Comp. Tosafot Berakot 55b, caption ממרא; Enoch 32; vol. III, p. 161.
34 Konen 28–31; Baba Batra 25a; vol. III, pp. 160, 232.
35 Gittin 31b. On the winds comp. Hirschensohn, Sheba' Hokmot, 8–11; Derenbourg, Monatsschrift, XXX, 173–174. Comp. vol. III, p. 282.
36 Gittin 31b; Konen 31. An interesting parallel to 2 Enoch 40.11, concerning the stilling of the wind in order that the world should not be destroyed, is found in BR 24.4 (comp. the parallel passages cited by Theodor).
37 37 PRE 3; Tehillim 2, 16. Comp. likewise Baba Batra 25b.
38 This is the usual transliteration, whereas Shetiyyah is the only permissible form, if it is to be derived from שתי.
39 Tan. B. III, 78; Tan. Kedoshim 10. We are here confronted with a legend which is composed of various elements. Palestine, God's favorite land, was created before all other parts of the world; Sifre D., 37; Mekilta RS, 168; Ta'anit 10a; Sibyl. 5.300. Comp. likewise Excursus I. Instead of Palestine in general, Jerusalem (Yoma 54b; Tehillim 50, 279; Targum Ps. 50.2), or the site of the temple (comp. the following note) is designated as the beginning of creation. The widespread popular notion that the earth came into being as a result of a stone which God had thrown into the water (comp. Dähnhardt, Natursagen, I, 4, and see further the remarks on water as the primeval first element in Excursus I) was subsequently brought into relation with the view that creation began with the site of the temple; hence the legend that creation began with the stone found in the holy of holies; see Tosefta Yoma 4.6; comp. also Babli 54b (ר׳ יצחק נפחא, in view of Tosefta 'Erubin 7.18, against Rabbinovicz, is to be retained); Yerushalmi 5, 42b; Tan., loc. cit., and parallel passages. Independent of, and partly contradictory, to this view is the opinion which maintains that Palestine is situated in the centre of the earth; Jub. 8.12; Enoch 26.1 (according to 90.20, Gehenna is likewise located in the centre of the earth, because an entrance thereof is found in Jerusalem, the centre of Palestine; see 'Erubin 19a; Preuschen, Adamschriften, 27, which is not anti-Jewish); PR 10, 34a, and many of the parallel passages in later Midrashim, cited by Friedmann (Yoma, loc. cit., on the contrary, distinguishes between the centre of the earth and Jerusalem), to which many more may be added; comp. e.g. Seder Rabba di-Bereshit 4; Zohar II, 151a; III, 161b and 221b. Jerusalem is already mentioned in Aristeas, 83 as
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