Question: How are the Maccabean war and Chanukah felt in the internal work, as the ascent of Malchut to Bina?

Answer: The work is always on the desire to receive that awakens and on my intention with regards to it. The Maccabean war symbolizes the fact that I have to raise my intention above the desire to receive—not to use it, but only to rise above it. I don’t descend into the desire; I don’t study it. The main thing is to restrict my desire to receive, to rise above it and to acquire the form of Bina: to bestow in order to bestow. Bina is called Hafetz Hesed, and it has a huge desire, all of Malchut de Ein Sof. But I don’t use this desire; I only rise above it and want to bestow more than anything. I don’t touch this desire.

It’s like a person to whom I can give 10 dollars to keep for me, knowing he will not spend it. There are people you can depend on even if we speak about 100, 1000, 10,000 or even a million dollars. This is the level of Bina in a person when you can be sure that he won’t spend this money, meaning how pure he can stay and not touch the money. But there are people who can use the desire to receive with the intention in order to bestow: to take the “money” and to somehow bestow with it.

We are required to use our corporeal life according to our necessity, and this should “not be criticized nor praised,” meaning we should not use it in this egotistic world but to reach the level of Bina in the spiritual sense.

This is the preliminary state from which the wisdom of Kabbalah begins and which explains to us how to work with the desires to receive with the intention of in order to bestow. In them, we already resemble the Creator, but not until then. Until then you don’t fill others, but simply don’t want to receive anything, like a person who lives alone in the forest not needing anything for oneself.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is the “stop on the way” that Chanukah symbolizes?

Answer: In the spiritual world there are no “stops” as we know it. It isn’t that you are free from the spiritual work and can go home. The meaning of “a stop” is that we acquire the attribute of Bina and now we have to make a shift. We’ve raised Malchut to Bina and here comes Hanukkah.

Now we begin to make a shift, to lower Bina to Malchut, to work with the vessels of receiving (AHP). Thus we work with a growing desire to receive until we descend to its deepest levels. The ascent of Malchut to Bina is called the Maccabean Revolt, “to bestow in order to bestow,” and the descent of Bina to Malchut is already Purim, “to receive in order to bestow.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/11, Writings of Rabash

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When we are born in the world of bestowal, we first make an acquaintance with it, just like a person who starts a new job and is given some time to adjust and to get to know the new place of work. During this time he is only taught what should be done and he only learns and doesn’t produce anything.

It is also like a small child who is only required to listen and to learn, to watch and to experience things. It doesn’t matter if he makes mistakes or acts foolishly. He will be corrected. This means that in the spiritual world we are first treated like small children are treated.

But all this comes after great efforts that we make in order to transcend the Machsom (the barrier), to be born in the new world and to start living in the world of bestowal. With regards to all our previous work, the time after our birth is called “parking,” and Chanukah symbolizes this (“Chanu –kah”—parked so). A person reaches a comfortable situation. He still makes efforts, but they are of another kind—in order to know the good world.

He stubbornly works against his ego. It is similar to the wandering in the desert, about which the Torah tells us, a time that is meant for preparation and which ends upon entering the Land of Israel.

Chanukah is working with the Light of Chasadim, in the state of smallness. We have to learn to connect the desire to receive that is being revealed now to forces of bestowal.

In bestowal in order to bestow, we don’t use the full depth of this desire, but still it exists in us. It is like a baby: He already has legs, although he can’t walk yet; he has a brain although he hasn’t learned to think like a grown up. A newborn infant cannot see or hear anything, but he still has eyes and ears.

A baby has all the organs a grown up has. The only thing missing is the teeth. The teeth symbolize the power to clarify, which he hasn’t acquired yet. The “milk teeth” grow only after some time, and they are used only to clarify the Light of Chasadim (the milk symbolizes the Light of Chasadim) in the state of smallness.

When he grows up, he will have permanent teeth with which he will be able to chew and to clarify the filling for his vessel of reception, the Light of Hochma, and to feel the “flavors” of the Light.

Chanukah is the first part of our absorption into the spiritual world, the upper world, called the “world of bestowal.” This is bestowal in order to bestow in which we transfer all our desires to the level of mutual bestowal and learn how this system operates. We are incorporated in it like small children living in the big world who learn and do something together with the grown ups, playing with them.

This is called “parking,” because until now, during the time of preparation, a person worked hard against his egotistic desires. Afterwards, when he moves on from the level of “to bestow in order to bestow,” (Hafetz Chesed), to the next stage, to the level of love—the Land of Israel, he will start working with his vessels of reception again.

So Chanukah is a “spiritual” holiday and its symbols are the oil and the light.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is the meaning of the miracle that the holiday of Chanukah celebrates in the inner work?

Answer: There are several miracles that occur in the inner work. The first miracle is the exodus from Egypt. The second miracle occurs on Hanukkah, and the third—on Purim.

A miracle is a revolution in one’s perception of reality. The actual reality I am in is unchanging, it is the world of Infinity. But such revolutionary changes take place inside of me that I receive a new perception, a new nature, such a drastic change that I see the whole world in a different way.

This is similar to a baby that comes out of the mother into a great, light, world, which is signified by his birth. And this is a miracle because it is not a simple continuation of the regular growth of the fetus, but it signifies a total revolution and an exit to a new level of perception. This transformation can only happen by virtue of the Light’s influence upon us.

When the Light finishes raising my desires to the first ten Sefirot, I am born on the new level in the new ten Sefirot, on the next level.

There are several revolutions like this: the first is when we go from the period of preparation into the new world, through the Machsom, and begin to work in the small spiritual state. Then, after this miracle of coming out of Egypt, there is a gradual ascent, the state by Mount Sinai and the revelation of the upper force, the miracle of Chanukah. All of this seems to be one process, beginning from the passage of the Red Sea and on. A revolution in a person’s perception of reality takes place, and all of this occurs by virtue of a change in his desires under the Light’s influence.

A miracle is when all of my previous desires undergo instant change, a total revolution.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/11, Writings of Rabash

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Our unity above Pharaoh stands for the correction of the bestowing desires, which symbolize the holiday of Chanukah, the lighting of the Chanukah candles.

Every spiritual root must touch its corporeal branch once, and this is why all these events took place over the course of the descent from above downward. At first there was the exit from Egypt, the building of the First Temple on the degree of Mochin de Haya—a very high state. And then the fall from it, the breaking of the Temple and the Babylonian exile where the miracle of Purim took place. Then there was the correction and the building of the Second Temple on the degree of Mochin de Neshama. But we were not able to hold on here and once again were exiled. The war with the Greeks and the miracle of Chanukah happened during the time of the Second Temple—in the small state (Katnut).

And then the Greeks completed the separation from the spiritual, which corresponds to the First restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph)—the fall beneath the Machsom, the barrier that separates the spiritual and corporeal worlds.

And when we begin to rise from below upward—in the reverse order, we first pass the Machsom, then we acquire the spiritual vessels which correspond to Hanukkah, and then—Purim.

All miracles happen because of the Light that returns to the source, but they are realized through the connection in the group. Everything depends only on our connection. By connecting more—we rise and become free, and by connecting less—we fall and become exiled. Our ascent depends on the strength of our connection with one another, and our descent depends on our distance and separation from one another.

There is nothing else! We will continue to rise until we unite as one man with one heart, when “The Creator and His Name will be one.”

For this we need to reveal the entire system and see how complex and rich it is, and the enormous amount of connections we can reveal in it and use. Everyone connects with everyone else, repeatedly multiplying each other by mutual inclusion in one another, and this goes on infinitely, like in a holographic image.

And this is qualitative infinity, rather than quantitative—an infinite connection. Our connection keeps growing until the discrete, digital sum becomes analog, until there is no difference left between us, like droplets of water that merge into one great drop. This will mean that the final correction, Gmar Tikkun, has been reached.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/11, Writings of Rabash, “The Miracle of Chanukah”

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All holidays are symbols of man’s spiritual advancement. When I begin to develop the desire to bestow in me, I go through “repentance” (the period before the New Year, Rosh Hashanah), when I clarify my evil. In other words, I see how great my ego is, which I can’t resist, and I commit many crimes, as it is written in the Rosh Hashanah prayer for absolution: “We have transgressed, we have betrayed….”

And then I see that I must begin the path from the beginning and make a switch within me from being an egoist, who directs everything towards benefiting himself, to being a giver, who only cares for the benefit of another. After all, I begin to understand that I myself am the actual “another,” who seems to be a stranger to me. And the one I thought was me actually is not me, but an evil spirit, my ego, a serpent sitting in me which constantly demands fulfillment from me.

When a person develops this kind of attitude towards himself, as if he were a cunning serpent and others were him, his true “Self,” then this switch in consciousness is called the beginning of the New Year for him.

After this he has nothing left to do but correct himself, become like the upper force, the force of the Creator, a giver. Reception for our own sake gives us the sensation of “this world.” But when my “I” is directed towards bestowal, outside, towards the others, in this aspiration I begin to feel another, the upper, world.

Bestowal is when I love someone and want to give him pleasure, like a friend to a friend or a host to a guest. I care for him so much that I restrict my own desires and wish to not receive any pleasure, only thinking about his pleasure. And once I have this “shield,” which guarantees I do not receive for my own sake, I become ready to receive and thus please another.

Everything I receive is for him, like we tell a child: “A spoon for mommy, a spoon for daddy.” But it is not a simple action in the spiritual world. I must restrict my desire and open it for pleasure, only thinking about another. In other words, my heart and mind are in him, and then all the pleasure that goes through me only goes for the others.
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From the Night Lesson of Hoshanah Rabbah 10/19/2011, Shamati

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The aspiration to bestow to others forms in a person gradually, over the course of a long time, and it stands for the correction of desires if I am capable of restricting them because I see that life in egoism does not bring any joy. I attract a small illumination from Above through my study and efforts. And even though I don’t know what this Light is, it still corrects and changes me, gradually leading me towards the feeling of the value of bestowal.

I begin to feel that I strive outward, towards a fellow human being, towards a connection with all others, and perceive them as parts of my own soul. This is the result of the influence of the Surrounding Light. This change happens from within on its own due to my efforts, study, participation in dissemination, and connection with friends.

This is how I come to the decision that I refuse to continue being a receiver who takes more than is needed for living. I begin to hate egoistic reception. And my aspiration towards bestowal begins to develop from this point on, which also happens due to the Light.

What I do is to try, ask, pray, and demand, and in this way I force the Light to operate on me. And finally the Light makes a correction in me, after which I begin to feel an aspiration towards a fellow human being and true love—one that is not the object of my pleasure. This is because I have already built a barrier that does not allow me to enjoy egoistically, but only from actual bestowal.

The development of this kind of aspiration in man is called “the seven days of Sukkot,” when he begins to receive the illumination of the Surrounding Light that reforms. This Light forms the quality of Bina, faith above reason in man, a covering, a roof of a special structure built on Sukkot from the “waste of barn and winery,” meaning from the desires he previously neglected in his egoism considering them to be garbage. But on the contrary, in the desire to bestow he lifts them above his own head.

And finally, he comes to a state when he tests himself: whether all of his desires are directed towards bestowal. He checks his “shadow” for this: whether it is holy or impure. He hides himself from the Light, and by doing so he opens himself for the Light to later enter him and fill him with the intention for the sake of bestowal. Testing the shadow after the end of the holiday of Sukkot and the evaluation of whether it pertains to holiness or the impure forces, all these things are the establishment of one’s attitude towards his egoism and the transition into another dimension: that of bestowal.

I seal myself for my desire to receive pleasure, and I am only ready to receive for the sake of bestowal, thereby turning my reception into bestowal. I and He love each other, and this is why I receive from Him to please Him. But all of this happens after the test of my shadow and all the corrections that the holiday of Sukkot symbolizes.
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From the 1st part of the Night Lesson Of Hoshanah Rabbah 10/19/2o11, Shamati #8

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Shamati #8 “What is the Difference Between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra“
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Shamati #243 “Examining the Shade on the Night of Hoshana Rabbah”
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Shaar HaKavanot, “Drushey Chag Succot,” Drush 6
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In our world we all understand why children play games and what will happen when they grow up. But our world is a copy of the upper world, and this game symbolizes the fact that we have to advance slowly towards the truth, constantly choosing it from the opposite situation we are in.

The spiritual work begins with the fact that we are attached to false pleasures and actions that are totally egoistic. Yet we understand that we can grow only thanks to them, in order to have free will and to choose, to clarify our vessels, our attitude to the upper one by ourselves.

There is no other choice. Every time we fall and rise again, and thus we advance, as it is said: ”A thousand times the righteous will fall and rise again.” This is how we move forward, and we have to be patient and to understand that this is the only way we will build a perfect, independent vessel. Whoever continues succeeds. The main thing here is consistency.

We see a copy of all spiritual processes in the corporeal life too. This is why we are born into it as small, brainless children; we play meaningless games and are unable to take care of ourselves, until gradually, thanks to these games, we grow up and proceed with more serious corrections. Many years go by until a person “stands on his own two legs” and is ready for life in this world.

Hence, after the Selichot (the ten days of Repentance), Rosh Hashanah (the New Year), Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the five days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, and the seven days of Sukkot, we reach the level of Shemini Atzeret (the Eighth day of Assembly): the unity with the Light. Gradually, day by day, we perform clarifications, the symbol of which is the covering of the Sukkah (Skhakh) made of “the waste of barn and winery.” That is, it is made of what a person disrespects and thinks nothing of, believing the food that we get from barn and a winery is most important, and not the waste.

But namely what seemed to him as worthless waste becomes the most important thing now. If I raise this “waste” above me and use it to cover my ego, if I hide myself under this covering, then I’ll be able to enjoy its shade. This is how we discover the upper Light, which is not revealed directly, without the shade. Thus, we reach the Sukkah of peace (Sukkat Shalom), under the perfect (Shalem) covering, the screen.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/2011, Writings of Rabash

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It is customary to celebrate the holiday of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) in a temporary structure built specifically for this purpose, the Sukkah. The covering of the Sukkah (Skhakh) is the most important part of it. Some people even kiss the covering because it symbolizes the screen, the shade that you built. But you build this covering from waste material, “the waste of barn and winery,” meaning from the places where we make bread, which symbolizes the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), and wine, which symbolizes the Light of Hochma (Wisdom).

When the two are connected correctly, a person builds a screen from this waste, meaning from what he has rejected and disrespected before. Now he raises it above his head, by faith above reason, and thereby builds a shade for himself, about which it says in the Song of Songs: “I sat down under his shadow with great delight….” Thus a person acquires the vessel, into which the Light clothes: the Light of Hochma enters inside the Light of Hassadim. Then the waste is not garbage anymore but something important to him. This is how a person advances spiritually.

The symbol of the waste that turns into the most important thing is similar to the way children grow by playing games. It’s just like a little girl, who as a child loved her rag doll more than anything and didn’t want to play with a real baby,  when she grows up, as an adult, she enjoys playing with a real baby and not a doll. It is the same with us. We can’t touch a true pleasure and understand that namely it is the real thing.

Until we grew up, we needed false pleasures, in the form of a plastic or rag doll, and we couldn’t switch to something real. This is the time of childhood! Until our vessels grew, we couldn’t understand that playing with a real baby can bring us pleasure.

However, when we mature, our vessels grow. Hence, our work is to raise ourselves. In spirituality we don’t grow like in corporeal life where everything happens naturally. If a person works in order to keep himself from getting off the path despite the obstacles, if he asks for the Light and enables it to operate on him, then he gradually obtains a desire that understands what true pleasures are.

The disregard he felt for the real baby becomes his corrected vessel for receiving the right pleasure. Now he understands how naive his play with the toy cars and the rag dolls was. But it was important because he grew thanks to it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/2011, Writings of Rabash

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