Musar על ברכות 5:23

In the Zohar on Parashat Terumah [it is taught]: 'One who luxuriates at his table and delights in those foods ought to call to mind and to feel concern for the holiness of the Holy Land and for the Temple of the King that has been destroyed. In consideration of the sadness that one feels at one's table--in the midst of the joy and celebration [lit. drinking] there--the Holy Blessed One accounts it to one as if one has rebuilt His House and rebuilt all the ruins of the Temple. Happy is one's portion!' (Zohar 2:157:2). Therefore it is customary to recite the Psalm 'By the waters of Babylon' (Psalms 137) before Grace after Meals, particularly since the table corresponds to the (Temple) altar, while, through our many sins, the altar itself is no longer. One should call to mind [the teaching], 'Woe to the children who have been banished from their Father's table' (Talmud Berachot 3a). The banishment from the Table (shulchan, sh.l.h.n) was caused by the power of the Snake (lenachash, l.n.h.sh), as is taught in the Zohar [about the word] Eichah ('.y.kh.h, 'Alas;' the name of the Book of Lamentations): 'I shall set enmity' (Eivah, '.y.b.h) (Genesis 3:15), an anagram for א׳יכה י׳שבה ב׳דד ה׳עיר 'Alas, the city sits solitary' ('.y.b.h) (Lamentations 1:1). On Shabbat and Festivals one recites the Psalm 'When the Name restores the fortunes of Zion' (Psalms 126).

When the Midrash quotes Deut 14,1 "You are sons of the Lord your G–d," this is a reference to the crown of priesthood, the gift of the land of Israel, the air breathed by the righteous in the World to Come, seeing that the soul is part of the Divine. Souls are "born," as a result of the merging of the emanation תפארת with the emanation מלכות. G–d may therefore quite properly be perceived as the father of the Jewish people and we as His real children. Simple logic tells us that if there is a biological father-son relationship although the bodies of father and son respectively have been totally separate at all times, then there certainly exists such a relationship between souls and their Divine origin from which they have never been totally separated. Our attachment to G–d through our souls is documented in the Torah by the words: ואתם הדבקים בה' אלוקיכם חיים כולכם היום, "You who have cleaved to the Lord your G–d are all alive this day" (Deut. 4,4). Nowadays, during the ongoing period of exile, when the only souls released into this world are גלגולים souls needing transmigration, the Midrash bemoans a state of exile from the table of our Father. Yet, because He, G–d, remains our Father, there will come a time when we will again be allowed to sit at His table.