Its a boy! – good luck
We are engaged – good luck
My son just got bar mitzvahed – good luck
I’m going to a wedding today – good luck
It’s our 50th anniversary – good luck
I can just keep going on and on but you get the idea, or maybe you don’t. Why on earth do we wish people mazel tov at various happy events. You would think Yasher Koach or congratulations would be more in store then good luck.
Oh we just got engaged! Good luck, you wont last a year. Thats what it sounds like to me when I start thinking about the term mazel tov. It just sounds so negative, kind of like when you go skydiving and someone says good luck instead of have fun.
It’s not good luck. It’s more like your mazel is very positive (as is clear by the simcha) now so you should take advantage of it in the most positive way.
That thought has crossed my mind hundreds of times too. Who needs all the good luck, a congratulations would do.
You know what issuing of “good luck” I hate the most?
When I go into a clothing store and am heading to the dressing room and the woman who lets me in wishes me a hearty “good luck,” as if I suddenly won’t be able to figure out how to put clothes on, or that maybe I’ve picked up clothing all three sizes too small. ARGH!
(BTW: I have to open your blog in IE every time I want to read it because of that STUPID attack warning. ARGH. How do we change that?)
^
Firefox for the win. Attack site for the lose.
You do have a point here, because when we drop a glass and it breaks, we also say mazal tov! At weddings when the chatan smashes the glass underfoot, I think the “mazal tov” there is not aimed at the fact that the couple is now “officially” married, but a “good luck” to the guy- hope you didn’t cut your foot buddy!
double funny: mazal is also constellations, so….”good astrology, there, buddy!”
Maybe you could think of Mazal Tov as simply “Good Luck” and not “May you have good luck.” The luck already exists.
I think when we say Mazel Tov, we are really saying congratulations on your good luck, acknowledging that our simchas are dependent on more than just our own efforts. In the Netherlands where Yiddishims are part of everyone’s general vocabulary, people wish each other ‘mazel’ frequently. For example, when a student leaves the room after an oral examination, he or she will wish the student who is waiting to go in mazel, meaning, of course, I hope you have good luck and that you are asked questions you know the answer to. We would say mazel tov to the student who has already taken the exam and been notified of a passing grade, meaning something like I am happy you had good luck and were asked questions you knew the answers to. 🙂
I must say that it amuses me when the Dutch pepper their speech with Yiddish loan words. For example, I have seen the person who came in last on a stage of the Tour de France described as de schlepper van de dag (the schlepper of the day). Or in an American soap opera, during a cat fight, one of the catty women calls the other ‘crazy.’ That showed up in the Dutch sub-titles as mesjokkah (meshuggah), Made me laugh….
Mazel Tov on another entertaining post. 😉
I’ve wondered this myself more than once, though in some cases a wish for “Good Luck” is warranted (marriages that don’t stand a chance, babies who have colic, etc.)
IN CASE I DID NOT MAKE MYSELF CLEAR, I MEANT THAT I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THIS:
http://www.google.com/interstitial?url=https://www.frumsatire.net/
SO YOU STILL OWE ME AN APOLOGY.
Great post and Chavi I am reading this blog in Firefox.
We say Good Luck because the alternative would be its opposite, Bad Luck. Try wishing someone that on their wedding day.
Btw sarcasm is not a very kosher thing so at weddings the only meaning MUST be the plain one.
Good Luck and Mazal Tov for what ever it may be.
Lets try not to be such a buzz kill on someone else’s happy time.
Hesh,
You should do a post or a video on saying “Baruch HaShem”
How often do you say it?
Do you say it to non-rabbis/rebetzins? What about non-observant Jews? Non-Jews?
I’m sure you could think of a lot more to add.
to solamente: I know a Rabbi who says one is obligated to say “mazal tov” when someone breaks a dish – not to wish luck, but to break the tense silence after, and to make them feel a little less embarassed…
To make them feel a little embarassed? since when should you do that.
Saying Mazel Tov after something breaks is very common here in J’lem. My cleaning lady was getting out her Pesach dishes this year and dropped them, breaking quite a few, and from the next apartment over she heard, “Mazal tov!”
There’s even a Moshal about Baba Sali’s wife calling the breaking of his favorite dishes a stroke of luck as they avoided some other horrible tragedy thereby. Interesting idea.
Its a boy! – good luck
Is that your way of congradulating me on my new son 😛 ?
Mazal tov isn’t wishing someone good luck, that would be behatzlacha, it’s something to do with telling someone that the power of the stars are with them.
Yochanon that’s a good idea may take you up on it