Part 2 Mazel begins brightly and turns dark

Mazel and Brocha, Good Mazel, and Bad Mazel

It seems that Mazal and Bracha is the traditional phrase used by the diamond industry when closing a deal.

The expression is accompanied by a handshake each day wherever it takes place, whether New York, London, or Amsterdam…..or of course Jerusalem. 

It has been pointed out that the word mazel does not mean good luck.
It is more linked to destiny. No-one would say that you have mazel, and indeed the word doesn’t stand well on its own. So Mazel and Brocha adds a blessing to ensure that the luck or destiny is a good one - that, as the Israeli Diamond Industry website says “the transaction will be blessed with good fortune”

The Yin and Yang of mazel

Dear God, you made many, many poor people.
I realize, of course, that it's no shame to be poor.
But it's no great honor either!
So, what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune

So says Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. The Yiddish song - “Wie nemt men a bissele mazel”. -where to get a little luck -  where to get a little fortune” is also looking in that direction. The person singing basically asks for a bit of luck with his or her life. It could be Tevye singing. 

The lyrics are old country, according to the “Songs of My People” website, but the song was written by Benzion Witler(1907–1961). Here are a couple of examples

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOzCXFWYlJE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asu5L8yD2R4

It is always nice when things go well - we have plenty of good Mazel in our lives - our children, our health, our friends, and we rarely notice it.. For those people of a more superstitious nature there is the yin and yang of good mazel and bad mazel, and how we behave can affect our luck.

Here is a conversation on a blog. Note that they are using Yeshivish, and note how at the end of the advice Reb Dale Carnegie’s advice is invoked.
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Question:- I have been having very bad mazel for at least five years now and cannot find parnasah, a shidduch, had my car impounded, etc.  I have tried to make teshuvah and gave tzedekah, but things are not getting better.

Answer: Have you ever done wrong to anybody or spoken loshon hora about anyone? If so, you may want to ask mechilah from them first. Hashem deals middah k’neged middah with us and deals very seriously with the harm we inflict on His creations. You might also want to read “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.
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A translation is at the end of the blog.

Bad Mazel is when your favourite football team, goes through a series of injuries. Have you ever had a period of bad mazel. I bet you have!

Shlimazl

Bad mazel leads us inevitably into schlimazel. According to the Wordsmith website the root of the word is shlimm 'poor or lacking' (German) added to mazel - luck). A shlimazl therefore is a loser or a person with chronic and  perpetual bad luck - the football manager whose team keeps picking up injuries, the person who keeps choosing the wrong queue in the supermarket, the one who’s best friend is the bookmaker. There is a phrase “Born lucky” - these people are “born unlucky”. A loser.

A shlimazl falls on his backside and bruises his nose.

Perhaps the best known shlimazl is Tevye of Fiddler on the Roof fame.

Sholom Aleichem wrote a number of stories about the struggling but good natured father of seven, Tevye.

In the story “Tevye wins a fortune”, Tevye tells us about his life - “The wretched little hut that was my home, and the children barefooted and in tatters waiting for their father, the shlimazl….and my wife grumbling”
In “Hodel” he repeats his feelings about himself.

“As usual I was lost in thought dreaming of many things, of this and that, and of the rich people of Yehupetz who had everything their own way while Tevye, the shlimazl, and his wretched little horse slaved and hungered all their days”

Poor Tevye. Even when he has some luck what does his embittered wife say? “Good Evening!” Said I “Congratulations! Mazeltov, Golde!” .“A black and endless mazeltov to you!” she answers me “what are you so happy about, my beloved bread winner?”

It reminds me of the one that says ”May you live to 110 (so you will die slowly)". I had never heard of a black mazeltov before.

Sholem Aleichem, the author, was called the “Jewish Mark Twain” - by Mark Twain. His stories of the Old Country continue to give us pleasure, and an idea of how the life in the shtetl was. Whilst admired by one and all, he had a number of failed enterprises, and according to Joseph Epstein in the Commentary website “He would later refer to America as “the land of cultural servitude and senseless humiliation,” where an “author is a schlimazel.
 

The shlimazl and the shlemiel

A shlemiel: an inept clumsy person; a bungler; a dolt. As Julius Levinson said in Independence Day “If I had known I was gonna meet the president, I would've worn a tie. I mean, look at me. I look like a Shlemiel”

To illustrate the point there is a joke which goes like this: Shlemiel has a job painting the dotted lines down the middle of a road. Each day, Schlemiel paints less than he painted the day before. When he is asked why, Schlemiel complains that it is because each day he gets farther away from the paint can.

Shlemiels have been part of modern culture for many years.A shlemiel is a person who sells goods that he does not own on credit to a person who has no money. 

Sholom Aleichem says: a schlemiel is a person who buys a suit with two pairs of trousers and then burns a hole in the jacket

Finally, a shlemiel prays to God all day, every day: “Dear God, please let me win the lottery.  If you do, I promise I’ll daven every day for a year, for two years, for three years – I’ll go to shool every day.”  Finally he hears a voice from heaven that says: “I am trying to help you win the lottery – but you have to help Me. You have to buy a ticket!”.

So how do the shlemiel and the shlimazl tie up? Leo Rosten and others explain that the schlemiel spills the soup into the schlimazel's lap.

The schlemiel is someone who dies by throwing himself off a building, the schlimazel is the poor schmuck he lands on and kills in the process.

A shlimazel's toast always falls butter-side down. A shlemiel always butters his toast on both sides.

Both are fools, both are failures

So there you are…..and if you have got this far - Mazeltov!!!!

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Note:- As Sholom Aleichem said “And now, let’s talk about more cheerful things. Tell me, what news is there about the Cholera in Odessa?”

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Translation

Teshuvah  - Repentance

middah k’neged middah  - As you do, so shall you be done to - measure for measure

Mechilah - forgivness

tzedekah - give to charity

Shidduch - matchmaking

Parnasah - Making a living

The Hebrew term lashon hara (or loshon hora) (Hebrew "evil tongue") is the halachic term for derogatory speech about another person.

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