As we read through the creation account each fall, we come accustomed to the familiar refrain of “it is good.” We see that phrase six times in Genesis 1… but where do we not see it? In the account of Day 2, i.e. Monday, the refrain is missing. Could it be that the comic strip cat Garfield was on to something in his disdain for Mondays?
Let’s tick through the events of that first Monday. [1]
- verse 6: God said: Let there be a dome amid the waters, and let it separate waters from waters!
- verse 7: God made the dome and separated the waters that were below the dome from the waters that were above the dome. It was so.
- verse 8: God called the dome: Heaven! There was setting, there was dawning: second day.
No “it is good” (כִּי־טוֹב). Why would it be missing from this one day? Every other day gets an accolade. The word translated “good” (טוֹב) actually comes closer in meaning to “functioning as intended.” Everything in creation has a function. It was designed for at least one specific purpose. That is the meaning of the כִּי־טוֹב refrain: the G-d of order created a form that has function in maintaining order in the world He created. [2]
In order for the רָקִ֖יעַ/firmament (Monday’s creation) to really serve a function, it had to do more than divide the waters and the skies. It would need to wait a day for its creation to be declared טוֹב (the word translated “good”). So, if you dread Mondays, perhaps you are just more in tune with the Creator than you ever realized. 😉
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- Due to the translator’s skill for preserving both the meaning and the rhythm of the Hebrew Vorlage, the Genesis passage as it appears here is quoted from Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses (Schocken Bible vol. 1; New York: Schocken Books, 1995; orig. 1983), 13.
- For more on this concept, see Shay Karlinsky, “Maharal — Chapter 1: Mishna 2, Part 1,” Torah.org. Online: www.torah.org/learning/maharal/p1m2part1.html
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