The Dark Torah of Exile

When we were full of life in the House of Hashem there was no need to speak of the World to Come, we had no need to seek out reasons for Mitzvot because the rich sweetness of Torah and its beauty shone in every corner. But when the world is dark and we are like the dead it was necessary for the Sages to begin speaking of the distant future in order to strengthen our hearts to survive the bitter present.

So, too, the Torah entered into its constricted-Exile state in order to offer spiritual sustenance to the shattered limbs. To direct them in an individual paradigm of separate cells for as long as we were scattered.

This Torah of Exile is referred to as dark by comparison to the Torah of Eretz Yisroel. Darkness is the point of constriction, the point of a Jew being alone, an individual. It hides all the inner portions of the Torah which delve into the depths of the Torah and its broader meaning. In darkness you can't see existence in its entirety. All you can do is feel around in the murkiness and feel each individual object. You cannot see its relationship to the entirety of existence.

This diminishment of Torah is perhaps the most troubling aspect of the Destruction. The Torah clothed itself in sackcloth. As the Jewish Nation went down, so did the Torah. "When the Jewish Nation was exiled - There is no greater loss of Torah study than this."