Timeless Torah

As you all must be aware by now, the lengthy summer Shabbat afternoons are spiced up with studies from Ethics of our Fathers. This week's Chapter (#3) contains a teaching from Rabbi Chanina ben Chachinoi that reads like this, "One who is awake at night or travels alone on the road, and he turns his heart to idleness, endangers his life."
At first glance the Rabbi's words seem rather harsh. Accordingly, many commentaries understood this statement to be not a directive for all time, but reflective of the difficult times in which the Sage found himself. Rabbi Chanina lived during the Roman occupation of Judea when the study of Torah was forbidden on pain of death. Indeed , his very own teacher , Rabbi Akiva paid with his life for such a crime. And as we read during the holy services of Yom Kippur, Rabbi Chanina himself was one of the ten martyrs who was brutally tortured and killed by the Romans.
Consequently, this Sage's position was that if people were afraid to study in the daytime, it might be understandable. But if you are awake at night when everyone else is asleep, or if you are alone on the road with no one to see you, and still you do not utilize the rare opportunity to study Torah then you will pay for mortally damaging your soul.
While all of this is undoubtedly true, the maxims recorded in Ethics of our Fathers surely apply in all situations. In the figurative language of metaphor, night has always symbolized ignorance and darkness bereft of the light of goodness. In this vein, the Mishna means to say: Even if the whole world seems to be unconscious to the evils that beset us and society is sleepwalking down the road of immorality and un-holiness, you cannot take the easy road of convenience and anonymity.
The Jewish people have often been in this position. In fact, the very first Jew, Abraham, was called the "Hebrew" which literally translates "the other side". In our forefather's age of paganism and spiritual darkness, he alone held aloft the banner of monotheism. In a world of Egyptian slavery, it was our ancestors who taught the meaning of freedom and in the era of Greek debauchery, it was the Jew who proclaimed that life must be dedicated to sanctity.
Our people have been obligated with the task of walking the lonely road. While the rest of the nations can afford to slumber, we must be awake to our destiny or imperil our covenant with G-d and our responsibility to our fellow man.