The Divine Presence in Israel – Mass’ei
The Book of B’midbar ends with the Almighty assuring the people of Israel that He dwelt in their midst (Num. 35:34).
In the Targum Onkelos the Divine words are slightly altered and become “My Shechinah dwells among the Israelites”.
The Targum regularly paraphrases references to God so as to avoid anthropomorphisms (the use of human terms to refer to God).
What it does here is to say that the Israelite community experiences one of the crucial manifestations of the Almighty, their perception of His Shechinah (Presence), as actually stated a few words earlier where the Torah says ani shochen betochah – “I dwell in its midst”.
