Ecclesiastics: The World Abides Forever

Quotables: Wild Judaism

One generation goes, another comes,
but the earth abides forever (Ecclesiastes 1:4)

Rabbi Judah ben Korchah said:
One could argue that the verse should have read, 
“The earth goes and the earth comes, 
and the generation abides forever”--
because which was created for the sake of which?
The earth was created for the sake of a generation!*
But a generation doesn’t abide by God’s commands--
hence it decays;
whereas the earth abides by God’s commands--
hence it does not decay.

​*i.e., for the sake of human beings

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