Breishit: What came before? What's next?

(1) When God began to create heaven and earth—

(2) the earth being unformed and desolate, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water—

תהו ובהו UNFORMED AND DESOLATE — The word תהו signifies astonishment and amazement, for a person would have been astonished and amazed at its emptiness.

AND THE SPIRIT OF GOD. Ru’ach (wind) is in the construct with Elohim (God) because it was the medium employed by God to dry the land.

[HOVERED.] Merachefet (hovered) means “blowing above the waters.” As an eagle…Hovers (yerachef) over her young (Deut. 32:11), is similar.

[Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish interpreted] “And the spirit of God was hovering” – this is the spirit of the messianic king, as it says: “The spirit of the Lord will rest upon him” (Isaiah 11:2). By what merit will it [the Messianic kingdom] come? “Hovering over the surface of the water” – by the merit of repentance, that is likened to water, as it is stated: “Pour out your heart like water [before the face of the Lord]” (Lamentations 2:19).
Rabbi Ḥagai said in the name of Rabbi Pedat: A covenant is made with the water, that even when the weather is hot, the wind blows over it.

Rabbi Yona said in the name of Rabbi Levi: Why was the world created with the letter beit? [i.e. the beginning of the creation story begins with the letter ב] It is because just as the beit is closed on all [three of] its sides but open in its front, so, you may not ask: What is below, what is above, what was before, and what is after, but only from the day when the world created and onward. Bar Kapara said: “For ask now of the early days that were before you, from the day [that God created humanity upon the earth]” (Deuteronomy 4:32) – from the day they were created, you may inquire, but you may not inquire what was before that.