“The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, to the east; He placed there the man whom He had formed” (Genesis 2:8). “The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, to the east” – the school of Rabbi Yanai says: Why does it mention a full name1The Lord God, as opposed to within the creation narrative, which mentions only the name Elohim (God). regarding the planting of the garden? It is because from the beginning of its planting it requires forethought.2The full name of God indicates that He put in a great deal of planning, as it were, when planting the garden.
From the start, [even] before it emerges from its mother’s womb,3This is a metaphor, referring to the emergence of a stalk from its seed. a person must plan out which direction is appropriate for it.4Some trees fare better in a northern location, others in a southern; some require one type of soil, others a different type. Planning the location where a sapling will be placed is necessary even before the sapling is uprooted from its original place, as soon as the stalk begins to sprout.
That is what is written: “The trees of the Lord are sated, the cedars of Lebanon that He planted” (Psalms 104:16).5This verse is seen as a reference to the Garden of Eden. Rabbi Ḥanina said: They [the initial saplings] were as [tiny as] the antennae of grasshoppers when the Holy One blessed be He uprooted them and planted them in the Garden of Eden. “The trees of the Lord are sated…” – Rabbi Ḥanina said: They are sated with the lives that they live,6They live a long time. they are sated with the water that they need, they are sated in their planting.7Even cuttings that are taken from them and replanted elsewhere thrive and prosper.
Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The world was not worthy of using cedars [for secular buildings], as they were created solely for the purpose of the Temple. That is what is written: “The trees of the Lord are sated, the cedars of Lebanon that He planted.” And “Lebanon” is nothing other than the Temple, as it says: “That goodly mountain and the Lebanon” (Deuteronomy 3:25). Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: There are twenty-four species of cedar, but only seven are the highest quality of them all.
That is what is written: “I will put cedar [erez], shita,8The seven tree names in this verse cannot be identified with certainty, but the Midrash considers them all to be of the cedar family. [hadas and etz shemen in the wilderness; I will place in the desert berosh, tidhar and te’ashur together]” (Isaiah 41:19). Berosh – berata, tidhar – adera, te’ashur – paksinon.9These are their Aramaic translations.
Why is it called te’ashur? It is because it is the most praiseworthy [me’ushar] of them all. They [subsequently] added three more to the list: Alonim, armonim, and almugim, Alonim – balutin, armonim – dalbon, almugim – alvam.10These, too, are Aramaic translations of the Hebrew tree names.