English of Core Text: Alexander of Macedon asked the elders of the South: Were the heavens created first or the earth? They said to him: The heavens were created first, as it is written “et hashamayim ve’et ha’aretz.”
On the daf / in context: In the series of questions Alexander poses to the elders of the Negev, the order of creation is one of the topics. They answer from the sequence in our passuk. (They decline to answer a follow-up about light versus darkness, suspecting a question about what is above and below.)
Type of Learning: Custom (narrative sequence / order of words)What Is Learned: From the word order of the passuk one learns that heaven preceded earth in creation.