Ex. 35:1:"Moses assembled the entire assembly of the Children of Israel and said to them...the seventh day shall be holy for you..."
Why does the Torah restate the significance of the Sabbath as a preface for the work of building the Tabernacle? Also, why does Moses have to assemble the entire Jewish people in order to tell them about the Sabbath?
The restatement of the Sabbath's importance, is in order to prevent the building of the Tabernacle to disrupt the Sabbath rest. The Jews may have thought that they would be allowed to desecrate the Sabbath in order to accomplish the building of the Tavernacle and the indwelling of G-d's presence in this world quicker. Comes the Torah and tells us that the Sabbath precedes the Tabernacle in importance. Essentially, we are being told that the ends do not justify the means.
As much as we know that G-d desires certain actions, even more significant is that these actions should be performed with purity and mindfulness, to the point that we are allowed to delay our actions in order to assure that underlying cleanliness of spirit.
The Alter Rebbe explains in the first chapter of the Epistle on Return, that the essential point of Return (aka Repentance) is to leave behind his past rebellion against the kingship of G-d and re-accept the yoke of heaven. The mitzva of Return is to stop and purify oneself before going out into the world to do G-d's will. This is the first priority before returning to the task of accomplishing one's material and spiritual goals in the world.
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