Zachor: Toledot Noach: Leaving the Cloud

The 3rd of Adar is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Noach of Krakow, author of Toldos Noach on Midrash (1638). Moshe commanded Yehoshua to choose men who had “Fear of Heaven,” as the soldiers who would battle Amalek. The battle was outside the Clouds of Glory that protected Israel, which was the only way that Amalek could attack. The people outside the clouds were vulnerable because they felt exposed. Their feeling of vulnerability made them so to Amalek. Vulnerability begins with a sense of vulnerability.

Therefore, Yehoshua had to choose people who would not experience any vulnerability even outside the protection of the Clouds; people who possessed, “Yirat Shamaim,” Fear of Heaven.

A person who fears God, and only God, carries the Clouds of Protection with him even when he steps outside the physical clouds.

This is how Esther could walk with the Divine Presence even as she entered the king’s throne room filled with idols. She dressed herself in garments of Clouds of Protection, the garments of Fear of Heaven.