QUESTION

Riverdale, NY

How good does news have to be to get a berakhah? Someone asked me if they can say HaTov VeHaMeitiv on hearing they got a negative covid test.

ANSWER

As I tried to articulate in my teshuva, it is not only a question of degree of joy (which admittedly has to be more than trivial and fleeting). This berakhah, together with shehecheyanu, is said when something specific and of concrete benefit happens to you. Someone asked me, for example, about a