Commentary for Numbers 7:1

ויהי ביום כלות משה AND IT CAME TO PASS ON THE DAY THAT MOSES HAD FINISHED [RAISING THE TABERNACLE] — The word כלות is written defective (without ו after the ל) thus indicating: on the day that the Tabernacle was erected Israel was like a bride (כלה) who goes beneath the marriage canopy (Midrash Tanchuma, Nasso 20). (Cf. Rashi on Exodus 31:18.)

AND IT CAME TO PASS ON THE DAY THAT MOSES HAD FINISHED SETTING UP THE TABERNACLE. “Scripture does not say ‘on the day that Moses set up’ [but it states ‘on the day that Moses had finished setting up’]. This teaches us that on each of the seven days of initiation [of the priests] Moses erected and dismantled the Tabernacle, and on that day [the eighth day] he erected it but did not dismantle it. Therefore it says, on the day that Moses had finished setting up the Tabernacle, since it was on that day that he finished all his erections. This happened on the first of Nisan; on the second day the Red Heifer was burnt, on the third day they sprinkled [upon the Levites]¹²⁵Further, 8:7. the first sprinkling [of the water of purification in which the ashes of the Red Heifer were mingled],¹²⁶Ibid., 19:12. and on the seventh day [of Nisan, after having been sprinkled again]¹²⁶Ibid., 19:12. the Levites were shaven¹²⁵Further, 8:7. [and were ready to be initiated into their service].” This is Rashi’s language on the basis of the words of our Rabbis¹²⁷Sifre Naso 44. of blessed memory. But it is not a complete proof [that Moses set up the Tabernacle and dismantled it again on each of the seven days of initiation], for the expression on the day that he had finished is not connected only with the word l’hakim (setting up), but [its meaning is rather as follows]: “on the day that Moses had finished setting up the Tabernacle and anointing and sanctifying it, and [doing likewise to] the altar and all the vessels thereof — the princes offered their offerings, when all this was done.” Nonetheless [however we explain the verse], it was [indeed] on the eighth day [of the initiation of the priests].
This section was written here because on the first day of the initiation He called unto Moses out of the Tent of Meeting and G-d spoke to him¹²⁸Leviticus 1:1. all the sections [of the Torah] from the beginning of the Book of Leviticus until the section of Vayehi Bayom Ha’shemini,¹¹¹Leviticus 9:1. The verse referred to is ibid., 22. which all deal with the laws of the offerings. From that eighth day on Moses was told all the sections beginning with These are the beasts which ye may eat,¹²⁹Ibid., 11:2. which contain the laws of forbidden and permitted foods, since they are all related to the subject of the offerings, and these topics continued in their correct order up to this place [before us], as I have explained.¹³⁰In Exodus 40:2, and Leviticus 25:1. Thus when He had completed the commandments which Moses was ordered to say to Israel, all of them being laws of the Divine Service and the offerings, the charge of the Tent of Meeting and its Service, He reverted here afterwards to tell of the freewill offerings of the princes, which took place from the eighth day until the nineteenth day of Nisan,¹³¹This is the opinion of Rabbi Akiba, who says that the first day of the initiation of the priests was the first of Nisan, and accordingly “the eighth day” [which marked the final erection of the Tabernacle] was on the eighth of Nisan. On that day the twelve princes began their offerings, and each one brought an offering on a separate day, so that they finished on the nineteenth of Nisan. or until the twelfth day of the month in accordance with the words of our Rabbis.¹³²This is the opinion of Rabbi Yishmael, and is also the finally agreed opinion of the Rabbis in general. Hence the language of Ramban [“in accordance with the words of our Rabbis”]. According to this opinion, the Tabernacle was first put up on the twenty-third of Adar, and “the eighth day” was therefore the first of Nisan, so that the princes completed their offerings on the twelfth of Nisan. See further on this matter in my Hebrew commentary p. 217, and in Ramban, Vol. II, pp. 616-622.

ואת המזבח ואת כל כליו, and to erect the altar and all its appurtenances, each in its proper place.