The Seven Clouds of Glory That Leveled Israel's Road

"And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud" (Exodus 13:21). This teaches that seven clouds of glory were with Israel. "By day in a pillar of cloud"—here is one. "And Your cloud stands over them" (Numbers 14:14)—here are two. "And in a pillar of cloud You go before them by day" (Numbers 14:14)—here are three. "And when the cloud lingered" (Numbers 9:19)—here are four. "And when the cloud was taken up" (Exodus 40:36)—here are five. "And if the cloud was not taken up" (Exodus 40:37)—here are six. "For the cloud of the LORD was upon the Tabernacle by day" (Exodus 40:38)—here are seven. Four from the four directions, one from above, one from below, and one that went ahead of them, preparing the roads for them: raising the low places and lowering the high ones, making for them a level path. As it is said, "Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low, and the crooked shall become level, and the rough places a plain" (Isaiah 40:4). And it says, "And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people who remain from Assyria, as there was for Israel on the day they came up from the land of Egypt" (Isaiah 11:16). This comes to teach, and turns out to be taught: just as in the time to come every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill made low, so it was for them when they came up from the land of Egypt. Another interpretation: "And the LORD went before them." Rabbi Yose the Galilean says: were it not written in Scripture, it would be impossible to say it—like a father who carries a lamp before his son, and like a master who carries a lamp before his servant. Another interpretation: "And the LORD went before them." By the measure that a person acts, so it is measured back to him. Abraham escorted the ministering angels, as it is written, "And Abraham went with them to send them off" (Genesis 18:16); therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, escorted his children forty years in the wilderness. "To go by day and night." The verse compares their traveling by day to their traveling by night: just as in their traveling by day they lacked no light, so in their traveling by night they lacked no light; and just as in their traveling by night they would not hunger nor thirst, nor would scorching heat or sun strike them, so in their traveling by day they would not hunger nor thirst, nor would scorching heat or sun strike them.