“A garden in Eden” – Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yosei, Rabbi Yehuda says: The garden is larger than Eden, as it is stated: “All the trees of Eden that were in God’s garden envied it” (Ezekiel 31:9), [and it is stated: “You were in Eden, of God’s garden” (Ezekiel 28:13)].11The implication in both verses is that the place called Eden is located within the Garden. Rabbi Yosei says: Eden is larger than the garden, as it is stated: “The Lord God planted a garden in Eden.”12Indicating that the garden is located within Eden.
It is written: “A river emerges from Eden to water the garden” (Genesis 2:10). According to the opinion of Rabbi Yosei, [this means that] from the runoff of a beit kor, a tarkav could be watered.13Tarkav and beit kor are units of area, tarkav being one-sixtieth of a beit kor. The verse is saying that the smaller garden was watered by the runoff from the much larger Eden. According to the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda, it is like a spring that is situated in [the middle of] the garden and waters the entire garden.
But Rabbi Yehuda adduces two verses, whereas Rabbi Yosei adduces only one verse. Rabbi Ḥanin of Tzippori said: The Holy One blessed be He illuminated the eyes of Rabbi Yosei and he found another verse that was decisive in addition to the first. Which is that? “He will render its wilderness like Eden and its desert like the garden of the Lord” (Isaiah 51:3).14It likens Eden to the wilderness of the Land of Israel, which is larger than its desert to which Eden is likened.