Alone in the torrid wastes of the Judean Desert, David HaMelech prayed: "My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a parched and weary land without water." And indeed, like a wanderer in the wilderness, it is in exile that a Jew experiences a burning thirst for G-d.

This thought brings to mind a mystical teaching in the Zohar. Speaking of Tamar, there is a verse that says, "Take her out and let her be burnt...." Interpreting these two Hebrew words on the level of sod, the Zohar adds: "...in the midday flames of exile." That is to say: "When a soul is taken out into a state of exile," -- "she is aflame with a passionate love of G-d."