Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai taught: From where is it derived that a person should not say [when consecrating an offering]: ‘To the Lord, a burnt offering,’ ‘To the Lord, a meal offering,’ ‘To the Lord, a peace offering,’ but rather: ‘A burnt offering to the Lord,’ ‘A meal offering to the Lord,’ ‘A peace offering to the Lord’?49As a precaution, one should not say “to the Lord” before stating the offering in question, to avoid a situation where one might say “to the Lord” and fail to complete the statement.
As the verse states: “An offering to the Lord” (Leviticus 1:2).50This is another explanation as to why the first verse of the Torah mentions God’s name only as the third word. A lesson can be derived from this by a fortiori: If, even of one who is about to consecrate something, the Torah says: Let the name of Heaven not be desecrated through the sacrifice; then those who curse, blaspheme, and engage in idol worship,51Engaging in actual desecration of God’s name. all the more so that they will be eradicated from the world.
The Rabbis say: When a flesh-and-blood person builds a building, if the building process goes well, he makes it broad on top, but if not, he must make it broader on the bottom and narrower at the top.52If he sees that the foundations are not so sturdy, or the building materials are inferior, he must make the building narrower as it rises, for structural integrity. But the Holy One blessed be He is not so, but rather “[God created] the heavens”53With the definite article, alluding to an item that is already known. – those heavens that He had previously planned; “and the earth” – that earth that he had previously planned.
Rav Huna said in the name of Rabbi Eliezer son of Rabbi Yosei HaGelili: Even those things, about which it is written: “For, behold, I am creating new heavens [and a new earth]” (Isaiah 65:17), [they] were already created since the six days of Creation. That is what is written: “For just as the new heavens and the new earth” (Isaiah 66:22); “[new heavens] and a new earth” is not written here, but rather, “the new [heavens and the new earth].”54The addition of the definite article indicates that it refers to earth and heavens that are previously known.