“All these matters, saying” – He does everything concurrently. He kills and revives concurrently. He strikes and heals concurrently. A woman on the birthing stool, seafarers, travelers in the wilderness, those incarcerated in prison, one in the east, one in the west, one in the north, and one in the south, He hears them all concurrently.
Likewise, it says: “I form light and create darkness” (Isaiah 45:7). Likewise, dust is transformed into a person and then transformed back into dust, as it is stated: “He transforms the shadow of death into morning” (Amos 5:8). What is “into morning”? As it was at the outset.
What does it say at the outset? “All the water that was in the Nile was transformed into blood” (Exodus 7:20), then the blood was restored to water. Living flesh was transformed into dead, and the dead was restored to living.7This was when Moses’s hand turned leprous and then healed (Exodus 4:6–7). The staff was transformed into a serpent, and the serpent was transformed back into a staff.8See, e.g., Exodus 4:2–4.
The sea was transformed into dry land, and the dry land was then transformed into sea. Likewise it says: “He calls for the waters of the sea…” (Amos 5:8). Likewise in speech, “Remember the Shabbat day to sanctify it” (Exodus 20:8), and it says: “On the Shabbat day two lambs of the first year” (Numbers 28:9).9He commanded Shabbat observance and concurrently commanded the sacrifice of offerings, which requires acts otherwise prohibited on Shabbat.
Speech, “You shall not reveal the nakedness of your brother’s wife” (Leviticus 18:16); “when brothers dwell together” (Deuteronomy 25:5).10This is the mitzva of levirate marriage with the widow of one’s childless brother. This mitzva constitutes an exception to the general prohibition to marry a woman who had been married to one’s brother. All were said concurrently. That is, “God spoke all these matters, saying.”