The passage starts with Rabbi Yudan ben Rabbi Ilai, who offers an interpretation of the verse mentioning the Tree of Life. He paints a picture of "sixty queens" – these aren't literal queens, mind you, but rather sixty groups of righteous souls. Imagine them gathered in the Garden of Eden, specifically beneath the Tree of Life, doing what? Engaging in Torah study, of course!
But what's truly astonishing is the sheer scale described. It's taught that the Tree of Life itself covers a walking distance of five hundred years! And not just the foliage, but, as Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Ilai clarifies, even the trunk stretches that far. Can you even wrap your head around that?
And the descriptions don't stop there. The text continues with increasingly vast measurements. We're told about runoff from a kor irrigating a tarkav. Now, a kor is an ancient measure of land, big enough to be seeded with one kor of seed—roughly 75,000 square cubits. A tarkav is much smaller, one-sixtieth of a kor. It's a way of illustrating the incredible abundance and scale of Eden.
The passage then launches into a geographical comparison. The runoff of Kush irrigates Egypt. Egypt, we're told, is a forty-day walk, measuring 400 by 400 parasangs (an ancient Persian unit of distance). And get this: Egypt is only one-sixtieth the size of Kush! Kush itself is a seven-year walk and a mere one-sixtieth of the whole world.
Still with me? Good, because here's where it gets really wild. The world is described as a five-hundred-year walk in both length and width. And even that immense area is just one four-hundredth the size of Gehenna – often translated as Hell! Based on these measurements, the walking distance of Gehenna would be two hundred thousand years! We thus find that the whole world in its entirety is like a pot cover for Gehenna.
Then comes the kicker: the world is one-sixtieth the size of Eden, and, crucially, Eden is described as being "beyond measure." Some suggest the text should read that Gehenna is one-sixtieth the size of Eden, but either way, the emphasis on the infinite scale of Eden is clear.
So, what about the folks who aren't under the Tree of Life? The passage mentions "eighty concubines," interpreted as sixty groups of "middling" people. They, too, are studying Torah, but outside the immediate presence of the Tree. And then there are the "young women without number," representing the countless disciples of wisdom.
A natural question arises: are these different groups in conflict? Are they arguing with each other? Not at all! The verse continues: "One is my faultless dove." The Midrash emphasizes their unity, stating that they all draw from the same source, the same halakha (Jewish law), the same verbal analogies, the same a fortiori arguments. They might be in different locations, at different levels, but they are all connected to the same core truth.
What does all of this tell us? It's more than just a series of fantastical geographical measurements. It's a symbolic representation of the vastness of the spiritual realm. The endless scale of Eden, compared to even the immense size of the world and Gehenna, reminds us of the infinite potential for growth and connection with the Divine. And the image of countless souls, all studying Torah and drawing from a single source, speaks to the underlying unity of all spiritual seekers. So, next time you picture the Garden of Eden, remember: it's bigger than you think!