Talmud zu Tehillim 1:3

Is has been stated: The Tree of Life is wide a parcourse of 500 years. Rebbi Yehudah ben Rebbi Ilaï⁷⁸He is Rebbi Yehudah quoted in both Talmudim without his father’s name. said: not only its crown but even its stem.All the splitting of primeval waters splits under it since (Ps. 1:3) “He shall be like a tree planted on split waters⁷⁹Taken as an allusion to paradise. It is clear from the text that the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life are not earthly creations..” It has been stated: The Tree of Life is one sixtieth of the Garden. (Gen. 2:10) “And a river originated in Eden to irrigate the Garden.” The remainder of a kur is a triple qab, a sixtieth⁸⁰From here on there is a parallel in Babli Taänit 10a. Rashi explains there that with what remains in watering vessels used for a kur of grain one can still irrigate three qab. (A kur is 180 qab.). The remainder of Africa is Egypt, a sixtieth. We find that it is said that Egypt can be traversed in 40 days⁸¹Egypt is defined as the country between the Mediterranean and Aswan (Syene). The distance was determined by the Alexandrian astronomer Eratosthenes to be approximately 5000 stadia. The length of the Greek stadion is no better defined than the Jewish mil. The distance is in the order of magnitude of 1000 km or about 650 miles.. Black Africa can be traversed in slightly more than seven years⁸²All commentators are at a loss here since it should say “slightly less than seven years” (2400 days) but there is no manuscript evidence for such a reading.. But the teachers say [the sky is determined] by the days of the patriarchs (Deut. 11:21) “like the days of the sky over the earth.”⁸³The full verse reads: “that your days and the days of your descendants should increase on the Land that the Eternal had sworn to your forefathers to give to them, like the days of the sky over the earth.” The days of the forefathers were 175 years for Abraham, 180 for Isaac, and 147 for Jacob, together 502 years. The time when Abraham recognized God as the Creator is a matter of controversy in midrashic sources; our source here seems to side with the opinion that Abraham recognized the futility of idol worship at age 3; then his years as the Lord’s servant were 173 and the sum is 500. And just as the sky over the earth is at a distance of a way of 500 years so between one sky and the next is a way of 500 years and its thickness is a way of 500 years. Why did you see fit to say the thickness of the sky is a way of 500 years?⁸⁴I.e., to take the part of R. Yehudah against the anonymous Sages who had earlier defined the thickness of the sky as the equivalent of 50 years. The question remains unanswered. Rebbi Abun said⁸⁵This section is given in greater detail in Bereshit rabba 4(1). There we read: “The rabbis say in the names of R. Ḥanina, R. Pinḥas, R. Jacob bar Abun, in the name of R. Shemuel bar Naḥman: When the Holy One, praise to Him, said: ‘there should be a spread’, the middle drop jelled and separated upper and lower waters.” After that the opinion of Rav is quoted.
The opinion of R. Yehudah ben Pazi is given there by R. Yehudah bar Simon (the full name is R. Yehudah ben R. Simon ben Pazi where either “ben Pazi” is a family name or Pazi is one of R. Ḥiyya’s twin daughters, Pazi and Martha). So possibly R. Abun here is the father of R. Jacob bar Abun in the second generation of Amoraïm and not the late R. Abun. (Gen. 1:6): “There shall exist a spread-sky within the water.” The spread-sky shall be in the middle. Rav said: the sky was wet on the first day and jelled on the second day. Rav said: “There shall exist a spread-sky”: the sky shall strengthen, the sky shall jell, the sky shall solidify, the sky shall be spread. Rebbi Yehudah ben Pazi said: The sky (רקיע) shall be made like a piece of cloth, just as it is said (Ex. 39:3) “They stretched (וירקעו) out the gold sheets.”

Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa would say: Anyone whose fear of sin precedes his wisdom, his wisdom will endure, as it says (Psalms 111:10), “The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Eternal.” He would also say: Anyone whose actions are greater [than his wisdom, his wisdom will endure], as it says (Exodus 24:7), “We will do, and then we will understand.”
They asked Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai: A wise person who fears sin – what is he like? He replied: Like a craftsman with his tool in hand. Then they asked: A wise person who does not fear sin – what is he like? He replied: Like a craftsman who does not have his tool in hand. Then they asked: A person who fears sin but is not wise – what is he like? He replied: Like someone who does not know the craft, but has a tool in his hand.
Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah would say: If there is no Torah, there is no common decency. [If there is no common decency, there is no Torah.] He would also say: A person who has done good deeds, and has learned a lot of Torah – what is he like? Like a tree that stands near the water, whose branches are small, but whose roots are so strong that even if the four winds of the world all came and blew at it, it could not be moved from its place, as it says (Psalms 1:3), “He is like a tree planted by (streams of) water.” But a person who has not done good deeds and studies Torah, what is he like? Like a tree that stands in the desert, with small branches and small roots, and when a wind comes and blows at it, it uproots it and flips it over on its top, as it says (Jeremiah 17:6), “You will be like a bush in the desert.”
Rabban Gamliel would say: Make for yourself a teacher. Acquire for yourself a friend. A teacher for wisdom and a friend to study with. Remove yourself from all doubts, and do not get used to tithing by estimation.