Question: During Sukkot, we must strengthen our strength of purpose and focus on it. Does this mean that the exchange of Reshimot (spiritual records) must reach its peak during this period?

Answer: We still have to go through many states. In principle, these states should serve only to connect us for the sake of one goal. In other words, we need only think: “We are all together—toward the Creator!” That is all. This is the only thing. That is why we chose our slogan: “We are all one Kli!”

If we constantly think about this and focus on it, then I hope that many will feel it clearly, while the rest will feel it subtly. This will be a sensation of being “above the Machsom.” It will create the conditions within us that will enable us to advance further, at least during the coming months until Passover. Or perhaps at Passover we will add something more (some now and others later), but it will be a group on an entirely different level.

Everything has been given to us for this purpose. We see how all of it comes to us from above. We even feel how we are being pulled. Whether we want it or not, today we are already being regarded above as people fulfilling their duty. And if we speak about what it means to be the chosen people, we can say that we are the chosen people. We have been chosen today (and this is what “being chosen” means) in order to raise ourselves and then raise everyone else.

There are people who, practically speaking, are capable and ready today, have exerted sufficient effort, and can at least sense these states, pass through them, and then, after some time, actually realize them.

There can be no leaps. Everything depends on how much you accelerate the events. In any case, you must pass through everything; otherwise, you will not have a Kli. You must scrutinize everything, feel it, and live through it inwardly. Of course, it is possible to live through this in a second. There are states in which a single second already gives you an impression.

But you must pass through all these states. Therefore, those who have more or less passed through them are ready today, while the others will sense them from a distance and imagine them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/25/26

After Yom Kippur and before the beginning of Sukkot, there is a preparation for correction that begins on the first day of the holiday of Sukkot. During Sukkot, we build a special, unique, somewhat auxiliary Kli (vessel) for ourselves. That is why we sit in a hut, a Sukkah, which we build from specific natural materials.

The walls do not matter much, because we erect them artificially. But the roof must be made from what is called “Psolet, Goren ve Yekev,” the refuse of vineyards, fields, and plantations: straw, hay, palm branches, or similar vegetation.

This is not merely a custom. All of this is based on spiritual roots. A person builds a temporary dwelling for seven days because at this point only the ZAT, only the VAK, only part of our soul, the egoistic desire, is being corrected. The correction of the remaining three higher Sefirot, Keter, Hochma, and Binah, will be added on Purim, when we arrive at Purim through Hanukkah.

What is Purim? It is the reception of the entire light into a completely corrected Kli. It corresponds to Gmar Tikkun, the final correction and fulfillment. In contrast to this, when the Kli is completely empty but ready for correction, there is a state “like Purim,” “Ki Purim,” which is Kippur, Yom Kippur.

During Sukkot, for seven days we gather in the shack, which is made according to special rules and specifications. In the Talmud, which was written in the third century CE, there is an entire tractate devoted to this subject, aptly named Sukkah. When the Temple was destroyed, in order that people would not forget how to observe the laws, everything was recorded by the sages of the Great Assembly (Anshei Knesset HaGedolah).

There was such an assembly consisting of seventy great Kabbalists. It was a kind of supreme institution called Knesset HaGedola. “Knesset” means an assembly, while “Gedola” comes from the word “great,” from the word “Hochma”. This means “great” not in width, which corresponds to Binah, but in height, which corresponds to Hochma.

They wrote down and specified what the Sukkah should be like and the internal state it corresponds to. The tractate says that the distance between the walls must not exceed three handbreadths (Shlosha Tefachim).

Why? Because when Reshimot emerge from the Kli, when the Kli receives and then the light exits it, this light ascends to the upper and manifests in the lower. Then it rises even higher and manifests again in the lower, but the third time it is no longer felt at all. In other words, when passing to the third level, the connection between the lower and the upper completely disappears. Therefore, a distance greater than three Tefachim is forbidden.

Thus, in our world we have a reflection of how a person prepares such a Kli within himself in which there is no interruption of more than three levels between the exiting and entering lights. In other words, a person wants by every possible means to remain connected with the light. Under these conditions, he builds his inner Kli and begins to receive the surrounding light (Ohr Makif) into it.

This Ohr Makif shines upon him throughout seven stages, while it purifies within him the seven Sefirot: Hesed, Gevura, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. Therefore, each evening, while sitting in the Sukkah, we say: “Today we invite Abraham into our Sukkah,” because Abraham corresponds to Hesed, this is his quality. “Today we invite Moses into the Sukkah, Joseph… David.”

In other words, each day corresponds to a particular spiritual degree, a particular spiritual quality that we are correcting in our soul. This is what each day of the holiday of Sukkot symbolizes.

By correcting all these seven Sefirot during the holiday of Sukkot, we receive only VAK, a small illumination of the light of Hochma. This is the light that can exist in a Kli that is not yet completely corrected.

Then, after Sukkot, on the eighth day, the remaining light enters us. This is called Simchat Torah , “Rejoicing of the Torah.” It is called rejoicing because when one drinks wine (Ohr Hochma), the light of Hochma enters. “Torah” comes from the word “Ohr,” “light,” or Ora, “illumination,” the general light that fills the Kli.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/25/26

Question: We have said that a person’s work for the Creator is something imagined. Then what does the article “There is None Else Besides Him” mean when it says that everything that happens to a person comes from the Creator?

Answer: When talking about spiritual work, we say that at best we raise MAN upwards. But even in corporeal work, all our desires rise upward.

For example, I am thirsty. This desire is sensed above. If something hurts, even the unconscious desire for it to stop hurting rises up too.

What does “rises up” mean? It is connected to the Creator, since in essence, all desires, all pains, and all causes of something good or bad come from Him. Even before something happens to me, He sends it. Therefore, He automatically feels my reaction. He caused it, and He knows in advance how I will react.

As a result of my reaction, a mechanism activates that affects me again and causes a new response to the previous one. I get different signals from Him all the time, and I always react to them somehow, whether consciously or not, whether I think it came from Him or not. I am constantly receiving some kind of influences from Him that pass through me. That is how I grow and advance.

I feel some things intensely and others less so. There are things I directly attribute to the Creator and there are things I am unsure if they came from Him, or I simply do not think about them. I begin to add intention to some influences and perceive them as coming from Him for my benefit, but sometimes I cannot justify Him and think He is bad.

When do I think He is bad? When I disagree with what is happening and start shouting back, “Why are You doing this to me?” The righteous agrees with everything that comes from above. He has been corrected so much that he is similar in form to what comes from the Creator and always feels goodness.

It is known that “There is None Else Besides Him,” and everything happening to me now comes from Him; whether I react or not does not matter. Everything that happens to me now and until the end of correction (Gmar Tikun), the entire system works automatically.

We say that nothing changes in the actual events. “The world follows its course.” You have a path, and you must go through all the actions from this moment to the end of correction because your Kelim (vessels) are broken and must be gradually corrected until everything is completely corrected. The only thing up to you is the intention you add to what is happening, how you feel about what you are going through.

This is precisely our work: to be righteous and justify everything that happens to us. To the extent you can justify these actions, you move past them. But if you cannot justify something, you linger in that state until you gradually understand it more deeply, with all the causes and effects. But as soon as you can justify it, you will immediately move on to the next action, to the next state.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Every Day They Will Be as New in Your Eyes,’ in the Work?”

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?”

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

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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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

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

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

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 249

How Does the Creator Bring About the States We Go Through?

It is written that the light shakes the vessel. This is the only way. The more or less it shines, the more the vessel rises or falls. There is no other force besides the light that can influence the vessel. But the light influences the vessel and its parts selectively, according to the vessel’s ability to advance. The light itself is a simple, abstract light that shines upon the vessel like a simple flashlight, but it creates a special system between itself and the vessel called the “worlds.”

The light that passes through the worlds and shines upon the vessel acquires a special form that illuminates precisely the part of the vessel that is supposed to become active at that moment. The light shines with exactly the intensity and in exactly the manner required for a particular organ to act now, to correct itself, and to feel something. In other words, the worlds that stand between the light and the vessel adapt the light precisely to each individual vessel according to its nature. Then each vessel receives exactly what it needs and responds and becomes corrected accordingly.

Therefore, it is said in Kabbalah that the worlds are a system of control, a system of governance, a system of providence. What are the worlds for? The worlds are built in accordance with the vessels, only in an opposite form. That is, they understand the deficiencies in the vessels, and they exist in the worlds in a positive form. When we study the world of Atzilut, not technical studies, as Baal HaSulam writes, but when we truly begin to see how the world of Atzilut prepares its influence for the souls, with what wisdom it knows exactly how and for what purpose to prepare its influence in each and every soul, the picture is truly magnificent.

In Kabbalah, we simply learn that the worlds were created as a copy. There was the shattering of the world of Nekudim, and from that shattering the worlds were formed. Therefore, we begin counting the worlds from the world of Atzilut onward, whereas the world of Adam Kadmon, the world of Keter, is the light that shines from Ein Sof (Infinity). Ein Sof is completely abstract light. That light is divided in the world of Adam Kadmon into five original lights, according to the five parts that exist in the original vessel, the four phases of direct light. Afterward, the world of Atzilut, which arose from the remnants of the shattering, channels the lights to the souls that exist in the worlds of BYA and arranges them so that they influence each and every part, in every soul, exactly according to the order of corrections that each soul requires.

Therefore, we study primarily the world of Atzilut because it explains everything that happens, and through it we can learn about the souls. The world of Atzilut is in complete correspondence with what should exist in the soul. Therefore, we do not study souls directly. We study only ourselves. “From Your actions we know You.” The study of the world of Atzilut is, in fact, the study of the souls, one corresponding to the other. The study of the world of Atzilut is fascinating and awe-inspiring. Through it we understand what change each individual detail undergoes when the light descends upon it, what it is about to correct, what within the soul is awakened, how it responds both consciously and unconsciously, and how the created being begins to awaken and come into existence from a state in which it was not yet a created being at all. It is a wondrous picture, truly a marvel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related Material:
Dance Around The Golden Calf And Shattering Of The Tablets Of The Covenant
The Shattering Of The Tablets
“I Will Give You The Stone Tablets”

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 248

Why Is It Said That We Should Ask for the Revelation of the Creator, and That Through This the Recognition of Evil Will Come?

It is constantly said that we should ask for the revelation of the Creator, for the importance of the Creator, for the greatness of the Lord, and that from this the recognition of evil will come. But when we are immersed in evil, we cannot ask from within it for the greatness and importance of the Creator. We are incapable of doing so because we are immersed in evil. We can emerge from this evil if we look at it from the outside and recognize it as evil in relation to the Creator. The more we emerge from the evil, the more we can recognize how opposite that evil is to the Creator. How do we emerge from the evil? By bringing our “I” closer to the Creator while our body remains where it is.

We begin to see how far we are from the Creator when we rise above the body toward the Creator, from the point of the “I,” the point of awareness. It is as though a certain point emerges from within us, from our body and from this pain, a point called “the point of our awareness,” and it draws closer to the Creator. As it draws closer to the Creator, it can already observe the body and see how far it is from the Creator, according to the extent that it feels the body’s distance from Him. It cannot measure how far away the Creator is. It can only measure how far the body is from the place from which that point emerged.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 247
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 246
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 245

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You cannot make happiness out of unhappiness. From unhappiness, you should only understand that you need to attain happiness.

Question: So, are you saying that all that is required of us is simply the effort to attain happiness?

Answer: Yes!

Question: Just the effort? To build this state of happiness and try to attain it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: I have a somewhat cautious question. The utopians once aspired to this. What is the difference between what you are proposing and what those utopians proposed? The City of the Sun, for example?

Answer: The utopians did not base their ideas on nature, the real nature in which we exist.

Question: What do you mean by nature?

Answer: The egoism in which we exist. They believed that you could simply take it and raise it, want to change it, and make this happen.

Question: Just take a person and place him in the City of the Sun?

Answer: But you have to actually create that City of the Sun yourself! It does not just grow out of our fantasies.

Question: And when you say that we need to imagine happiness, what stages do we need to go through to do this?

Answer: I mean that, standing on the foundation of all the suffering that exists, relying on it, we must realize that the only way to create something opposite to it is to change our relationships with one another. Therefore, we need to take care of our education: personal, social, group, and family, education at every level.

Question: Is this what you call “building a happy society”?

Answer: Of course. It depends solely on people’s attitude toward one another, and on nothing else.

Comment: Stones, technologies—all of that…

My Response: No, none of those matter.

Question: To sum it up, you are saying that if I am currently suffering, in pain, and at a dead end, then in order to get out of it, I need to picture, to imagine…?

Answer: The opposite state. The cause of suffering lies in my own “self,” in the fact that we are opposite to one another, that we hate, that we do not love, repel one another, and seek to profit from one another. If we want happiness, we must free ourselves from personal self-interest and, instead, raise the interest of society as a whole.

Comment: So I should wish happiness for another person, and then I myself…

Answer: For everyone!

Comment: Even for everyone. And then it will, as it were, return to me as the same happiness.

My Response: Yes. I myself will exist within all of this.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 7/30/26

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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