Sinai generation
The details of the Torah Laws, perhaps including the Oral Torah, which had been given at Sinai were then obeyed by the generation that wandered in Sinai. Why and how could they obey them, if there, for instance, was no Temple? How could they keep the Laws of Kashrut if they were receiving manna from heaven, that would be by its very nature, be kosher? They had no need for work, as they had food and their clothes needed no mending. I wonder if their tents and other materials needed maintenance or not?
In a sense the laws were given to a generation who were unable to practice them!
What did the livestock eat during these wanderings in the desert? They were not able to grow, nor harvest grains. Nor did they have need for them - except as animal food. Also the livestock must have increased significantly if no-one was eating the meat. And why would the people not eat some of their livestock, at least, if there were getting bored of eating the magical manna?
During that period, that generation that grew up in the desert must have lost a significant amount of useful skills, as besides having no need of them, they would not have time to set up shop, and teach their children any of their skills. So the bricklayers, potmakers, leatherworkers and blacksmiths... all were gone! Even if they had had those skills, they must have lost many of them being labourers to the Pharoahs. Thus the generation that entered would know little of such arts. If you think this is unlikely, that knowledge of that nature is not lost in a generation, just look at our children. Children that no longer read books, or know how to do arithmetic, etc. Within one generation think of the skills that have been lost, especially in the move from one technology to another. Try and find a skilled mason today. If we ever need to use horse and cart for our main source of transport, we will be in serious trouble, as there are not enough people who know who to make the leather bridles and saddles, etc that will be needed.
Present generation
Nowadays, four-thousand years later, we have a different situation, though there are interesting comparisons.
For two-thousand or so years, we have lived and practised without a brick and mortal temple. Thus all the practices regarding the temple have fallen by the way, and though we use our prayers and reading to remind us of that time when we did sacrifices in the name of G-d, when we gathered for our festivals in Jerusalem, when the high priest donned his vestments and carried out the various sacrificial and other holy events, it has been 2000 years since that has been done. Yet still we pray and hope for the Messiah to arrive and enable us to rebuild the temple and return to that time when we can scrupulously obey the commandments regarding sacrifices and festivals that G-d transmitted to us via Moshe Rabeinu in our holy scripture.
However, with over 6 million Jews in Israel, and more than 16 million world wide, how could we ever return to such a state of affairs? That is ludicrous, unless we cull our numbers significantly. Even then it seems that we would not be able to actually realise such a dream.
Perhaps it would also be going backwards, to a time that is past. Thus my call is to prepare for the future. What would the Messiah want us to do? How could we prepare for His (or Her) arrival?
What would that temple that would invite the Messiah to enter look like, from a modern standpoint, not from an interpretation of a reading from antiquity?