Why the Princes Brought Their Offering Last for the Tabernacle

(Numbers 7:2:) AND THE PRINCES OF ISRAEL DREW NEAR TO OFFER. You find that, at the time when Moses proclaimed and said (Exodus 35:5), "Take from among you an offering," what did the princes do? They said: Did Moses not know to tell us that the Tabernacle was to be made? What did they do? They did not give a freewill offering. He (each prince) said: Let these (the people) make the Tabernacle, and to us he says that we should give a freewill offering! The Holy One, blessed be He, said: By your lives, you shall know that I do not need you. What is written there? "And they brought to him freewill offerings still, morning by morning" (Exodus 36:3). Rabbi Yohanan said: In two mornings they brought all the work of the Tabernacle, and there was more than enough, as it is said, "And the work was sufficient for them for all the work to make it, and more than enough" (Exodus 36:7). "And Moses saw all the work... and Moses blessed them" (Exodus 39:43). And with what blessing did he bless them? He said to them: May the Shekhinah rest upon the work of your hands. In this world Moses blessed them, but in the world to come the Holy One, blessed be He, will bless them, as it is said, "The Lord will bless you from Zion (Maker of heaven and earth), and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life, and may you see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel" (Psalms 128:5-6).