Commento su Esodo 13:21

לנחתם הדרך TO GUIDE THEM IN THE WAY — It (the ל of לנחתם) is punctuated with Patach, because it (the word) is like לְהַנְחוֹתָם (being a contracted form of this); similar is, (Deuteronomy 1:33) “לַרְאֹתְכֶם the way in which ye shall go”, which is the same as לְהַרְאֹתְכֶם to show you. Thus, too, here: לנחתם means as much as להנחותם to make them be guided i. e. by means of an agent. And who was this agent? The pillar of cloud — and the Holy One, blessed be He, in His glory (Himself) led it before them. Nevertheless He Himself did not act as their immediate guide, but He provided the pillar of cloud that they might be guided by means of it, for, as a matter of fact, as the Scriptural account shows, it was by means of the pillar of cloud that they set forth on their journeys. The pillar of cloud was not for giving light to them but to show them the way.

AND THE ETERNAL WENT BEFORE THEM. The Sages have already said,¹³Bereshith Rabbah 51:3. See Vol. I, p. 260. “Wherever the phrase And the Eternal is mentioned, it means He and His Celestial Court.” The Holy One, blessed be He, went before them by day, and His Celestial Court by night.¹⁴This sentence is not part of the above Midrash. See my Hebrew commentary, p. 348, for a similar interpretation in the Zohar, the mystical commentary on the Torah. If so, the explanation of the verse is that G-d¹⁵Literally: “the Name,” i.e., the Great Divine Name known by the attribute of mercy. (Ricanti, interpreting the meaning of Ramban.) See my Hebrew commentary, p. 348. abode in the midst of the cloud, and He went before them by day in a pillar of cloud. By night, His Celestial Court abode in a pillar of fire to give them light. This is similar in meaning to that which the verse says: Inasmuch as Thou Eternal art seen face to face, and Thy cloud standeth over them, and Thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.¹⁶Numbers 14:14.
I have seen in Eileh Shemoth Rabbah:¹⁷Shemoth Rabbah 19:7. “For ye shall not go out in haste, neither shall ye go by flight; for the Eternal will go before you.¹⁸Isaiah 52:12. In the past, I and My Celestial Court went before you, as it is said, And the Eternal went before them by day, but in the World to Come,¹⁹Here referring to the Messianic era. I Myself will go before you, as it is said, For the Eternal will go before you, and the G-d of Israel will be your rearward.”¹⁸Isaiah 52:12. The secret of this Midrash is as I have mentioned, i.e., that at the first redemption, the Holy One, blessed be He, was with them by day and His Celestial Court by night, but in the World to Come,¹⁹Here referring to the Messianic era. the attribute of His Celestial Court will be elevated in mercy and the Eternal — the Tetragrammaton — will go before them, for the G-d of Israel will then assemble His people, and the night will shine as the day, the darkness even as the light,²⁰Psalms 139:12. as everything will then be united in the attribute of mercy.
Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented that Scripture here speaks according to the language of men, since it was the power of G-d and His messenger that went with Israel, [thus, and the Eternal went before them would mean “and the angel of the Eternal went before them”], similar in meaning to the verse, He caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses.²¹Isaiah 63:12. Now it is true that the verse here is similar in meaning to the verse, He caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses,²¹Isaiah 63:12. but it is not as Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra understood it.²²See above, 6:2, for Ramban’s understanding of the verse in Isaiah, and see also further, 14:29, which states: And the angel of G-d, who went before the camp of Israel, journeyed. It was this verse apparently that forced Ibn Ezra to arrive at his interpretation here. See Ramban, ibid., for a fuller discussion. And it is further written, So didst Thou lead Thy people to make Thyself a glorious Name,²³Isaiah 63:14. [thus indicating that it was the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself that went before the people, and not, as Ibn Ezra explained, that the reference here is to an angel].

וה' הולך לפניהם, from the time the Israelites had reached Sukkot, at the border of Egypt, just beyond, G’d’s presence had manifested itself the moment they entered the desert.

וה׳ הולך לפניהם יומם, And G'd would walk in front of them by day, etc." The Torah chooses the word לנחותם to indicate that G'd made the journey comfortable. When it was hot G'd made the cloud spread over them to protect them against the sun. The cloud performed this function only by day. The cloud described here has nothing to do with the column of cloud which preceded the Israelites which smoothed rough passages and showed them the way to go. We have some proof for this in Deut. 1,33 where the Torah is specific by stating that the cloud in front of them was "to seek you out a place where to pitch your tents. The column of fire by night was to show you the way you were to walk, and a cloud by day." The Torah speaks of three separate phenomena then, 1) to seek you out the way; this cloud was with them all the time. 2) The column of fire to enable them to see at night. 3) a cloud by day. The latter was the cloud which we described as providing shade against the heat of the sun. We do not agree with Rashi who understands the word לנחותם as להנחותם, and that the letter ה is missing. Rashi tries to prove his point by citing לראותכם (Deut. 1,33) as a parallel. According to our interpretation the letter ה is also not missing in the verse in Deuteronomy.

וה' הולך, the angel accompanying the Israelites on their journey positioned himself at the head of the marching columns in the guise of a pillar of cloud by day and a fiery column of flame at night.

וה' הולך לפניהם, “and the Lord would walk in front of them, etc.” Ibn Ezra writes that this verse is an example of the Torah using syntax man is familiar with, and the meaning is that the Divine power in the form of His messenger traveled with the Israelites. Nachmanides writes that he has mentioned on previous occasions that whenever we encounter the formulation וה', this always refers to Hashem together with the celestial court of Justice. The Torah narrates that G’d’s glory was enveloped in the cloud above the Israelites which would move continuously a short distance ahead of the main body. At night, the celestial court would be enveloped in the pillar of fire.

Here, too, to lead them by means of an agent. . . I.e., לנחותם is a transitive verb involving a secondary object [i.e., the “agent”]. Rashi proves this from לַראתכם (Devarim 1:33), which must be the same as להראותכם (to show), for otherwise it would be like לִראותכם in the simple verb form, and mean “to see you.” But this meaning would not fit into the context of the verse. Perforce, it is the same as להראותכם . Here too, לַנחותם means the same as להנחותם (to lead them). (This is not in accordance with Re”m’s explanation.)

V. 21. וד׳ הולך וגו׳ בעמוד וגו׳. Die Wolken- und Feuersäule war das sichtbare Zeichen der besonderen Führung Gottes und hier zugleich Mittel derselben. — לנחותם, so viel wie להנחותם: sie durch die Säulen führen zu lassen.

., “and the Lord, etc:” the letter ו at the beginning of the word indicates that G-d’s “entourage” accompaniedHim.” An alternate interpretation: the letter ו, as we mentioned already on Genesis 19,24, refers to the angel Gavriel.

יומם ולילה, the reason that they traveled both by day and night was to make Pharaoh rethink his decision and to see in them people who were in flight.

להאיר להם, “in order to provide light for them.” These two clouds were needed to provide artificial light for them, as the Israelites being enveloped in these clouds, could not tell whether it was day or night beyond the clouds they saw.

Hashem Himself, in His glory, led it before them. Rashi is answering the question: Is it not written, “Hashem went before them,” not the pillar of cloud? Thus Rashi explains that Hashem Himself led the pillar of cloud before them. We need not ask: If Hashem went before them, why was the pillar of cloud needed? For Rashi explains: “Nevertheless, He provided the pillar of cloud to lead them by its means. . ..”

ולילה בעמוד אש להאיר, and at night in a pillar of fire to provide light." According to Shabbat 22 the Israelites "walked" during the entire forty years only by light provided by G'd which was so powerful that it enabled them to look even into the darkest spot. [The discussion in the Talmud centers around the question why Aaron had to light the candelabra in the Tabernacle when G'd had already illuminated all with His own light. Ed.] The Talmud cannot speak of the hours of darkness as this would not agree with the language employed there. If that were the meaning, what does the Talmud mean "they marched only by the light of the heavenly fire?" Surely the Talmud means that the Israelites did not march by sunlight during the days. Why then would the night not be as bright as the day so that they had no need for a special column of fire at all? If we want to understand what took place at that time we must pay attention to the words ללכת יומם ולילה, "to walk by day and by night." Why was the Torah not satisfied with writing: "in order to provide light for them," and had to add the words: "to walk by day and by night?"

ללכת יומם ולילה, “to keep marching both by day and by night, in order to convince Pharaoh that the Israelites were fleeing. This would make him pursue them.

The pillar of cloud was not providing light, but rather to show them the way. [Rashi knows this] because during the day they do not need light. Perforce, it showed them the way. When Scripture writes, “To provide them with light,” it refers only to the pillar of fire. However, the pillar of fire also showed them the way, as it is written, “So that they could travel by day and by night.” (Nachalas Yaakov)

We must conclude therefore that A) the light G'd provided for the Israelites at that time never departed from the camp of the Israelites as our sages explained, but that B) it also never extended beyond the boundaries of that camp either. There was a good reason for this. In the terrible desert which normally is the domain of impurity, a region in which the forces of the קליפה are at home (Zohar section 1, page 126), the Israelites were the beneficiaries of the heavenly light within the boundaries of their camp; outside their camp it was night (dark) for them just as it was for everybody else. Normally, the Israelites did not travel at night. Whenever G'd wanted them to travel at night, however, they did not require the light dispensed by the pillar of fire within their camp as G'd's light illuminated every place within their camp. The pillar of fire was needed only to illuminate the way beyond the boundaries of their camp. This is what the Torah had in mind when it wrote להאיר להם, "to provide light for them." The reason G'd had to provide this additional light was "so that they could travel by this light both by day and by night." Just as the Israelites were able to see into the distance by day without recourse to the pillar of fire, so at night the pillar of fire provided illumination for them equal to that of the sunlight by day. This then explains the wording of the Torah לראותכם בדרך אשר תלכו בה (Deut.1,33), "to enable you to see by it." This is not in agreement with Rashi's explanation.