by Rabbi Koval
As a mohel,
I've noticed an interesting trend over the years: quite often, when I'm
privileged to perform two Brisses on the same day, in spite of the only
1-in-7 odds, that day often ends up being a Tuesday. This week was no
exception, with two Brisses on Tuesday morning!
Not a big believer in coincidences, the following "Torah as the Blueprint for Reality" lesson called my name: (Warning: It's pretty Talmudically technical!)
The Torah describes the details of creation, with 1 or 2 categories created each of the 7 days:
Day 1 - light.
Day 2 - the "division of the upper and lower waters," i.e., the atmosphere.
Day 3 - dry land.
Day 4 - the luminaries (sun, moon, stars).
Day 5 - birds and fish.
Day 6 - animals and people.
Day 7/Shabbat - rest and spirituality.
It's
interesting to note that after the creation of each day the Torah signs
off by saying, "and it was good," with one exception: day 2. There it
does not conclude with the "and it was good" signature. Explains the
Talmud, because on day 2 there was "division," teaching us an important
lesson, that when we, human beings are divided, it's not good.
However,
in order to compensate for the omission, the Torah repeats the phrase,
"and it was good" a second time on day 3. Hence, the Talmudic statement
that day 3 (Tuesday) has an added dimension of "goodness and blessing,"
because the Torah doubles the "goodness" in the creation narrative.
The Talmud concludes by teaching us to try and schedule events on
Tuesdays, because there is an extra dosage of goodness and blessing in
the air! There actually are some people who are familiar with this
Talmudic teaching and attempt to schedule weddings and the like on
Tuesdays for this reason, and even include this Talmudic passage on the
wedding invitation! (This could make a great commercial for Double Mint
chewing gum.)
Still following? Good, here comes part two:
In
the beginning of the book of Shemot (book II) the Torah uses a very
similar expression to describe the birth of Moses: "She (his mother)
saw that he was good." Sound like a stereotypical Jewish mom? What
does this cryptic phrase mean in this context? The Midrash offers an
explanation: Moshe was born circumcised, and this is the rarefied form
of spiritual goodness that the Torah refers to.
Still with me? Great, here comes the final and final part that connects everything!
There is a mystical teaching that when a word appears in the Torah, especially for the first time, it is the ultimate spiritual definition of the term. That means that when the word "good," or in Hebrew, "tov," appears in the Torah, it is somehow connected to that first reference to "good"/"tov."
So,
if Tuesday has double-goodness (Book I), and "good/tov" refers to a
Bris (Book II), it's no wonder that Tuesday is often the double-Bris
winner!!
