פירוש על במדבר 9:17

העלות הענן — Understand this as the Targum does: the departure (more lit., the raising itself). Similar is, (v. 21): תעלה הענן which means “when the cloud raised itself” (departed; in both cases the verbs are Niphal). It would not be correct to have written in these passages ולפי עֲלוֹת הענן and וְעָלָה הענן (the verbs in the Kal), because this would not be an expression denoting departure, but “springing forth” and “rising”, just as, (1 Kings 18:44): “Behold a little cloud as small as a man’s hand rises (עלה) from the sea."

ואחרי כן יסעו, after the cloud had lifted off the Tabernacle the people would march, following its direction.

ולפי העלות הענן, and whenever the cloud would lift, etc. The reason this paragraph begins with the conjunctive letter ו is to remind us that the cloud served two different purposes. 1) Its function was to serve as a cover for the Holy Tabernacle and all its furnishings. As such its function was decorative, a compliment for the Jewish people who had become carriers of the שכינה. This is the meaning of the words in verse 15 that כסה הענן את המשכן לאהל העדות, "it covered the Tabernacle the Tent of Testimony." The Torah adds a second function of the cloud in our verse when it describes the motion of the cloud indicating that the Israelites were to break camp and to start marching on their way to the Holy Land. The cloud signalled both when it was time to move and when it was time to make camp.