Everyone in life want to be \u201cgood.\u201d Whether it be a good husband, a good wife, a good\u00a0shidduch<\/i>\u00a0or simply a good person. Good in Hebrew is\u00a0tov<\/i>\u00a0with the\u00a0gematria<\/i>\u00a0being 17. What\u2019s good about 17?<\/p>\n
Firstly, the Mishna in Avot declares that 18 is the time for\u00a0chuppah<\/i>. That is because at 18 desires reach their peak. Therefore, up until 18 is a time symbolic of purity, of good and pristine years. Secondly, for 17 years Yosef received a pure transmission of the Torah from Yaakov, and Yaakov was the \u201cchosen\u201d of the Avot. This was a time of great purity, a block of good years. Thereafter came his sale and the ultimate bondage in Egypt.<\/p>\n
How do we return ourselves to a state of purity and goodness to match these two 17\u2019s? Pesach is that opportune time and matzah is the symbol of it in two ways. Matzah announces not to push things off, but to take care of them immediately, just as the dough didn\u2019t have time to rise when we left Egypt. It proclaims: don\u2019t allow the evil inclination to persuade you not to be alert, proactive and purely engaged at all times in commandments and good deeds. Also, matzah, which must not rise, declares: don\u2019t rise in arrogance, anger and improper desire, but stay low, simple and pure.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s purity that David wanted as he beseeched G-d in Psalms (51:12), \u201cFashion a pure heart for me, O G-d; create in me a steadfast spirit.\u201d Pure which translates to be\u00a0tahor\u00a0<\/i>in Hebrew begins with the letter\u00a0tet<\/i>, the first letter of the word\u00a0tov<\/i>, as they are synonymously linked. Also, the letter\u00a0tet\u00a0<\/i>has a\u00a0gematria\u00a0<\/i>of nine, tantamount to the\u00a0tisha yarchei leida<\/i>\u00a0we mention in the Seder, symbolic of the womb, the purest of atmospheres for the child to be fed Torah.<\/p>\n
Tov<\/i>\u00a0can be explored further. Using two verses together, we are given an allusion to the fact that\u00a0tov<\/i>\u00a0implies total purity. In the first place, the Creator Himself testified about many of his creations using the term \u201ctov<\/i>.\u201d When the Almighty who is perfection uses a positive reference to describe something, it\u2019s fair to say that it\u2019s good in all facets. Additionally, a second verse supports this notion that\u00a0tov<\/i>\u00a0must be absolute. Borrowing an idea from my late relative, Rav Avrohom Genechovsky, zt\u201dl , perhaps it may be said, on the words of Shlomo, in the verse (Proverbs 31:12, \u201cShe delivers him good and not bad,\u201d that good means \u201ctotal\u201d goodness with no scintilla of bad. This is hinted to by the redundancy itself in the verse. For if something is good, by definition it\u2019s not bad. The message is that\u00a0tov<\/i>\u00a0unequivocally connotes goodness that has no scintilla of badness attached to it. Though my late relative, Rav Avrohom zt\u201dl, was making the equation regarding Torah, that it\u2019s purely good with no deficiency, one can attempt to extrapolate that the word\u00a0tov<\/i>\u00a0itself has no\u00a0rah\u00a0<\/i>in it.<\/p>\n
Tahor<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0tov\u00a0<\/i>stand for the same principle and represent what we can attain on Pesach if we take the message of matzah: purity and goodness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Everyone in life want to be \u201cgood.\u201d Whether it be a good husband, a good wife, a good\u00a0shidduch\u00a0or simply a good person. Good in Hebrew is\u00a0tov\u00a0with the\u00a0gematria\u00a0being 17. What\u2019s good about 17? Firstly, the Mishna in Avot declares that 18 is the time for\u00a0chuppah. That is because at 18 desires reach their peak. Therefore, up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133844,"featured_media":51087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[350],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-passover"],"yoast_head":"\n