In an experiment performed on human beings – and which is also used sometimes as a method of torture – a person is put into a place where there are no external stimuli whatsoever.
Soundless, sightless confinement.
After some time, many people start yelling, “Let me out of here!”
They cannot bear it, and some even lose their sanity.
But there are also people for whom such an experience becomes a turning point.
Precisely the absence of external stimuli causes them to bolster their inner essence.
This is exactly what God does with us in the ordinary periods of the annual cycle.
He gives us a time period in which there are no special occasions, as though calling to us: “Let’s see what you are when you’re alone!”
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz