Editing Mitzvot Become Nullified in the Future Time (section)

==== Eternal Nature of the Torah ====
Rabbi Yochanan's approach leads to another discussion about the contradiction between it and the principle of the Torah's eternality. Indeed, according to the Rashba's view that the nullification only occurs during death, there is no contradiction in Rabbi Yochanan's opinion. However, according to Tosafot's view that mitzvot will be nullified even after the resurrection of the dead, this seemingly contradicts the Torah's eternality. For this reason, the Yefeh Toar ruled like the Rashba, adding that even the mitzvot that will be nullified will only be so temporarily and for their specific time.

The Maharatz Chayot wrote that even according to Tosafot's view that they will be nullified during the resurrection, it will be "only at the moment of resurrection, but immediately afterwards it will obviously return to its prohibited status."

Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman explained this in two ways: The Torah will indeed remain as it was given, but just as there are certain situations where the Torah exempts a person from mitzvot, so too the nullification by Mashiach was already written in the Torah when it was given - and therefore the nullification of mitzvot is one of the Torah's laws. Another explanation is that just as a dead person is exempt from mitzvot at the time of his death, so too if the dead person rises in resurrection, he will remain exempt, and thus in the Messianic era the mitzvot will not be nullified, but the dead will be exempt from them - therefore this law was stated as a permission to bury the dead in shrouds of kilayim (forbidden mixtures) - since the exemption from mitzvot will only apply to the dead.

In Chassidut, it is explained that this nullification is not a cancellation and end, but rather a nullification and lack of significance. The meaning of this is the divine revelation that is drawn down through the fulfillment of mitzvot in our time, which in the future will be relatively meaningless, because the drawing down of light through mitzvot now is incomparable to the level of divinity that will be drawn through mitzvot in the future. One of the reasons for this is that mitzvot in our time are clothed in physical existence, whose vitality currently comes from kelipat nogah (a neutral husk), and therefore the drawing down through them is from a lower level of divinity. In the future, when a lofty divine light will illuminate the entire world, the revelation currently achieved through physical mitzvot will lose its significance. However, this applies only to the light drawn through the fulfillment of mitzvot, but the light drawn through studying the laws of Torah will not be nullified, as the Sages said they are eternal and exist forever. This is because the revelation in the law itself is more elevated than the drawing down through practical mitzvot, since the law itself is the divine will itself, which is beyond the revelation that will occur in the future. However, the mitzvot we fulfill now, although not significant compared to the future revelation, serve as preparation for drawing down the tremendous revelation that will shine in the future, because in truth, man's actions don't have the power to draw down this lofty light, and his actions are only vessels and preparation for it.

However, these explanations are according to the Rashba's opinion that mitzvot become practically nullified only at the time of death and not afterward. But Chassidut adds to this approach that although they are not practically nullified, the divine influence through them does not take up space. The Rebbe explains that this is also the view of the Alter Rebbe who writes in Tanya chapter 36 that the resurrection of the dead is part of the time for fulfilling mitzvot, and their complete nullification will only occur in the seventh millennium.

An additional explanation is brought in Chassidut that the nullification of practical mitzvot in the future is because the entire purpose of practical mitzvot is for the sake of birur (refinement), and then after the birur is complete, there will no longer be a purpose for mitzvot.

Even according to the opinion that the commandment will be nullified (Tosafot's approach), the Rebbe explains that this doesn't mean the mitzvah itself will be nullified, for the laws of the Oral Torah are never nullified because essentially the Divine Will, being the Will of the Holy One Blessed be He, cannot undergo change. Just as no change is possible in Him, so too no change is possible in His essential Will. The nullification of mitzvot means the nullification of the '''command''' but not the nullification of the '''mitzvah''' itself (the nullification of the command does not constitute a change in Him because the will in commanding is the externality of the Will). On the contrary, at that time, humans and the world will be permeated with G-d's Will until their unification with it will be to such an extent that a command will not be relevant because the mitzvot will be fulfilled automatically from their unification with the Supernal Will (similar to the concept of "a stone from the wall will cry out"). Unlike the time of exile when fulfillment of mitzvot is through commanding a person and the mitzvah is an additional reality that one must fulfill, in the future, the person and the mitzvah will be one reality.