The Midrash on the Ten Commandments tells the story of a faithful woman whose devotion was tested beyond what most people could endure — and who emerged triumphant.
A certain man was called away on a long journey, leaving his wife alone for many years. The neighbors whispered. Friends urged her to give up hope. "He is not coming back," they told her. "Find another husband. Move on with your life." But the woman refused. She had made a vow before God, and she intended to keep it.
Years passed. The woman grew older. Her beauty faded. Her wealth dwindled. Still she waited. She kept her husband's house exactly as he had left it — his chair in its place, his cup on the shelf, his cloak hanging by the door. Every evening she lit a lamp in the window so that if he returned in the darkness, he would find his way home.
The decades stretched on. Everyone who had known the husband assumed he was dead. But the woman's faith never wavered. And then one day, dusty and weathered and gray, the husband appeared at the gate. He had been imprisoned in a distant land, and had spent every day of his captivity dreaming of home. When he saw the lamp still burning in the window, he wept.
The rabbis taught that this woman's faithfulness mirrored the faithfulness of Israel, who waits for the coming of the Messiah no matter how many centuries pass. The lamp in the window is the Torah, and the house is the covenant that Israel will never abandon.