The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.

Daily Lesson (Morning) January 1, 2025.

Part 2: Rabash. 897. What Is Hanukkah

Reader: Hello, we are studying from the book “The Writings of Rabash”, Third Volume in Hebrew, Article Number 897, “What Is Hanukkah?”. You can find it in our websites and in the Arvut system.

What Is Hanukkah, Hanukkah, Kislev, December 1960

Reading: (00:26) Our sages said, “What is Hanukkah? Our sages said, ‘On the twenty-fifth of Kislev, the days of Hanukkah,’” etc. (Shabbat [Sabbath] 21a). That is, Hanu-Koh [parked here], for on the twenty-fifth, they parked from the war. We should understand that parking means specifically in the middle of the work. We stand and rest in order to regain strength so we can keep walking and win the war until it is finished.

We should understand what is this parking. Our sages said that at that time, the Greeks sentenced Israel not to engage in Torah. That is, the miracle was only on the redemption of spirituality, which is the needs of the soul. Conversely, on Purim, there was the redemption of the bodies.

For this reason, on Hanukkah, we were given the recognition of the miracle through praise and gratitude, whereas on Purim, it is written, “a feast and merriment,” since the miracle was on the bodies. Hence, there must be recognition of the miracle through to the body, meaning with feast and merriment.

To understand all the above in the work and in ethics, we must understand what our sages said, “You shall love the Lord with all your heart—with both your inclinations, the good inclination and the evil inclination” (Berachot 54). We should serve the Creator with the good inclination, meaning engage in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] to bestow contentment upon our Maker. But what is the meaning of the evil inclination? It is known that the evil inclination is the will to receive in us. We should understand how the will to receive can serve the Creator.

According to what is explained in the Sulam [Ladder commentary on The Zohar], when a person engages in reception of pleasures in order to bestow, there is no evil in the will to receive, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice,” for through the Torah, the evil inclination is sweetened.

The miracle of Hanukkah was only with the good inclination. This is why it is merely called “parking,” since the work has not been completed, meaning that there are still more corrections on the evil inclination, which is called “body.” This was only the miracle of Purim.

This is the meaning of “observed and received,” thus far by force, since the evil inclination has not agreed to the work because it was still not corrected, and now that the miracle was in the redemption of the bodies, “with all your heart—with both your inclinations” comes true. This is why it is called “willingly.”

Hence, on Hanukkah, there is recognition of the miracle only in praise and gratitude, which is only the needs of the soul, while on Purim, we recognize the miracle in feast and merriment, which touches through to the body.

“Greeks gathered around me, then in the days of the Hasmoneans, and broke the walls of my towers and defiled all the oils.”

“Greeks” refers to a philosophy, when one wants to understand everything with the external mind. “Then in the days of the Hasmoneans” means that specifically when there are Hasmoneans, meaning servants of the Creator, we see that the Greeks have control.

Homot [walls] has the letters of Techum [zone/area] (as explained in the writings of the ARI). This means that a person limits his thought from wanting to understand the work with the external mind, but rather with faith, and faith is a wall against the external ones. “My towers” means “a tower filled with abundance.” “Oils” are clarity…

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:42) Could it be that the Greeks, these thoughts, philosophies, a person has, speak in favor of the spiritual work? And he has to overcome that, as well?

M. Laitman: Possibly, in order to complete the understanding of the Greek. Then we might have to do some actions that, to begin with, we didn't think of.

Student: But still it's possible that the Greeks will justify these actions, also?

M. Laitman: No, no, not that they'll succeed. It's all in order to scrutinize the matter of the Greek. And to have a more complete desire to fight them.

Student: I'm striving to understand whether in order to reach spiritual attainment there is some stage when a person should be completely without, completely overcoming his intellect. So there's nothing in the intellect that will justify or oppose. But be in a state where there are no Greeks at all?

M. Laitman: According to the letter, I don't think so.

Student: In the letter, the Greeks are always against the spiritual work or not always?

M. Laitman: Against the spiritual work, of course.

Student: So, they slander spirituality?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:32) How can we interpret between us in the work in the Ten, this concept of placing a statue in the temple or performing an act like the Greeks?

M. Laitman: All of the actions where we don't ruin our will to receive and keep going with it. This is basically as support for the Greek.

Student: This is in a negative way but how can you recognize that right now the Greek is governing us?

M. Laitman: That after we scrutinize what are the actions of the Greek, we can then see ourselves more correctly.

Student: Let's say, we are going to a Congress, as an example, and in this congress we want there to be in purity, so it will be the way of the Jews, not the way of the Greeks. So, what should we keep along the way until the Congress, so it won't spoil?

M. Laitman: We have to try and guard ourselves so as to not incorporate with the desires, plans, thoughts of the Greek.

Student: This means that each one should interpret it his way, or is there room for?

M. Laitman: Not each one scrutinizes but that if the will to receive, which is basically the goal of the Greek. That we don't want to use these forces.

Student: We want on the way to the Congress to scrutinize this concept of Lishma. What does it mean to enter Lishma and all the processes that we want to be in the Congress? So, the question is how do we watch out from all kinds of interpretations, or things that are not part of that? How do we clean ourselves from everything and just remain in this clean thing, pure thing?

M. Laitman: Well, we talked about this many times. That specifically the egoistic desire to receive, which constantly awakens between us in all kinds of ways, is meant to show us where we cannot be in actions that suit the Creator. Where we can distance from Him to such an extent that, God forbid, we make ourselves Greek.

Student: But, here, he is speaking about some victory, some determination. That we say, that's it, we defeated the Greek. It's not Purim yet, we can't use it yet, he tells us. But you can say that we reached some break, that we defeated the Greek. So, how can we, as a world Kli, reach such a state that we say, here, we came and we defeated.

M. Laitman: If still between us there are thoughts of Greek, then we didn't triumph. Still, here and there, they're amongst us.

Student: We have to ask for help to defeat them?

M. Laitman: Yes! To see them, to locate them and to get rid of them.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:39) Maybe to continue: He says that we need to recognize the miracle till we feel it in the body. What does that mean?

M. Laitman: Meaning, that the recognition of the miracle needs to be in all its height – from zero till it will be at such a height.

Student: What supposedly comes after that? It feels like the force of faith will come after?

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: That's what brings us to, after I know the miracle in the body, I reach the force of faith?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:30) He writes about the Greek, the philosopher, that wants to understand everything in his external mind.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What's wrong with understanding in the mind?

M. Laitman: It's against faith. Since you cannot solve the questions, the problems of faith, with the intellect.

Student: We can't combine between the two?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: How?

M. Laitman: Example.

Student: I'm trying to understand what disturbs or I don't understand what the external mind is. So, what is the external mind?

M. Laitman: The external intellect is the brain that we use every day.

Student: Why does it disturb the spiritual work?

M. Laitman: If you want with that same intellect to reach spiritual work, and to understand it, and solve the questions, problems that awaken in you, you can't.

Student: And the vessel of faith is something else? It's the upper mind?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Can we combine between the two? Also, work in spiritual work with the upper mind but also work with the external mind? Or it's this or that?

M. Laitman: Yes. It's that you can do. Under the condition that it's clear to you, where the room is for this and for that.

Student: How can we resist the external mind?

M. Laitman: You simply see that this isn't its place. That you can't work with it in a field where only the inner mind operates.

Student: Now that we're talking, and I'm thinking of what you're saying, and so on, what mind is that happening in? What other mind do I have if not - this is what I have?

M. Laitman: You have a regular brain or mind?

Student: Yes but this is what I'm doing the scrutinies with, thinking, right?

M. Laitman: No, not completely.

Student: So, what?

M. Laitman: This is before you can differentiate between the two parts, kinds of mind you have in you.

Student: How to use the external mind for, let's say, for benefiting the inner mind?

M. Laitman: You can use the external mind only for the form of the external mind.

Student: How can I use it for the benefit of the spiritual path?

M. Laitman: It leads us to confusion if we start dealing with that. We lose the end, the affect.

Student: I get it. So, what do we correct in Hannukah?

M. Laitman: In Hannukah, we correct the questions that belong to the understanding and awareness, spiritually.

Student: What was my previous question, and towards what did I correct it?

M. Laitman: You wanted to solve the problems that are stemming from, stem not from the intellect.

Student: What’s in a person in the state of Hannukah or after Hannukah that wasn't in him before?

M. Laitman: He had no understanding of the spiritual system, no understanding. Therefore, everything was simple for him.

Student: And now?

M. Laitman: Now, he already has a problem because he doesn't know by what to attribute himself to spirituality or corporeality.

Student: I don't understand, entering spirituality becomes more difficult?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: In what exactly shouldn't it put everything in order?

M. Laitman: No – how should I say this to you – if you only go with the mind then you don't make mistakes in the corporeal system. But you can't in the spiritual system, it doesn't touch it. And vice versa.

Student: When a person enters spirituality and starts feeling the spiritual system, the roots or whatever he feels. Does it start organizing his life including the corporeal degree?

M. Laitman: Yes, but you don't, yet, know what the spiritual system is.

Student: Then you start entering it.

M. Laitman: In what?

Student: In feeling.

M. Laitman: How does he do that?

Student: When one is rewarded for it. I didn't say he does it on his own. When a person enters that state?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What happens then, what happens? Things start getting organized, or the opposite? I hear, that it becomes a headache.

M. Laitman: It begins to be like it doesn't clothe on one another.

Student: So, there's no problem?

M. Laitman: There's no problem since you can see that this is corporeal and that's spiritual?

Student: Yes, or maybe it's not clear and that's a problem?

M. Laitman: That's it, exactly.

Student: Why is there such a state that it's like confused, that it's mixed between two states, spiritual and corporeal?

M. Laitman: Because we don't have a grip on the spiritual system.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:00) It's written that the miracle of Hanukkah was through the good inclination.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: We learn that the Creator created the will to receive, and except for that, there's nothing. There's only the will to receive - I created the evil inclination. So, what exactly is the good inclination?

M. Laitman: The good inclination is the desire of the Creator.

Student: So, with man, we say that that's the point in the heart, the spark that is in everyone. That's how we can define the good inclination? What is that in man, the good inclination? Or maybe there isn't any?

M. Laitman: They say, that there is in his heart.

Student: So, in man, there is part of the good inclination or not?

M. Laitman: There is.

Student: And that's what he constantly needs to isolate, locate, and work with?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What does it mean, that knowing the miracle of Hanukkah is only through praise and gratitude? Why only with praise and gratitude that's the way you recognize the miracle and that's the need of the soul?

M. Laitman: That's all he can locate, that's all that he can take out and connect to.

Student: That's the only action that remains from the good inclination that he feels?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: He writes about the clarity that the oils are clarity. What is clarity in spiritual work?

M. Laitman: Clarity in the spiritual work is where it's clear to a person how to advance. Where the evil inclination is and where the good inclination is.

Student: It's a demand to understand with your mind how to advance?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: We say that we can't use the mind because clarity always seems like it's connected to the mind. So, we should work in a way that I have clarity like in this life? When I feel towards this reality, when everything is clear, and I know how to conduct myself. Same thing in spirituality or is it in faith above reason?

M. Laitman: In faith above reason.

Student: So, faith is clarity?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:22) He writes that the wall comes from the same letters of barrier That he should put barriers on his thoughts. What does it mean to put barriers on my thoughts, how do I do it?

M. Laitman: To what extent he can work with his intellect, and from here onwards, he is not capable. Here we need to do this scrutiny.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:19) In Hanukkah, we pause before the attack and we reorganize. But it's before we continue the war. The way I see it is that the mind of the Greek can be used as anchors, like coming every day to the morning lesson. I know it in my mind so every morning I recalibrate myself to allow other things in that area. Can I see it this way?

M. Laitman: We see, I knew that it's possible.

Student: Now, when we want the forces, the additions, of this reorganization of Hannukah. When we do that pause, that parking, and we see that the forces will come from the unity between us, and the lights, and the oils, and the faith. How can each one open his heart a bit more, just a bit more?

M. Laitman: I don't know.

Student: Do you feel the necessity like me of this, just a bit more?

M. Laitman: No.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:53) It's written that the Greek gathered around me. If a person really feels how the Greek are taking over his thoughts, what's that force he can use to fight them? Because we understand that in the mind there's nothing to do with it, with our simple brain. So, what are the vessels?

M. Laitman: I didn't understand.

Student: It's written, the Greek gathered upon me. And he says, that the Greek is that he wants to understand everything with his external brain.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, when the Greek want to break through the walls, and he's trying to surround them with a place where there's only thoughts above reason. But the Greek have gathered upon me. They're surrounding him from every angle. So, what are the vessels to enforce those walls?

M. Laitman: The tools to protect the walls are like we talked about: Arvut and faith.

Student: At that same moment, he feels that there's no Arvut. The mind takes over, he sees the corrupted picture – the will to receive.

M. Laitman: So, he doesn't have walls already.

Student: So they were burst open already. So, what do you do?

M. Laitman: There's probably no correction, according to what you're saying.

Student: [No Translation] So, if he sees that, if he already sees in his corrupted eyes through the will to receive, there are no walls, anymore. So, he needs to leave everything that his eyes are showing him. To look not through the will to receive, not to agree to look through the will to receive. How do you build the walls again?

M. Laitman: [No Translation] To build the walls, you need to feel how broken they are and by what you can build them. Usually, we build by entering the wall, but there is no entering the wall now.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): [No Translation] (32:53) By what can he build? There is no entering, the wall is closed.

M. Laitman: By prayer, by prayer.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): [No Translation] What? Can you explain the point of the war? That a person is directed by the environment. As he described, he does not find a balance between him and society. He is at a point where he has a bad understanding, but there is still no correction. He understands that he needs to be directed by prayer, that something good will happen to him, depending on my ability to connect to the Ten. What is the essence of the war here in Hanukkah? How to describe this stage?

M. Laitman: [No Translation] Connection. Connection.

Student: [No Translation] A person wants to connect. He understands that he does not have the strength to connect. He does not have the spiritual motivation to be influenced. What is the victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks? What is that connection?

M. Laitman: [No Translation] What is the patent of the Maccabees? That they can unite everyone.

Student: [No Translation] How?

M. Laitman: [No Translation] First of all, pthey have a minority. But with this minority, they win.

Student: [No Translation] How does a person who wants to connect to society, who wants to be in bestowal, what does he describe as a victory? That I have external thoughts? That everyone appreciate me? How to describe this point? That I can act at any moment?

M. Laitman: With such thoughts, he cannot join.

Student: So, how to join, with what thoughts?

M. Laitman: Only in this way he can have the ability to work around the Creator. Around the Creator, there is nothing else.

Student: But where is the mechanism of equivalence of form?

M. Laitman: Think.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:38) It turns out, that first we need to pray for the good inclination, to strengthen it between us. That he writes that the work in this is through Torah and commandments?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And if we attain it, it's entering Lishma. Hanukkah is constantly Lishma, that we never fall from it, right?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, the evil inclination is constantly growing. And if a friend feels that he does not have forces for anything, he's not successful in corporeality in anything. Full l of disturbances, he, supposedly, understands with his mind, and there's a state that he can't lift himself. He can't come to the morning lesson, he can't invest in the Ten, nothing, and he tells it to the friends, so, what can the friends do to help him?

M. Laitman: Just give him something to lean on.

Student: With what?

M. Laitman: By being willing to accept him, somehow.

Student: But the main part of the prayer for him. Just to pray, to constantly have a desire that the point will awaken, or to come and help him in corporeality?

M. Laitman: No, no, prayer.

Student: That his point will rise again?

M. Laitman: I don't know about point.

Student: But he comes here, he's here, he has this desire, and somewhat?

M. Laitman: Okay.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:24) It's written that the Creator's servants see that the Greeks are taking control. What do they do?

M. Laitman: They must connect between them against that control.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:55) The true control is concealed. It's almost like this grip. You can't let go of it until you really feel it. How do you locate that control? How do you feel it?

M. Laitman: As much as they can connect between them, let them connect with what they can bring the Creator into their circle, let them try. And the rest has to come from above.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:13) The control of those who are becoming Greek and the philosophers inside of me. How do I know, after all, Hanukkah is not just connection, it's also the border, it's also the resistance to the Greek, to becoming Greek. It's more than connection so I want to ask, how do I know to go to connection against? Because connection, I can connect those with the philosophers. How do I know to identify that that's not it? How do I know to identify that it's not just a Maccabee and not those who are becoming Greek because they're also correct? Totally, we're for the sake of the Creator, and let's do like this, and they have lots of, I have inside of me many excuses to do like this – it's so correct to do. How do I know to identify that point? I'm going to holiness and not to the leaning towards being Greek. In other words, this word “connection” is so beautiful that it can include those democrats within me, to include everyone inside of me?

M. Laitman: Yes. Everything was correct.

Student: So, how to follow Moses, the Maccabee, I'm choosing this point of holiness, of Kedusha?

M. Laitman: If you're asking with your mind, so you do not have a way to advance. Moses isn't stronger.

Student: Your answer is always connection. What is the right, holy connection that I can choose and not the smart people? This is in every moment of our life, in the holidays, in between the friends, in decisions, in the Ten. I need to choose the connection that is for the sake of the right Creator and not for the sake of the kind of wise, cracking “Creator”?

M. Laitman: We need, first of all, to try and cleanse ourselves from all the previous decisions. And to try, as much as possible, to connect with the hearts, with pure hearts. Then, we can feel in them, in those hearts, the point of connection. That, actually it will bring us to the right connection, the right unity. That point of connection will turn us around towards the right form of correction.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:42) It's written several times in the article about the needs of the soul. What are the needs of the soul?

M. Laitman: The needs of the soul is only the upper light that comes to the right accumulation between the points of the soul, together.

Question (Women Turkey 7): (45:34) Is the reason that the force ends in the study is because I'm doing the work in the Ten in an incorrect way? Or when the strength is, when I'm out of strength it's because I have to experience some other stage in the work?

M. Laitman: That's a different stage, yes.

Question (PT 4): (45:56) On the level of thoughts maybe I understand how to work, what to do. What to do with the appearance of the becoming Greek in our world happening before us and you feel like most of the world is under that perception? How do we go through correction in relation to that state?

M. Laitman: We need to try and cleanse ourselves from those Greeks that are in each and every one. That's our work plan. Now before we come to the holiday, we need to try to locate where we are, where the Greeks are, where the Maccabees are, and who we're with.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:57) It is written, and this was encamping from the work. And again, it's written, the Chomot [the walls], are the letters Chum [zone]. This means, that a person limits his thought from wanting to understand the work with the external mind but rather with faith. And faith is a wall against the external ones. My towers, means, a tower filled with abundance. Oils are clarity.

M. Laitman: Clarity.

Student: The oils are clarity. I wanted to scrutinize about the Maccabees trick that you said earlier. How can we take it, strengthen until the Convention? And for next year ahead of us, how can you explain this more because I don't quite understand.

M. Laitman: We'll work exactly on that.