Leaving Egypt, and crossing the Sea of Reeds, is only the beginning of the journey for the Israelites. They are on the move, and have a destination in mind, but the trip is long and the desert stretches on seemingly forever. They have begun a journey of transformation, but are in need of help.
This is more than a physical journey. The people are moving from slavery to freedom, from individuality to community, from some people to A People. And they need guidance, which comes in this week’s Torah portion (Beshalach). Exodus 13:21-22 speaks of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
And in the spiritual journey they make, we can learn a good deal about our own journey.
There are two kinds of guidance, one for day and a different one for night. The cloud during the day represents clarity. For some journeys of transformation, we have a clear sense of which way to go, but can still use guidance.
Rashi (11th Century French commentator) notes that the pillar of cloud did not provide light. Daylight represents the times when we seek guidance, but we are in a place where we can discern what we need. It is a less powerful form an external guidance since we can bring our own wisdom to it. We can discern the regular clouds from the guiding clouds.
Nighttime is different. Night represents when we are in the darkness of confusion, we need more clarity, more guidance, more obvious illumination. And thus the pillar of fire, clearly burning and showing the way.
This need not be divine. It can be the bright guidance of a friend, the illumination of a teacher, or the spark within that, when we are quiet enough, we can hear. The second verse is one of reassurance. What is written there: the pillar “and cloud did not depart from before the people.” What is not written there is, “even when the people did not see them.” Guidance is there, but we need to look with stillness and openness to find them.
And at night, the darkest times, we can still find the brightest light.
