In our times, the Ribbono shel Olam allowed us to understand this concept through the phenomenon of electricity. If we plug a wire into the wall, but there’s a piece of paper or plastic covering it, the appliance won’t work; it must have a proper connection.
Even if a person learns and davens, but another aspect of his Yiddishkeit isn’t in order—he’s afflicted with anger issues, negative middos, forbidden talk, or improper sights—these are barriers that prevent the light of Hashem from coming to him.
He may learn and daven, and he may perform mitzvos... but the electricity won’t light up—because his kirvas Elokim is nonexistent. A life of performing technical mitzvos is a life of galus, and we must become redeemed from it. We have no choice. מנחם לה אין בלילה תבכה בכו, She weeps bitterly in the night [over a life without kirvas Elokim]... she has no comforter [from the great pain of such a life] (Eichah 1:2).
