Our sages teach us, this world is like a passageway, prepare yourself before you enter into the throne room.

To take the analogy perhaps deeper – the world has two stages, the pre and post messianic stage.

As always, our sages described it best with an analogy: the giving of the Torah was the engagement of God to the Jewish people, while the messianic era is the marriage.

In other words, an engagement is like a passageway, two people may walk along a passageway, but hardly is it a deep intimate or life-bonding experience.

But to enter into the bedroom, or say the throne room, in which the two of you stand face to face – and in the analogue, the meaning is simple:

All of the Torah and Mitzvos were given to refine man.

This was the past four thousand years (since Abraham) wherein basically uncivilized man learned to be civilized, learned to forgo power for love, but here’s the punchline: that was only so you could enter into the throne room!