Another matter, “they brought the Tabernacle” – that is what is written: “Mute the lying lips that speak falsehood [atak] against the righteous with arrogance and contempt” (Psalms 31:19). How so? A person confesses on Yom Kippur; if another Yom Kippur comes and he mentions his [past] iniquities, the Holy One blessed be He says to him: ‘Mute the lying lips.’ What is atak?
Matters that have already passed, like that which is stated: “He relocated [vayatek] from there to the mountain, east of Beit El, and he pitched his tent, Beit El to the west, and Ai to the east; he built there an altar to the Lord, and proclaimed the name of the Lord” (Genesis 12:8). “With arrogance and contempt” – the Holy One blessed be He says to him: ‘Did you have no sins from this year that you boasted “with arrogance and contempt”?’2Confessing sins from a previous year is arrogant in that it implies that one has no current sins to confess.
Another matter, “mute the lying lips” is speaking of Moses. When the Holy One blessed be He said to craft for Him a Tabernacle, Moses immediately said to Israel: “Let them bring Me a gift” (Exodus 25:2). Moses was involved in the Tabernacle, and the cynics of Israel were saying: ‘Is it possible that the Divine Presence will rest by means of the son of Amram?’ Rabbi Yoḥanan said: He was involved with the Tabernacle for six months.
They crafted it in three months and they folded it up for three months. Nevertheless, they were mocking him, and saying: ‘It has been crafted, did Moses not say that His Divine Presence would rest in our midst?’3Despite the fact that the construction of the Tabernacle in only three months would not have been possible without divine assistance, the cynics still expressed their cynicism due to the fact that it was not yet assembled and the Divine Presence was not yet apparent (Yefei To’ar).
But the Holy One blessed be He intended to set up the Tabernacle in the month that Isaac our patriarch was born. He did not act,4God did not command Moses to assemble the Tabernacle for three months after its construction. but when that month arrived the Holy One blessed be He said to Moses: “On the day of the first month, on the first of the month, you shall erect the Tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting” (Exodus 40:2).
At that moment, the Divine Spirit said: “Mute the lying lips,” those mocking him. He did not act,5Moses did not act on his own. but when the Holy One blessed be He said to Moses to erect the Tabernacle, [the people] began to carry it, each and every one of them [the product of] his labor, as it is stated: “They brought the Tabernacle to Moses.”