Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 35:28 continues the miraculous supply chain it began in the previous verse. The clouds of heaven returned, and went to the garden of Eden, and took from thence choice aromatics, and oil of olives for the light, and pure balsam for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense.
Where Exodus 35:27 sent the clouds to the river Pishon for onyx, Exodus 35:28 sends them deeper — into Eden itself. The aromatics for the incense altar, the olive oil for the Menorah, and the balsam for the anointing oil were not sourced from wilderness flora or imported from distant markets. They were paradise-grade materials, retrieved by clouds that could cross the threshold ordinary humans could no longer cross.
The Targum's geography is theological. Ever since Adam's exile, Eden has been guarded by the cherubim and the flaming sword (Genesis 3:24). No human reenters. But the incense offered twice a day on the golden altar, and the oil that burned in the Menorah, and the oil that anointed Aaron as high priest — all of these came from behind that barrier. The clouds, as divine servants, could go where humans could not.
The rabbis used this image to argue that the Tabernacle was, in a real sense, a small Eden reinstalled in the camp of Israel. The fragrance that rose from the incense altar was literally the fragrance of the garden. The light of the Menorah was fed by oil pressed from trees that had once known paradise.
The takeaway: the Jewish sanctuary is not a substitute for Eden. It is a channel back to it. Every time the incense was lit, a breath of the original garden entered the camp.