However, in the meantime, these Lights from Atik descended so far below that they became the vitality of the 400 men of Eisav.
And this is the level of “ש ַ "ק- Sackcloth” (ש ַ "ק has the numerical value of 400), as is written, “I will cloak the heavens in darkness and place a sackcloth as their covering.”
And similarly, our Sages said (Sanhedrin 101a), “The Torah girds itself with a sackcloth...” meaning that the Torah has a superficial garment from which the external forces are nourished.
The Gemara says: “The Sages taught: One who reads a verse from Song of Songs and renders it a form of secular song, and not a sacred text, and one who reads any biblical verse at a banquet house, not at its appropriate time, but merely as a song, introduces evil to the world, as the Torah girds itself with sackcloth and stands before the Holy One, Blessed be He, and says before Him: Master of the Universe, Your children have rendered me like a harp on which clowns play.”
The Gemara continues to say that Hashem would rather that Jews use verses from the Torah for entertainment than purely secular material. However, the Torah responds that Jews should say over Torah at meals and banquets, and not merely render its verses as material for singing.
In this case, something holy, the verses of Torah, can be used for something not so holy, like material for drinking song. This is like a person wearing thick sackcloth, that covers the person but does not enhance their appearance, it makes them look worse. The person becomes degraded in the sackcloth.
Similarly, when the Lights of Atik, a high level of holiness, becomes invested in the material world, in Efron and his people, these lights become covered over by something that degrades them.
From the Steinsaltz translation, as it appears on Chabad.org, copyright belonging to Chabad.org and Aleph Society Inc.
