The table below presents two contradictory verses. Both verses talk about the journeys and campings of the Jews The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says by the word of God the Jews camped while the other verse says when they rested Moses said 'Please return God to the myriads thousands of Jews.' Which is it? Were journeys determined by God or Moses. Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 stages method method: God ordered a camping. Moses would then gather the people and pray 'Please return God to the myriads thousands of Jews.' The prayer would trigger off prophetic visions of Gods cloud camping with the Jews and the Jews would then camp.

Summary	Verse / Source	Text of verse / Source
by the word of God the Jews camped	Nu09-18b	At the order of the Lord the people of Israel journeyed, and at the order of the Lord they camped; as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents.
when they rested Moses said 'Please return God to the myriads thousands of Jews.	Nu10-36	And when it rested, he [Moses] said, Return, O Lord, to the many thousands of Israel.
Resolution:	2 Stages	God ordered a camping. Moses would then gather the people and pray 'Please return God to the myriads thousands of Jews.' The prayer would invite prophetic visions of Gods cloud camping with the Jews and the Jews would then camp

Advanced Rashi: Rashi actually simply mentions God ordered the camping and the cloud of God's honor then appeared like a pillar. Moses prayed and then the cloud of Gods glory spread over the camp. We however have not disagreed with Rashi but added to Rashi. We posited that a simple Divine order would not cause the whole camp to stop. Rather Moses would have to communicate to them that a camping was ordered. Presumably at such a public pronouncement Moses prayed (as explicitly indicated in the Bible). The people then all knew there was a camping and camped. Undoubtedly Moses prayer and the communal gathering of so many thousands of people triggered off visions of the cloud of God's honor spreading over the whole camp.

We can summarize this as follows. The driving force of the Rashi is the two contradictory verses which must be resolved in two stages. Thus we know that a combination of God's order followed by Moses' praying caused the camping. I have given a plausible social account of these two stages. Rashi adds an important additional point to my reasonable social account (The point of confirmation by dreams and visions). In reviewing my interpretation or Rashi's it is important to emphasize that the focal point is the contradictory verses and their resolution in 2 stages.