Cloud By Day, Fire By Night | Rabbi Ari Enkin

this week's torah portion is beshallah and you know we read how the jewish people left egypt the sea split they crossed through and they were on their way to freedom the torah tells us how do the jewish people know where to go how do they know how to get to the promised land the verse says god led them both by day and by night by day there was a cloud that would guide the way by night there was a pillar of fire that would guide the way our sages tell us that there's much more to this verse than meets the eye the first doesn't merely mean that god led them by day and by night in a literal manner the verse also means that god led the people by day day is a metaphor when things are going good brightness ease convenience and god also led them at night and night is a metaphor for trouble and darkness and challenge and the verse is speaking to us even today that god is guiding us not only by day when things are going good but we have to remember that god is guiding us even by night but we're having challenges and things aren't going the way they should the jewish people saw the miracles at the red sea but unfortunately that inspiration was lost they complained they cried they even wanted to go back to egypt and this is an important message for us when things are going great it's easy to remain loyal to remain in faith with god the challenge is to follow god to follow that pillar of fire that inspiration even at night even when things aren't going so well [Music] you