תּלמוד אויף תהילים 1:3

The statement of Rebbi Ḥanina⁷⁴Here the argument returns to the prior statement of R. Ḥanina, that the twilight at dawn is the time to walk four mil. In the Leyden ms. and the prints, the reference here is to R. Ḥiyya; the correct reading is in the Rome ms. and the commentary of R. Eleazar Askari. is parallel to that of Rebbi Yehudah since it was stated in the name of Rebbi Yehudah: the thickness of the sky is a walk of 50 years⁷⁵In the parallel version of this argument in the Babli, Rebbi Yehudah is quoted only as saying that the thickness of the sky, the distance the sun covers between the start and the end of dawn, is one-tenth of the entire day (from beginning of dawn to end of dusk). In the next section and in the parallel Bereshit rabba 6(9), it is asserted that the entire sky represents a distance of 500 years and that between each sky and the next there is a distance measured by 500 years. It is not clear how the “distance of 500 years” is meant to be computed.. An average person walks 40 mil during a day⁷⁶A mil is 2000 cubits. Therefore, the exact length of a mil depends on the length of a cubit. Based on a length of 55 cm for a cubit, the mil would be 1100 meters. The Roman mile was 1473.2 m. A mil of 1100 m would give a daily trip of 27.34 English miles. Determination of the mil by modern Rabbinic authorities vary from 960m (Rav Naeh) to 1152m (Ḥazon Ish) and 1296m (Ḥatam Sopher). In the Babli Pesaḥim 94a, Rava quotes a tradition that the circumference of the earth is 6000 parasangs or 24’000 mil. It is not clear at which latitude this length is computed. Based on a Greek παρασάγγης of 5.523 km, the computed 33’078 km would fit well with the circumference of the earth at about the latitude of Jerusalem or Southern Babylonia. The corresponding mil would be 1380 m.. Until the sun breaks through in the sky it passes the distance of 50 years; during that time a man can walk four mil. If follows that the thickness of the sky is one tenth [of the path of the sun] in one day. And just as the thickness of the sky is a walk of 50 years so the thickness of the earth and that of the abyss is a walk of 50 years⁷⁷The abyss being below the mantle of Earth.. What is the reason? (Is. 40:22) “He Who thrones over the circle of the earth,” and it is written (Job 22:14): “He passes by the circle of the sky.” And it is written (Prov. 8:27) “When He carved out a circle on the face of the abyss.” “Circle” (חוּג) always has the same meaning.

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.