The end of the Book of Isaiah tells us that in the future every Shabbat and every Rosh Chodesh (New Moon) everyone will flock to the Temple to bow down before G-d, meaning to achieve a state of bitul, utter self-abnegation before the infinite Divine.
In the times of the First and Second Temples, one would generally go to the Temple three times a year, on the three Pilgrim Festivals, Pesach, Shavuot and Succot. But in the future this will be every month on Rosh Chodesh or even every Shabbat. The Sages discuss the practicalities of travelling weekly to the Temple in Jerusalem from distant parts of the world. We note that with modern air travel this would not be such a great problem.
So there were three kinds of time: the ordinary week days, whether in Temple times, now or in the future; the three Pilgrim Festivals in the days of the First and Second Temples; and Shabbat and Rosh Chodesh in the future.
The beginning of Sedra Mishpatim will help us understand this. It says ‘These are the laws you should put before them.’ ‘You’ here means Moses, and it is telling him to communicate the laws in a way which will be meaningful to them. It then tells the law of the Eved Ivry, the Hebrew slave. Why should it begin with this law? Also, it starts by saying ‘these are the laws you should put before them in the plural, and then in states in the singular ‘when you (thou) acquire a Hebrew slave..’.
This is an instruction concerning how the Jewish people serve G-d. Their souls originate at a very exalted level and then come down, down, down into the world. When their souls are on a higher level, before entering the world, their status is ‘son/daughter of G-d’. But when the soul comes into the world it becomes a ‘servant’, eved. That is where they can carry out their real service, elevating the world and even the Torah to a higher level.
At the same time, the soul has to be connected with its exalted source, in order to achieve its potential in this world. That’s why it is called ‘eved Ivry’, a Hebrew slave. Ivry means ‘the other side’ meaning the other side of the river, because the Hebrews came from the other side of the river. The discourse explains that this river is spiritually very exalted. There is the Garden of Eden, a sublime realm, which is watered by the river, even higher, and the Jewish soul comes from an even higher level, beyond the river.
It is Moses who has to help the soul connect to its root. The phrasing is in the singular when it speaks about you (thou) acquiring a Hebrew slave because it means that it is Moses, and the Moses through the generations, the great Sages, each addressed individually, who have the responsibility to connect Jews to their root. He and they do this by revealing the Moses inside each person.
When the soul is connected to its root, its greatest effect is when it operates as a ‘servant’, rather than a son/daughter. While the son/daughter has a very close connection with the Divine, as a child to his/her father, the ‘servant’ has more bitul, more intense selflessness.
This is the ‘weekday’ bond at any time, including in our days of Exile. This has tremendous power, and enables each person to have a profound effect on the world around them, and even has the power to ‘elevate’ the Torah.
Then come exalted levels of direct appreciating the Divine, which in Temple times could be accessed on the festivals, but in the future will be available every week on Shabbat and on Rosh Chodesh, the New Moon.
This is as a result of our long service of G-d as a ‘servant’, in the ordinary weekdays of our thousands of years of Exile. Through their input, the future realm of Moshiach will enable us to reach heights which were not possible even in earlier Temple times, and every Shabbat we will be able to experience the intense revelation of the Divine in the Temple, travelling to Jerusalem from all over the world.
