Midrash sobre Eclesiastes 1:10

Similarly, when the representative of the community held the Kiddush or Havdalah cup in his hand he would say: “Have you agreed, what is your decision?”⁵A expression meaning: “Have you agreed to allow me to recite this prayer?” See Jastrow. And the congregation would respond: “To life”; that is to say, May this cup be for the living. R. Levi discussed the words Tabernacle of testimony. It is written elsewhere: For the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped (Ps. 63:12), that is to say, the mouths of the peoples of the world, who say to Israel that the Shekhinah will never return to Israel, should be stopped, as it is said: Many there are that say of My soul: “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah (Ps. 3:3). Before they built the golden calf, the Holy One, blessed be He, dwelt among them, but when He became angry at them they would say: “He will never return to them.” What did He do? He said: Let them make Me a Sanctuary that I may dwell among them (Exod. 25:8). Then all the inhabitants of the world will know that I have pardoned Israel. Therefore it is written; The Tabernacle of the testimony. It hath already been⁶Indicating that what was to follow had already been written. (Eccles. 1:10).

Another explanation of It hath been already (Eccles. 1:10). It is written: The Lord by wisdom founded the earth (Prov. 3:19) and also: I have filled him with the spirit of wisdom (Exod. 31:3). This teaches us that the Tabernacle was equal both to all the world and to a human embryo, which is a world in miniature.⁷Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews 5:75, n. 20. How is that so? When the Holy One, blessed be He, created His world, He did so just as a child is born to a woman. A child starts to grow at the navel and then develops in all directions, and the Holy One, blessed be He, began the creation of His world at the foundation stone, and built the world upon it. Why was it called a foundation stone? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, began the creation of His world upon it. Then He created the celestial Temple, as it is said: The place, O Lord, which Thou hast made to dwell in (Exod. 15:14). Do not read the word as makom (“foundation”), but as mekuvan (“exactly opposite”). Your dwelling place above is directly opposite Your dwelling place below. The formation of the embryo is like the formation of the world, for just as the embryo is formed in the womb of its mother, so too the world was formed at the foundation stone.

R. Johanan asked: Why is it written: Who doeth great things past finding; yea, marvelous things without number (Job 9:10)? You should know that every soul, from Adam to the end of the world, was formed during the six days of creation, and that all of them were present in the Garden of Eden and at the time of the giving of the Torah, as it is said: With him that standeth here with us this day, and also with him that is not here with us this day (Deut. 29:14). What is the meaning of Great things past finding out? It refers to the great deeds the Holy One, blessed be He, did in the formation of the embryo. At the time that a man is about to have intercourse with his wife, the Holy One, blessed be He, informs the angel in charge of conception, whose name is Lailah.⁸Lailah’s role is described in Niddah 16b and Sanhedrin 6a.

The Holy One, blessed be He, says to her: Know that on this night a person will be formed from the semen of a certain individual known to you. Guard this drop of semen, take it into the palm of your hand, and sow it on the threshing floor, in three hundred and sixty-five parts. And she would do so. She took it into her hand and brought it at once to Him who had said It hath been already (Eccles. 1:10) and said to Him: “I have done all that You have commanded. Here is the drop, what have You decreed concerning it?” The Holy One, blessed be He, forthwith decreed concerning the semen what its end would be, whether male or female, weak or strong, poor or rich, short or tall, ugly or handsome, heavy or thin, humble or haughty. He decreed concerning everything that would happen to it except whether it would be righteous or wicked.⁹Ketubbot 30a. That choice alone he left to the individual, as it is said: See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil (Deut. 30:15).

The first half of Buber’s edition, Genesis and Exodus, differs to a considerable degree from our text. The second half of Buber’s edition, the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, which are included in the third volume, is in part similar to our text, except that our Midrash contains additional sections, under a heading adopted from Ecclesiastes 1:10, “It hath been already,” indicating earlier sources not utilized by the compiler of the Buber Tanhuma. We find, as well, passages in our Midrash attributed to the Mekhilta of R. Ishmael, a tannaitic Midrash compiled prior to 200 C.E., that are not contained in Buber’s edition.