In the coming days, we will celebrate the holiday of Sukkot. In this world, we often think of the many festive customs that make up this holiday. We build a Sukkah, we eat within it, and we have special ceremonies. For seven days, we live a fun week, after the fasting day of Yom Kippur.

But it is known that each holiday throughout the Hebrew calendar has a special meaning within our work. When we speak about the symbols of the Sukkot holiday in the language of the branches: about the cover of the Sukkah made from the waste of barn and winery, the blessing of the Arba Minim (four plant species), we should always point to the upper root. 

From this, we will be able to better understand what to do with our desires and intentions, how to realize these actions in connection between us with the help of material work, building a spiritual form within the ten.

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What does Sukkot mean?

The holiday’s name “Sukkot” refers to the “Sukkah”, the temporary shelter that we live in for seven days. “Sukkah” comes from the same root as the one for the hebrew words that mean “covering”, “protecting”, as the word “S’chach”, meaning “a thatch”. It is to say that a Sukkah is something that covers us, and is supposed to protect us.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, that which we have to cover is our will to receive, thanks to the Masach, the “screen”. It is something that we build for the soul, and from our desire to receive, which we restrict and on top of which we build a screen (a thatch) and that this is how we separate ourselves from the Creator. 

Sitting in the shade of the Sukkah means being under a screen. Together, we can build such a big screen that we can not only give, but even receive for the sake of bestowal. We will be able to receive “guests” in this Sukkah, that is, every time we will have the Light of Hassadim sufficient for some disclosure of the Light of Hochma.

We must exert excessively to receive the shade and say it is a holy shade, that all this shade came from above and not from the Sitra Achra, that it was given so he would be able to assume faith. At that time it is called “shadow of faith” and it is holy, as in, “The ways of the Lord are straight, the righteous walk in them and the wicked will fail in it.”

RABASH, Letter No. 36

To the extent that we can be in order to bestow, which is a tiny percentage of the upper light that comes to us, to that extent we can make way for it and then it will shine on us. There has to be a separation, a barrier, so we won't receive from Him directly, but rather that we’ll receive from Him in order to bestow. We agree to receive the upper light, but only through this screen, through this thatch.

Sukkah is the “shadow of faith,” and with respect to the judgment, its shade must be bigger than its sun. It is also known that the sun implies knowing, and the moon implies faith. It is as our sages said, “Israel count by the moon, and the nations of the world count by the sun.” That is, each time we see the sun, and that it is more than the shade, we must cover more so that the shade will be more than the sun.

RABASH, Letter No. 36

We need to care about this screen and constantly measure it: are we in this mutual connection with the Creator – “I for my beloved and my beloved for me”, like the guest and the host? Where, according to the power of the guest, it resists all the pleasures for himself and turn it into pleasures for the sake of the host? Here, we have to start from restriction – from general and total concealment – and gradually we try and open ourselves up, as much as we can, to enter under the influence of the upper light, in order to bestow back to the host.

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What do the customs of Sukkot symbolize?

As said, kabbalistic holidays have nothing to do with calendar dates and any incidents in our world. While studying Kabbalah, we study the upper roots. Thus, each custom on Sukkot symbolizes the opportunity to receive the huge upper light that surrounds us. 

Hence, on the first day of Sukkot, it is written: “you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of a beautiful tree, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.” These are the four traditional plants that we think of when we think of Sukkot. All the plants mentioned represent special qualities that a person must attain in order to fully assemble their spiritual vessel for the revelation of the Creator on the final day of the Sukkot festival.

1. “Kapot [pans] mean Kefia [coercion], when one assumes the kingdom of heaven coercively. This means that even when reason disagrees, he goes above reason. This is called “coercive mating.” 
2. “Tmarim [palm trees] comes from the word Morah [fear], which is fear (by way of “and God has made it that He will be feared”). Because of this, it is called Lulav [palm branch]. This means that before one is rewarded, he has two hearts. And this is called Lo Lev [no heart], meaning that the heart is not devoted solely to the Creator. When he is rewarded with the Lo [“no” or “to Him”], meaning a heart that is for the Creator, this is the Lulav.”
3. “Also, one should say, “When will my deeds come to be as the deeds of my fathers?” Through it, one is rewarded with being a branch of the holy fathers, and this is the meaning of “boughs of thick trees,” which are the three myrtles.”
4. “Yet, at the same time, one should be in the form of “willows of the brook,” tasteless and scentless. And one should delight in this work, even though he feels no flavor or fragrance in this work. And then this work is called “the letters of Your unified name,” by which we are rewarded with complete unification with the Creator.”

Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 85, “What Is the Fruit of a Citrus Tree, in the Work?”

Then, on the last day of Sukkot, we finish the annual reading of the Torah and immediately begin to read again. Meaning, that after seven days, we’ve built a big enough screen to receive the light in order to bestow. 

Sukkot is considered gladness, considered “rejoicing Gevurot,” which is repentance from love, when sins become for him as merits.

Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 97, "Waste of Barn and Winery"

We take the Torah and spin with it. This means that the surrounding light, the so-called Ohr Makif, from the surrounding, gradually becomes the inner light of the soul. The soul is slowly being corrected within the seven days of Sukkot.

The sukkah is built from the simplest natural materials. For its construction one may not use iron or concrete, but only wood, stones, branches, leaves; things that come from the earth. In this way, we build our corrected kli, the soul, in the form of a hut, a sukkah – as if in a child’s game – constructing in material form the desired spiritual state.

Hence, Sukkot is a complete reversal that occurs after a person decides to begin a “New Year,” a new stage of life. Everything that was previously worthless “garbage” to him, rejected by his egoistic desire, he now gathers and raises above his head.

That is, from the perspective of reason, the way the corporeal eyes see it, there is room for waste of barn and winery. This in itself makes a shadow, and he sits under it. That is, he makes for himself a seat out of all those lowest and worst things, and through the waste observes the Mitzva (commandment) of Sukkah. Most importantly, he derives joy from this Mitzva because faith above reason is called “joy of Mitzva.”

RABASH, Letter No. 36

These things cannot be “at the height of the head” (that is, they make no rational sense), yet they must be elevated above reason, contrary to logic, valued higher than anything else in the world. What becomes most important to me is connection, love, and bestowal. All that pertains to the correction of desire.

It means that faith saves a person from all the harm doers, since harm doers are alien thoughts and alien views, and faith is built specifically on waste. Only in this way is there refuge from rain and torrent; otherwise one follows the trends of the world.

RABASH, Letter No. 36

During the seven days of the Sukkot festival, we invite into the sukkah the “guests,” the seven sefirot. Keter, Hochma, and Bina are above the roof of the sukkah, while beneath the roof are the sefirot of Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut.

The essence of the Sukkot holiday is to give the opportunity to the huge upper light that surrounds us, which we call the Creator, to enter the corrected soul, as we are corrected by connection, by being under one common roof in a hut. The upper light enters into us, corrects, and fills us.

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This article is a compilation of Rav Dr. Laitman's words from the following lessons:

https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/lessons/cu/Fchb9qVZ?mediaType=video

https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/lessons/cu/rP3DMOHW?c=S7Hc7s42&mediaType=video

https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/lessons/cu/H21b5W7b?c=EJxiKGTT&mediaType=video

https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/lessons/cu/Z412EZIY?c=f9AYveEc&mediaType=video