Mazel and Mazel Tov
One time I went to the Southport Flower Show. In one of the tents was a man selling brightly coloured plates with the word "Jerusalem" on them. “Very nice - do you come from Jerusalem?” Said I. “I’m a Palestinian” he said. “mazel tov” I said. I don’t know why I said it. He had given me an inappropriate reply to an innocuous question. It just seemed to be a non-aggressive way of telling him that I didn’t give a monkey what side of the argument he was on. I was there to see the flowers.Afterwards, as you do, I thought of several witty reposts, but mazel tov was good enough.
Mazel tov is not a word. It is a phrase, and I have known it all my life. At its core it took the words from Old Hebrew, and changed it into a phrase-mazal (or mazel) means "luck" or "fortune" and tov means "good". Interestingly it is now a phrase in Modern Hebrew.
Unlike kosher, chutzpah, nosh, mishmash, and similar fellow travellers, it has never entered the English language and colloquially it has come to mean congratulations rather than “I wish you luck” It is mainly used at weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs, and at the end of the process. Thus when the glass is smashed at a wedding everyone shouts mazel tov, or when a boy/girl becomes bar/batmitzvah.
It would therefore be appropriate to say mazel tov when one hears of the birth of a new child, and if someone gets a new job or does the winning putt in the Ryder Cup.
Having said that, one has to be careful of the Evil Eye - some people avoid saying mazel tov to a pregnant woman out of superstition that something might happen to the baby
Some people confuse it with “Yasher Koach” which is said in the synagogue when someone has performed a religious act. For example, Yasher Koach is said to the celebrant when the Barmitzvah Boy has read successfully his portion of the Torah. Indeed, thinking about it, it would be inappropriate when someone became married to shout out “Yasher Koach” as it is closer to “good job” or “well done” than “Congratulations”
As I said mazel tov has not entered the English language, but there has been some spillage into the ‘outside world’. In the song I Gotta Feeling,” singer will.i.am (real name: William J. Adams) wishes people “Mazel tov.” The singer later uses the phrase a second time, earning a “L’chaim” in response from band mate Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson. They probably picked up the phrase from the tour of Israel that they did in 2006.
The best in this section is left to the last
Who can ever forget the scene from Thoroughly Modern Millie where Julie Andrews, (fresh from her role a s a nun in the Sound of Music, singing Ave Maria in wordperfect Latin), this time bursts into Yiddish song at a wedding in Thoroughly Modern Millie and sings the following lines
Trinkt le chaim!
Zugta Mazel Tov;
macht a redel vos drait sich on a suffun
Az miz glick-lich ver darf hoben gelt Zingt le chaim.
Tzu der gantzer velt!
A strange wedding with the rabbi having the falsest beard I’ve ever seen outside of Santa Claus, but Julie Andrews is class. Not surprisingly, though, the music was written by Elmer Bernstein who may have had the idea for the song from his own Jewish past. He won an Oscar for the music, by the way.
To enjoy this, follow the link below.
http://www.songsofmypeople.com/trinkt-le-chaim-the-jewish-wedding-song.html
Mazel tov and Simen tov
After the general shout of “mazeltov” at a wedding a little repetitive ditty is sung which goes something like this:Siman tov and mazal tov
v'siman tov u'mazal tov
Repeated several times, and then………
y'hey lanu. Y'hey lanu, y'hey lanu, u'l'khol Yis'ra'iel,
Also repeated several times, until exhaustion
The lyrics and music of this folk song are said to have originated between 1886 and 1890 in Poland or Rumania. According to the Jewish Heritage Online Magazine, the Sephardi authority Hakham Yosef Haim (Baghdad, 1834-1909), author of Ben Ish Hai, recorded that Siman Tov means "a good sign,"
So far so good. However mazel has its dark side and the next blog will look at that.......
These books are available from Amazon:
Kosher Foxtrot
Jews and the Sea
The Definitive Guide to Jewish Miscellany and Trivia
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