future tense

Moshiach Musings

The mitzvahs we do today pale in comparison to those we will perform when we will be returned to the Holy Land. In fact, to a certain extent they are merely "practice" or "keeping in shape" for the real high quality mitzvot we will perform in the Holy Land. The Jewish nation, the Torah, and the Land of Israel constitute one indivisible whole—and the greatest of mitzvot are performed when all three are joined.

Terror, hatred, violence – the dark forces that are currently ravaging country after country in the Middle East, sub Saharan Africa and parts of Asia – are always ultimately self destructive. Those who practise them are always, as was Haman, hoisted on their own petard, destroyed by their very will to destruction. And yes, we as Jews must fight antisemitism, the demonization of Israel, and the intimidation of Jewish students on campus. But we must never let ourselves be intimidated – and the Jewish way to avoid this is marbim be-simcha, to increase our joy. The people that can know the full darkness of history and yet rejoice is a people whose spirit no power on earth can ever break. EM

Rabbi Dr. Sir Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, was the former Chief Rabbi of the UK and the Commonwealth and a member of the House of Lords. He was a leading academic and respected world expert on Judaism. He was the author of several books and thousands of articles, appeared regularly on television and radio, and spoke at engagements around the world.

And side for the greater quality of mitzvot performed in the Land of Israel, and specifically once all the Jews have been returned to the Land after being freed of the yoke of – physical and spiritual – exile, quantitatively, too, we then will finally be capable of performing so many mitzvot which we are unable to do today. In fact, of the 613 mitzvot that the Torah commands us, only 369 are practicable today!

Here are some of the mitzvahs we will resume practicing with the coming of Moshiach:

The perpetual calendar we follow today will be discontinued. With the reinstatement of the Sanhedrin (Rabbinical Supreme Court) in Jerusalem, we will once again revert to sanctifying new months and establishing leap years based on the testimony of witnesses who see the new moon and other seasonal factors.

The laws of ritual purity and impurity will again become germane. Ritually impure people will be unable to enter the Holy Temple

With the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, we will once again resume Temple services as mandated by the Torah.

The laws of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years will once again be in effect. (Though today the Sabbatical year is observed in Israel, it is only by rabbinic injunction. With the coming of Moshiach, it will revert to being a Biblical obligation.)