Aramaic Word of the Day - ܛܒܐ — Tobo - good, beneficial, fitting, fruitful.

Its root Ṭ–B carries the meaning of good, beneficial, fitting, fruitful. In Aramaic thought, (tobo) describes something that is right in function, not merely pleasant in experience. A thing is  (tobo)  when it fulfills the purpose God designed for it. Western thinking often asks, “Does this feel good?” Semitic thinking asks, “Does this produce what is good?”

You see this clearly in Genesis 1, where God repeatedly declares creation  (tobo) good. He is not commenting on appearance or comfort; He is declaring that creation is functioning as intended. This same understanding appears in the words of Yeshua in Matthew 7:17:

“Every good tree bears good fruit.”In Middle Eastern hearing, this is not moral poetry it is agricultural logic. A tree proves its goodness over time. Fruit does not appear instantly. It requires seasons, patience, and cultivation.

I remember standing beside an ancient olive press in the Galilee, carved deep into the stone, its surface worn smooth by centuries of pressure. I told my group to look closely not at how beautiful it was, but at what it represented. Olives are not valuable because they look impressive on the tree. Their value is revealed only after they are crushed, slowly and deliberately, until oil begins to flow. In the Middle Eastern world, this process was understood intuitively: goodness is not assumed; it is proven. What something truly is becomes clear only with time, pressure, and faithfulness.

This is where Western and Eastern assumptions often diverge. In the Western mindset, “good” usually means pleasant, comfortable, or immediately beneficial. If something feels hard, we quickly assume it must be wrong. But in the ancient Semitic world, goodness was not measured by ease; it was measured by outcome. Something was good if it produced life, nourishment, and blessing even if the process was slow or demanding. Scripture does not rush to declare things good; it waits to see what they yield.

This difference becomes clear when we talk about success. In the Western world, success is measured by visibility numbers, growth, recognition, and speed. What can be seen quickly is assumed to be valuable. But in the ancient Middle Eastern world, success was measured by faithfulness over time. A field was not judged by how green it looked in spring, but by whether it still produced grain after years of drought and care. A life was not praised for how loudly it began, but for how steadily it endured. Scripture reflects this mindset again and again: what matters most is not how something starts, but whether it remains aligned with God’s purpose until the end.

Let this speak into your life today. If you are walking through a season that feels demanding, slow, or unglamorous, do not rush to judge it as unproductive. In a Semitic worldview, goodness often emerges after pressure, not before it. God may be producing something  (tobo)  in you something that will nourish others, sustain faith, and bring quiet blessing long after the season has passed. Goodness is not always loud. Sometimes it is pressed out gently, drop by drop, until its value becomes undeniable.

So remain faithful in the process. Let God determine the timing. What He is forming in you may not look impressive now, but if it is  (tobo), it will bear fruit in its time.

Shlama

Andre