Understanding the Process

It seems that a broad consensus of people agree that Monday is their least favorite day of the week. Who can blame them? After a weekend of leisure, one must return to the workplace on Monday and another week of blah. For students, it’s their first day back at school after a weekend of fun and who can blame them for feeling less than enthusiastic for a return to the classroom. Some have said that was the genius of the NFL to come up with Monday Night Football to take away some of the early week despondency. It turns out that the feeling of getting the blues on Monday may have Biblical roots. In this week’s parsha of Bereishis, we learn about the creation of the world. On every day of creation, after G-d saw what had been created, He declared, “Ki Tov/it was good.” This declaration of “Ki Tov” was announced on every single day of creation except one. Can you guess which day had the glaring omission of G-d’s declaration that it was good? If you guessed Monday, then you are correct. The second day of the week may be associated with getting the blues for all time, for it lacked G-d’d declaration that all was good. On a more serious note, Rashi comments that the declaration of Ki Tov was omitted on Monday simply because the creation of the water was incomplete in terms of its assigned location. That aspect was completed on Tuesday, and indeed, G-d made the declaration of Ki Tov twice on Tuesday.

It seems that there is a larger message is about understanding the importance of the process. This is especially important in our generation when we are becoming accustomed to instant results and satisfaction all the time. It was just a few decades ago that the microwave oven was invented, and now it occupies space in practically every kitchen in America because we need things cooked in no time. The opposite of that is the crockpot, which is a slow cooker. Some dishes need to undergo a process of a slow cooker in order to achieve perfection. If you put these dishes in a microwave, the results would be disastrous. The same applies to anything meaningful in life, from spiritual growth to child-rearing. While we may desire instant results, we must understand there is a process to succeed. In fact, G-d reminded us of this on the first Monday in the history of the world by telling us that sometimes we must wait until Tuesday to hear Ki Tov.