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As we learned previously, the Sages of the Talmud derived the need for a seven-day preparation for the Yom Kippur service from the Torah’s description of the Tabernacle in the desert. An alternative source is suggested by Reish Lakish, who proposes that this rule is derived from the story of Moshe receiving the commandments on Mount Sinai. The Torah describes Moshe as being enveloped by a cloud for six days and entering God’s presence on the seventh day (see Shemot 24:16). This teaches that someone who is about to enter mahaneh shekhinah – the “encampment of God” – needs a week of preparation to do so. The access to the divine then became a mystical trope for Rebbe Nachman in a dazzling commentary to the mist/fog of the cloud. he suggests that it was ONLY the dark impenetrable areas of the self/life and the world where God hides and is to be found accessible...typical of the Rebbe's paradoxical notion of the divine.
The cloud looks like a place lacking clarity. However for the Chassidic Masters the "cloud" is not negative at all. Rebbe Nachman directs our attention to the contradiction of the cloud. On one hand it keeps us away, because we don't see that God is there. It seems that He is not. It is only when we enter the cloud of unknowing that we realize that not only is Hashem "behind" the cloud, but that the cloud itself is a revelation of His love for us, the cloud itself is Torah. The Me'or Eynayim takes it further forcing us to see the divine hand even when we are alienated from Him.