A woman who inherits a portion in the land can marry only someone from her tribe. This is an explicit commandment in the Torah, but it was enacted for only one generation! In the following generation, the verse, “This is the thing” was explained as “This thing will not be enacted, only in this generation.” And then it was declared that the prohibition had ended and the tribes could intermarry. This happened on the Fifteenth of Av. This is the reason that this day is so happy.
The phenomenon of a commandment that is required at the beginning and is then nullified, is reminiscent of the words of the sages: “Mitzvoth will be nullified in the future days to come.” This refers to a future reality in which we will not need to be commanded to do that which is required. In other words, at a practical level the halachah will remain the same, but it will not be necessary to command us to follow it.
On a deeper level, we learn from this that when the mitzvah has been fulfilled to perfection one time—as the righteous continued on page 10
