“... DWELL IN THE SHADE OF MY CLOUD. Scripture reads “I made the people of Israel live in sukkot.” The basic meaning of sukkah (plural sukkot) is a “covering.” What is the covering within which the Israelites dwelt? Does it refer to physical dwellings of some kind, such as impermanent huts, or a miraculous divine protection, such as protective clouds? The rabbis disputed this issue in Mekhilta d’R. Ishmael, Sifra, and the Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 11a, b. The Targums render it “booths” in verse 42 because this is the obvious intent of the passage, and as “shade of My cloud” here. It is unclear whether our targumist meant the latter as a miraculous divine protection of literal protective clouds or he felt that the natural huts were metaphorically the way that God protected the Israelites. The Targums translate the noun as a name of a city in Exodus 13:20 because the Israelites did not withdraw from God’s protective cover or a hut, but departed the town Sukkot. The Sperber and Berliner Targum texts have “the shade of My cloud,” but some other variant readings use the plural “shades,” others the plural “clouds,” and still others delete “My.” ...”