Who was allowed to use the tabernacle?

Answer 1

The 'tabernacle' sometimes refers to the 'tent of meeting' and sometimes to the actual tabernacle which was within the tent of meeting (which can cause confusion if one is equating the two). Within the walls of the tent of meeting were the altar of burnt offering, the bronze 'sea' (a big old basin of water resting upon 12 bronze, outward facing bulls), and, of course, the covered tabernacle consisting of two rooms, the holy place, wherein only priests were allowed to go in daily to offer incense on the altar of incense, light the gold lampstand, or put out the showbread. The back room of the tabernacle was segregated from the front by a veil, and only the High Priest was allowed to enter through that veil, and then, only on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) to make atonement for Israel. So if by the tabernacle you meant the tent of meeting, the answer is that only male Israelites could enter the tent of meeting wherein the tabernacle was located - we see this in the first chapter of Leviticus, where a layman was instructed to bring his burnt offering to the north side of the altar of burnt offerings, and slay it, skin it, and cut it up there. It was the priests who then took these and offered them on the altar. The laymen however, could not (under penalty of death) enter the tabernacle - nor could the Levites. Of course when the tabernacle was moved, the holy items within were covered, and the tent taken down - so that when the (covered) ark of the covenant etc. were made visible, they were no longer in the tabernacle (for it was taken down first) - thus a Levite could carry the ark out of where it was sitting without actually entering the tabernacle.