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    Tuesday is twice as good – B’reshit

    TuesdayWe get used to it: at the end of a section of the creation story God says what He has done is good (ki tov).

    But there are two puzzling features. Tuesday gets a double ki tov – and Friday gets none!

    Because Tuesday seems specially favoured, tradition regards it as a very good day for weddings – a ki tov for the bridegroom and a ki tov for the bride.

    It’s a beautiful notion, but to be strictly correct the first ki tov on Tuesday really refers to the completion of work began on Monday, and only the second ki tov refers to Tuesday itself.

    The bigger problem is Friday. The very day on which man is created – man, the pinnacle of the whole creation – gets no accolade! Is he less valuable than the birds and the bees?

    There must be a reason why the Divine judgment is apparently reserved. In fact there are at least three reasons:

    1. Man is not a finished creation. He must work on himself and constantly grow. Edmond Fleg says, “I am a Jew, because for Israel man is not yet created: men are creating him”.

    2. Man’s tov, his “good”, is in his own hands. It is his glory to have the free will to choose his own blessing. As the Rambam declares, “The Creator does not decree that a person shall be either good or evil” (Hilchot T’shuvah 5:10-2).

    3. Man is not yet complete without woman. “It is not good (tov) for man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18); the sages say, “He who lives without a wife lives without goodness (tovah)” (Talmud Y’vamot 62b).

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