I'm having a hard time understanding the Machlokes between R' yehoshua and R' Eleiezer regarding what month the world was created in- specificacly with respect to the proofs that they each use. Was there such a thing as "rainy season" or "mating season" for animals when the world was created? There was nothing. the world was Tohu Vavohu.
Even if those seasons did exist, was Hashems ability to creat ethe world predicated on the fact that it was the proper season to do so?
Hash-m could create the world in any month or any season. ho wdoes the fact taht the world was created with ripened fruit or unripened fruit or vegatation etc. prove that the world was created in a partcular month or season?
As a possible proof o fthsi point- the artscroll quote sa question (I forget who asks it)on r' yehoshua. They ask- if the world was cretae din Nisan ata time when the fruits had not yet formed- how was it that Adam ate from the Etz Hadaas? the answer given is that Gan Eden was different from teh rest o fthe world.
the bottom line to me is that how does the fact that the world was created ina particular way- no matter which opinion you hol dlike - prove which month the world was create din?
ari, USA
The answer is that when Hash-m created the world, it functioned in the normal, natural way to which we are accustomed now, right from the very start. Rebbi Yehoshua ben Levi states in the Gemara here that all the works of creation "b'Komasan Nivre'u." Rashi (DH b'Komasan) explains that fruit trees were created in a way such that they were capable of bearing fruit immediately. Rashi later (26a, DH Shor) writes that the ox was created fully-grown. In the same way, immediately when the world was created the seasons operated exactly as they do nowadays.
Certainly Hash-m is capable of creating the world exactly how He wants to, so the dispute between Rebbi Yehoshua and Rebbi Eliezer is not about when Hash-m was capable of creating the world, but rather about when He actually did this. Each one cites proofs from what the world was like at the time it was created, to try and decide what month it must have been at that time.
Kol Tuv,
Dovid Bloom