Word Prompt – TOV – Yonatan Milevsky

If we accept the hypothesis that the first time a word appears in Tanach has a greater bearing on its meaning, a concept sometimes called the law of first mention – and found in the writings of thinkers such as Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin and others – our word, which we translate as good, is imbued with a few unique characteristics.

First, it cannot be separated from creation, which is where the word “tov” first appears, in connection with light (Ber. 1:4), and is therefore directly related to G-d's plan for the world.

Second, it has the connotation of intentionality. That is to say something is good if it serves its purpose, just as the original light did.

Finally, given that most interpreters take the first usage to be related to the practical purpose it served rather than to the divine standard that it met, the original reference to the term also implies that good is discoverable by human reason. Goodness, then, is not in a realm beyond human understanding, and not a form as Plato would have put it, but something accessible, knowable, and intuitive.