The Hosts of Heaven and Earth Completed in Their Courses

Another interpretation: "vayechulu" [were finished] is nothing other than a term of striking and destruction. This is like a king who entered a province and they praised him; he reduced their running about and increased their honors for them. So too there is a constellation that completes its course in twelve months, namely the sun, and so the planet Mercury; and there is one that takes twelve years, namely Jupiter; there is a constellation that takes thirty days, namely the moon; and there is one that takes thirty years, namely Saturn, except for the planet Venus and Mars, which complete their course in four hundred and thirty years. The white figs, their seventh-year cycle falls in the second year, for they bear fruit over three years, and on that day they made the fruit of their own day. But in the time to come the Holy One, blessed be He, will heal that wound, as it is said, "and He heals the wound of His blow" (Isaiah 30:26), the wound of the world. Rabbi Yehoshua said: The heavens were completed with the sun and moon and constellations, and the earth was completed with trees and grasses, and the Garden of Eden.