Commentary for Numbers 7:13

שניהם מלאים סלת BOTH OF THEM WERE FULL OF FINE FLOUR — for a free-will meal-offering.

FINE FLOUR (MINGLED) WITH OIL FOR A MEAL-OFFERING. The princes dedicated the altar with all the kinds of offerings that can be brought upon it. Therefore they brought a meal-offering, incense, a burnt-offering, a sin-offering, and a peace-offering. Now the incense and the sin-offering were [permitted to be brought by] a special temporary decree, since they cannot usually be brought as freewill offerings. But [this exception was made] in order to complete the dedication with all kinds of offerings, for no other offerings can be brought in Israel except for these offerings [mentioned here], the sin-offering and the guilt-offering being the same thing and having the same name, and there is one law for them.¹⁸⁵Leviticus 7:7: As is the sin-offering, so is the guilt-offering; there is one law for them. Hence although no guilt-offering was brought as part of the dedication-offerings, it may yet be said that all kinds of offerings were brought on these days of dedication, since the sin-offering was brought.
Now the Glorious G-d¹⁸⁶Deuteronomy 28:58. agreed to the intention of the princes and commanded, they shall present their offering, each prince on his day.¹⁸⁷Verse 11. Therefore it is possible that this is a commandment for all generations, that the Sanctuary and the altar should always be dedicated [with special offerings upon their completion]. It is for this reason that Solomon made a dedication of the House [of G-d], as it is written, So the king and all the people dedicated the House of G-d.¹⁸⁸II Chronicles 7:5. Similarly the men of the Great Assembly dedicated [the Second Temple], as it is written, And the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the children of captivity, kept the dedication of this House of G-d with joy.¹⁸⁹Ezra 6:16. And so [will it be also] in the days of the Messiah, as it is said in the Book of Ezekiel, Seven days shall they make atonement for the altar and cleanse it; so shall they consecrate it. And when they have accomplished the days, it shall be that upon the eighth day, and forward, the priests shall make your burnt-offerings upon the altar, and your peace-offerings,¹⁹⁰Ezekiel 43:26-27. this being the dedication of the altar with offerings to consecrate it. Thus the subject of this commandment is similar to that of the section about the impure people on Passover,¹⁹¹Further, 9:1-13. and the section concerning the sons of Joseph,¹⁹²Ibid., Chapter 36. See also in Seder Korach, Note 67. whose opinion coincided with the opinion on High, and which we were commanded to observe in all subsequent generations.
Beha’alothcha

'וקרבנו קערת כסף אחת, וגו; each one of the princes offered all these components as part of his offering. They comprised: a burnt offering, עולה, a gift offering, מנחה, a sin offering, חטאת, as well as peace offerings, שלמים, and incense, קטורת. The reason why the Torah does not simply lump all these offerings together but tells us separately, 12 times what each prince’s offering consisted of, is that each one had intended thereby to atone for all the sins he was aware of that members of his tribe had committed, had been guilty of. Each prince performed the סמיכה, the act of placing all his weight on the animal becoming the sin offering on behalf of the members of his tribe guilty of sins requiring such a sin offering to atone for their sins. This was a regular procedure when communal offerings were being brought.