Study Taanit folio 10A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
verse deals with the creation of the world, when all the water was contained in the deep.
A baraita states: Eretz Yisrael was created first and the rest of the entire world was created afterward, as it is stated: “While as yet He had not made the land, nor the fields” (Proverbs 8:26). Here, and in the following statements, the term “land” is understood as a reference to the Land of Israe
Additionally, Eretz Yisrael drinks rainwater and the rest of the entire world drinks from the remaining residue of rainwater left in the clouds, as it is stated that God is He “who gives rain upon the land” and only afterward takes what is left “and sends water upon the fields.” Eretz Yisrael drinks
The Master said above: The ocean waters are sweetened in the clouds. The Talmud asks: From where does R' Eliezer derive this? The Talmud answers that Rav Yitzḥak bar Yosef said that R' Yoḥanan said that it is written: “Darkness [ḥeshkhat] of waters, thick clouds of the skies” (Psalms 18:12). And i
The Talmud explains the significance of this minor variation. These two phrases vary in only one word, which themselves differ by only one letter, a kaf for a reish. If you join the two versions together, and take the letter kaf from the first version and place it with the second version of the word