Parashat Ki Tavo Haftarah: Isaiah 60:1-22 R.Robyn Ashworth-Steen

(7) Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon said: “It will be evening” is not written here, but rather, “it was evening” – from here we learn that there had been an order to time even beforehand.17Even before the creation on the fourth day of the sun and the moon, which are the conventional means of marking time. “It will be evening” would have meant that on the first few days, it was noted that later on there would be evening and morning.
Rabbi Abahu said: This teaches that He continuously created worlds and destroyed them, until He created the current one, and said: ‘This one pleases Me, those did not please Me.’ Rabbi Pinḥas said: The source for Rabbi Abahu is: “God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31) – this pleases Me, those did not please Me.18“Behold” implies that there was a new, improved situation that had not been there before.

The Gemara asks: From where does this river flow? The Gemara answers: From the perspiration of the divine creatures. And where does it flow to? Rav Zutra bar Toviya said that Rav said: Upon the heads of the wicked in Gehenna, as it is stated: “Behold, a storm of the Lord has gone forth in fury, a whirling storm; it shall whirl upon the head of the wicked” (Jeremiah 23:19). And Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov said: The river flows over those who were snatched away, i.e., the generations that were never created, as it is stated: “Who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream” (Job 22:16), implying that the River Dinur flows over them. It is taught in a baraita: Rabbi Shimon HeḤasid said in explanation of this verse: These people “who were snatched away” are those nine hundred and seventy-four generations that were snatched away; they were to have been created

(1) “See the work of God, for who can mend what He has warped?” (Ecclesiastes 7:13)
“See the work of God, for who can mend what He has warped?” When the Holy One blessed be He created Adam the first man, He took him and showed him all the trees in the Garden of Eden, and He said to him: ‘See My creations, how beautiful and exemplary they are. Everything I created, I created for you. Make certain that you do not ruin and destroy My world, as if you destroy it, there will be no one to mend it after you. Moreover, you will cause death to that righteous one.’108Moses. To what is the matter of [the death of] Moses our master analogous? [It is analogous] to a pregnant woman who was incarcerated in prison. She gave birth to a son, raised him, and she died there. Sometime later the king passed the entrance of the prison. As the king was passing, that son began screaming and he said: ‘My lord the king, I was born here, I grew up here; I do not know due to what sin am I placed here.’ [The king] said to him: ‘Due to your mother’s sin.’ So too regarding Moses, as it is written: “Behold, the man has become like one [of us]” (Genesis 3:22). And it is written: “Behold, your days are drawing near to die” (Deuteronomy 31:14).109The verse in Genesis was stated by God in explaining His removal of Adam from the Garden of Eden following his sin. The verbal analogy to the verse in Deuteronomy, which relates to Moses’s death, indicates that Moses died only due to the fact that death was decreed upon all people following the sin of Adam.