In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the minister Arthur Dimmesdale, tormented by guilt, stands on the scaffold at night, shrouded in the mist and darkness. The mist reflects his inner turmoil and the secrecy surrounding his sin of adultery with Hester Prynne.

In T.S. Elliot’s The Wasteland, London is shrouded in “brown fog,” representing the spiritual confusion of modernity.

If you are of a certain generation, you remember Joni Mitchell’s 1966 hit song Both Sides Now: “But now they only block the sun / They rain and they snow on everyone / So many things I would have done / But clouds got in my way.”

In these literary examples, clouds serve as barriers—concealing knowledge and hiding identities.

In other modern literary examples, clouds serve as symbols of clarity and transcendence.  In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn and his companions, after having traversed the Paths of the Dead, emerge from the clouds with a renewed sense of purpose and destiny.

In the second half of the book of Exodus, the Torah readings of Yitro, Mishpatim, and Pekudei each conclude with a short story about the “cloud of glory.”

Yitro: “All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking . . . So the people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.”

Mishpatim: “When Moses had ascended the mountain, the cloud covered the mountain.  The Presence of the Lord abode on Mount Sinai, and the cloud hid it for six days.  On the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.  Now the Presence of the Lord appeared in the sight of the Israelites as a consuming fire on the top of the mountain.”  Moses went inside the cloud and ascended the mountain; and Moses remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.”

Pekudei: “When Moses had finished the work, the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud had settled upon it and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. When the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the Israelites would set out on their various journeys; but if the cloud did not lift, they would not set out until such time as it did lift. For over the Tabernacle a cloud of the Lord rested by day, and fire would appear in it by night, in the view of all the house of Israel, throughout their journeys.

While the cloud is a necessary barrier that hides God’s essence from human comprehension, it is also the conduit for revelation and the guide to lead the people through the wilderness.  The three short stories are placed at the end of the portions to emphasize that God’s presence is part of each stage in the journey of the Israelites and serves as a model for that continued belief in future generations. The rabbinic and midrashic traditions modify the image of the cloud as a canopy of peace, which is grouped together with the sukkah and the rainbow as symbols of protection and promise.

הַפּוֹרֵשׂ סֻכַּת שָׁלוֹם עָלֵֽינוּ וְעַל כָּל עַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל.

Blessed are You, Lord, who spreads a canopy of peace over all His people Israel.