Of Lunatics and the 7th Heaven

The fifteenth day of the seventh month, that is Tishrei, shall be the Feast of Booths [Sukkot] for seven days to G-d. Do not do any manual labor on the first day.(Lev. 23:34) And you will rejoice before G-d seven days.(ibid. 23:40)

"The fifteenth day of the month" is from the aspect of [the divine name] yud-hei.

The four-letter name of G-d, Yud Hei Vav and Hei also stands for different states of being. The yud represents the sefira of chochma, the first hei represents bina, the vav represents the six emotional attributes of chesed, gevura, tiferet, netzach, hod and yesod, and the final hei represents malchut. The secret of the fifteenth of the month is that it is represented by yud (=10) + hei (=5), equaling 15. The fifteenth of the month thus represents the full influence of the sefirot of chochma and bina, the full power of consciousness. This is reflected in the fact that the moon/bina is always full on the 15^th, meaning that it receives the full light of the sun/chochma. Now you can understand why people with unstable emotions, or vessels to receive the light of consciousness, go lunatic on the full moon. Their six emotive sefirot simply can't contain the power of the light revealed on this date.

And you shall keep it [in Hebrew, "oto"] a festival [in Hebrew, "chag"] to G-d, seven days in the year. (ibid. 23:41)

"Oto" is the letter vav, the middle column. "Chag" is chesed and gevura. On a festival, we are raised up to a higher level of holiness…

The word "oto" can be broken into the words "ot"-"vav", meaning "the letter vav". The vav, as explained above, represents the six emotional sefirot that are also known as Zeir Anpin. The word "chag" is spelled with the first letters of chesed and gevura, which are the two "arms" of Zeir Anpin that raise the sefira of malchut to higher consciousness, which is the secret. Interestingly "chag" in Hebrew sounds very much like the word "hug" in English! The idea is that on a festival we are raised up to a higher level of holiness. This too is reflected in English because "holiday" is another name for "chag", or festival.

"Seven days" is from the side of "Batsheva", which is malchut.

The name "Batsheva" (or "Bathsheba") means "daughter of seven" and implies that the sefira of malchut is the seventh sefira below bina, which is her "mother". The word "days" is also used in the Zohar as a code for sefirot since there are seven days in a week and each is of equal time yet no one is like the other. The text can be read to mean that the consciousness of chochma and bina will descend to Zeir Anpin, who will raise malchut to a higher level through each sefira, one at a time, each day of Sukkot, until the high point of unity, on Hoshana Rabba.

Zohar, Pinchas, Raya Mahemna 255b; translation and commentary by Simcha-Shmuel Treister

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