Moses Gathers Israel and the Sanctuary Yields to Shabbat

Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 35:1

"And Moses assembled" (Exodus 35:1) - why is this said? Because it says "And let them make Me a sanctuary" (Exodus 25:8), I might hear that this applies whether on a weekday or on the Sabbath. How then do I uphold "Whoever profanes it shall surely be put to death" (Exodus 31:14)? As applying to all other kinds of labor except the work of the Tabernacle - or even the work of the Tabernacle? And how do I uphold "And let them make Me a sanctuary"? As applying to all the other days except the Sabbath - or even on the Sabbath? And logic would suggest: since the divine service is called service, and the things that enable the service are called service, if I have learned that the service overrides the Sabbath, then how much more so the things that enable the service should override the Sabbath. And a further inference: if the service, which comes only by the power of its enablers, overrides the Sabbath, then the enablers of the service, which the service comes only by their power - from where might one think that if the horn of the altar was damaged or the [knife] was damaged, he should repair them on the Sabbath? Therefore Scripture teaches: "And Moses assembled all the congregation of the children of Israel and said to them" - on a weekday and not on the Sabbath. "And he said to them, These are the things" (Exodus 35:1). Rabbi says: this comes to bring in the forty-less-one labors that were told to Moses by mouth.

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