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.