Sukkot: On The Fifteenth Day Of The Seventh Month

The Torah, “Leviticus,” 23:39: But on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you gather in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the festival of the Lord for a seven day period; the first day shall be a rest day, and the eighth day shall be a rest day.

On the tenth of the seventh month we celebrate Yom Kippur and Sukkot begins five days later.

“Leviticus,” 23:40 – 23:42: And you shall take for yourselves on the first day, the fruit of the hadar tree, date palm fronds, a branch of a braided tree, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for a seven day period. And you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord for seven days in the year. [It is] an eternal statute throughout your generations [that] you celebrate it in the seventh month. For a seven day period you shall live in booths. Every resident among the Israelites shall live in booths…

All of the plants that are specified in the verse symbolize special characteristics that a person must attain to fully assemble his spiritual Kli to discover the Creator on the last day of the Sukkot holiday. The spiritual Kli is composed of seven parts: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. Each one of them matches a particular type of plant: Hesed, Gevura and Tifferet are three branches of myrtle; Netzach andHod are two willow branches, Yesod is a Lulav (palm frond) and Malchut is an Etrog(citron). When we unite all of these plants together, they embody the corrected states of the seven parts of our soul. So we keep them throughout the festival in a Sukkah, symbolizing the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) which corrects us.

In other words, if a person gathers all of these characteristics within himself and can already ask for their complete correction and raise the blessings, then the Ohr Makifbestows to him. Certainly this is the result of his inner work and not the physical work. In this manner, throughout the seven days, seven purified Lights enter into him in order, correcting and preparing him for the eighth last day when he leaves the Sukkah. Then the Torah holiday begins, happiness and joy for the soul with the help of the Light called “Torah” finally receives its corrected state.

Generally during the holidays people perform specific mechanical actions. But they all have profound inner meanings and we must at least try to somehow get closer to this understanding.

All of the external symptoms in our world are a result of the actions of powerful spiritual. Anyone can invite them into himself and with their help rise from our world to the upper world, as an automatically rising platform. It commands all the properties we see, hear, and feel in this world.

We live within the beastly physical body; through it we feel ourselves and see only the physical world. But the Torah tells us how to move out of this state that limits us into an image called Adam (Man) and live within it.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/18/15