פירוש על במדבר 7:11

יקריבו את קרבנם לחנכת המזבח THEY SHALL OFFER THEIR OFFERING, [EACH PRINCE ON HIS DAY] FOR THE DEDICATING OF THE ALTAR — but Moses did not yet know how they were to bring their offerings — whether according to the order of their birth (i.e. according to the order in which the sons of Jacob after whom the tribes were named were born, in which case the prince of the tribe of Reuben would have offered first), or according to the order in which they moved off on the journeys, (when Judah would be the first), until he was told by the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be He: “according to the order on the journeys shall they offer” — yet each prince on his day (and not three together as they actually journeyed) (cf. Sifrei Bamidbar 47).

V. 11. ויאמר ד׳ וגו׳ Gott aber bestimmte, dem Fürsten eines jeden Stammes solle ein Tag zur Darbringung seines Opfers eingeräumt werden. Repräsentiert doch jeder Stamm eine Eigenart sozialer Menscheneigentümlichkeit, deren Läuterung, Durchdringung mit dem Geiste des Gesetzes, und deren Betätigung in Verwirklichung der Anforderungen desselben einen durchaus wesentlichen selbständigen Beitrag zur Lösung der Gesamtaufgabe der Nation bildet

נשיא אחד ליום, “one prince each day, etc.” the presentation of these offerings were spread over 12 days in order to accord honour to each of the princes. Seeing that the tribe of Yehudah represented Royalty in the future, the prince of Yehudah, Nachshon, was the first one to present his offering. In order to ensure that he would not say that seeing he had been the first one to present his offering, he would also join the other princes on each in their offering, the Torah limits the number of offerings to be presented to one on each day. By extending the period of these offerings for 12 days, the festive nature and the attending joy among the people was considerably enhanced.