Another matter, “this is the book of the descendants of Adam,” it is written: “For I [God] will not contend forever” (Isaiah 57:16) – with Adam the first man; “and I will not be eternally angry” (Isaiah 57:16) – with his descendants. “For the wind will be faint [yaatof] before Me” (Isaiah 57:16), Rabbi Huna said: This wind, when it goes out into the world it seeks to destroy the world, but the Holy One blessed be He weakens it on the mountains, breaks it on the hills, and says to it: ‘Take care that you do not harm My creations!’6This is alluded to in the concluding words of the Isaiah verse (57:16): “And the souls that I have created.”
What is the source? “For the wind will be faint [yaatof] before Me.” What is yaatof? It means that He wears it down, as it says: “When my soul was worn down [behitatef] within me, I remembered the Lord” (Jonah 2:8).
Rabbi Huna said: There were three winds that, because they emerged untamed, the world was almost destroyed by them. They were: one in the days of Jonah, one in the days of Job, and one in the days of Elijah. Rabbi Yudan ben Rabbi Yishmael said: Jonah’s [wind] was on that ship [alone], as it is stated: “But the Lord cast a great wind upon the sea” (Jonah 1:4). Job’s was on that house [alone], as it is stated: “And behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness, [and it struck the four corners of the house]” (Job 1:19).
You have only Elijah’s that was worldwide, as it is stated: “And behold, the Lord was passing, and there was a great and powerful wind, smashing mountains and shattering rocks” (I Kings 19:11). Rabbi Tanḥum bar Ḥiyya, and some say it in the name of the Rabbis: The messianic king will not come7This is a new interpretation of ruaḥ not as “wind,” but as “the spirit [of the Messiah].” It will not go forth (yaatof) from before God until the depletion of “the souls that I have created.” until all the souls that entered God’s mind to be created are created, and those are the souls stated in the book of Adam.