The Jew is a “resident” in the world, for the Torah instructs us not escape the physical reality but to inhabit it and elevate it. At the same time, the Jew feels himself a “stranger” in the material world — his true home is the world of spirituality, holiness and G-dliness from which his soul has been exiled and to which it yearns to return.
Indeed, it is only because he remains a “stranger” that he can maintain the spiritual vision and integrity required to reside in the world and sanctify it as a “dwelling for G-d.”
-The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994)