student: The temporary desires are awakened from above or is it something that from the initiative of a person?
M. Laitman: Temporary or permanent desires, or in according to the way a person wants to use them.
Student: Meaning these are desires that always exist and a person either uses or doesn't use them.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:02) I identified with the friend’s question earlier about the meal because we really have several meals this week. And there's this very good feeling in this. Yesterday there are many friends from the whole world, Israeli Kli, and friends on the screens with us and from the whole World Kli. It was tasty food, and songs, and a good feeling, truly a good feeling. But we didn't come for a good feeling, we came for spiritual attainment. Not that there's anything wrong with that but how do we make the meal more internal, to even more?
M. Laitman: Only according to your demand; you all need to come with a demand to reach a spiritual result. And you accept the meal as a means and then you can already make something great of that meal.
Student: We need to prepare for this as they talk about it in the Ten and the group all together, and how to prepare for a meal?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes!
Student: It's a really special time, it really felt like a very unique opportunity.
M. Laitman: Today, you also have one?
Student: Yes, today there's a Ushpizin, a guest meeting every day.
M. Laitman: So great, so try today, before the meal to mention it, remind yourself, speak about it. And see how it, how it takes place. Very important things, very.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:22:10) I also feel like it's kind of like, that's the attack that Rabash talked about. And he also really gives, it's the first time that he actually relates corporeality to spirituality, I'm talking about Sukkot. As if there are very special times that come upon this corporeal world in some kind of cyclical manner. And that's the attack that we can take advantage of because it won't repeat itself. There's, it's like it will repeat itself after three hundred and something days. But so, it's too bad that we missed this opportunity and make the most of it. Even if we don't attain it but at least, as you said, next year, God-willing.
M. Laitman: Rabash used to say that if we want to attain this holiday, so we have to be in an attack – attack.
Student: I also wanted to say about the meal yesterday, many friends from the Israeli Kli came. I felt this great responsibility in the meal that many friends are coming from all over the country – from the north and the south. What will they come out so they come out with a big impression from this toil and investments to come here? Is there such a thing in this thing? Or to just flow with the friends that are there without concerns?
M. Laitman: Concern is something each one has to have and each one has to see himself as working with everyone together towards the goal.
Student: What should we be concerned about when everyone's in this great impression and connection. Is there room to enter some concern here?
M. Laitman: Concern for connection and for being with everyone together. And this general motion towards the purpose of life.
Student: In what does my little concern, where I'm sitting with these many, how does it work?
M. Laitman: It works and how! Concern in man's heart is something very important.
Student: Another question about these two articles that we read this morning, it kind of confused me a little bit. In the last article we just read, he says the thought, as it say, the thought does not cost him money. I mean, it's all going to be clarified in thought; the whole idea of the Sukkah is in the thought. And the first article, the Sukkah needs to be built. Our patriarchs, our forefathers, built it, it has to be done in a certain, unique way. What's the connection between this corporeal and spiritual, what's the decisive force, here?
M. Laitman: What determines is your tendency, the inner tendency of man. What is he drawn towards?
Student: I'm drawn to building a Sukkah in my internal layer, as they speak.
M. Laitman: What do you mean internal?
Student: Meaning to build the common Kli in the Ten.
M. Laitman: There's nothing more important.
Student: So, there's nothing more important, so for what is all the show of building, and doing, and this tradition, this custom? Who needs it?
M. Laitman: It's so, don't erase the deed, in every commandment there's the part of the deed because we're connected to this world, too.
Student: What does it add to spirituality when you do that?
M. Laitman: It's a great addition.
Student: Without it, without that deed, even symbolically a person won't develop the inner inclination that he has in him?
M. Laitman: I don't think so, no, he must still come out of the permanent house. Acquire all those materials that he builds the Sukkah from.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:26:47) Would it be correct to relate to the faith of the Creator as a reward? That contentment to the Creator is the reward as a result of the thatch?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Meaning it's above the thatch?
M. Laitman: Well, why is that important?
Student: Yes, but this actually needs to be like the reason, the main reason we entered the Sukkah, even, and that's the reward?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:27:33) In this article, Rabash, emphasizes that it's a light Mitzva, a minor Mitzva, to aim the thought that you do everything for the sake of the Creator, for Lishma.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: But, nevertheless, the building of the Sukkah comes coercively?
M. Laitman: What do you mean?
Student: There's some article we read that you build the walls from the palm branches.
M. Laitman: Yes, but why in coercion?
Student: We're being pushed to build the Sukkah from above?
M. Laitman: You feel you're being pushed?
Student: That's actually what a Mitzva is, a commandment, as far as being commanded.
M. Laitman: You can say that about anything.
Student: He says that what prevents it is the intellect, the mind.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: And what we do is we cover the mind with a thatch. What is that action of covering our mind with a thatch?
M. Laitman: That there, beyond your mind, you have the thatch that through it you connect to the heavens.
Student: Actually, all these traditions of the Ushpizin – the guests – and sitting in the Sukkah is actually in all the decoration of the Sukkah is for the sake of the Creator. Not necessarily for the guests, meaning, to host the guests and to bring contentment to the Creator. Actually, that's the point, that's the connection.
M. Laitman: Well?
Student: In practice, it's to bring contentment in a manner of Lishma?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:53) I heard Rav said that to whatever extent you can sit in the Sukkah for a person in his free time. Can we say that now that we're sitting in the lesson and we're coming to the meal. Can you also say that we're sitting in a Sukkah?
M. Laitman: No, no, you see walls, ceiling, this isn't the Sukkah. But actually, let's hope that we will have a permanent, temporary living, for Sukkot.
Student: I also heard that every friend that will come to the meal that we're doing this evening also we have to do this. How is that even connected to the holiday? To this action towards building a Sukkah, is it connected in some way?
M. Laitman: The holiday isn't building the Sukkah. The holiday is that you finish the building the Sukkah and then in it, you dwell in it for seven days.
Student: And that concern that I'm worried about every friend that will come to this meal and we'll be together. Is it connected to the holiday of Sukkot, that action?
M. Laitman: In some way, yes; not directly, but it does. It belongs.
Reader: We'll move to the next part of the lesson, we have Ushpizin, the Guests; and we have select excerpts on Isaac.
M. Laitman: Yes!
Reader: But before that, we'll sing a song.
Song: (01:31:40)