Another interpretation: “Concerning Pharaoh king of Egypt” – Rabbi Levi said: This is analogous to a king who had an orchard and he planted non-fruit-bearing trees and fruit trees in it. His servants said to him: ‘What pleasure do you get from these non-fruit-bearing trees?’ He said to them: ‘Just as I need fruit trees, so too I need the non-fruit-bearing trees, as were it not for the non-fruit-bearing trees, with what would I make bathhouses and furnaces?’
That is why it says: “Concerning the children of Israel and concerning Pharaoh” – just as the praise of the Holy One blessed be He rises to Him from the Garden of Eden from the mouths of the righteous, so too it rises from Gehenna from the mouths of the wicked, as it is stated: “They pass through a valley of tears,1This is a reference to Gehenna. they render it a place of springs” (Psalms 84:7). What is “they render it a place of springs”?
They shed tears like springs until they cool Gehenna with their tears. The praise rises from there, as it is stated: “Blessings cover the early rain [moreh]” (Psalms 84:7).2The reference is to God who is the Teacher [moreh] of all creatures. What do they say? Rabbi Yoḥanan said: You have said well, You have judged well, You have purified well, You have impurified well, You have condemned well, You have taught well, and You have ruled well.
The Garden of Eden is destined to shout and say: Give me the righteous, I have no interest in the wicked, as it is stated: “I hate those who regard empty folly” (Psalms 31:7). Whom do I seek? Those who trusted in Your name, as it is stated: “But I trust in the Lord” (Psalms 31:7). Gehenna is destined to shout and say: I have no interest in the righteous.
Whom do I seek? The wicked: “Empty folly,” those who engage in folly. The Holy One blessed be He says: ‘Give this one the righteous and this one the wicked,’ as it is stated: “The leech has two daughters” (Proverbs 30:15).3This represents the grave and the two paths emanating from it, the Garden of Eden and Gehenna.