Kiddush Levanah: Under the Light of the Silvery Moon (Part 12)
“My walk on the moon lasted three days. My walk with
(Charles Duke – Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 16)
Kiddush Levanah then continues with the following sentence that is repeated three times: “May there be a siman tov [good sign] and mazal tov [good fortune] for us and for all of Israel, Amen.”
At this point in Kiddush Levanah, after having wished Shalom Aleichem to those around us, we pray for “siman tov and mazal tov.” Not just for ourselves, but for the whole Jewish nation.
What is the difference between siman tov and mazal tov? A siman is a sign. Hashem is continuously giving us signs in our lives. Most of them, we seem to blithely ignore, or perhaps even worse, we don’t even recognize them as simanim. What differentiates a siman tov from a siman ra’ah – a bad siman? Many times, the only differentiating factor is how we relate to it. If we look at the siman as being good, that is what it will be. And if a person looks at the siman in a negative way, they can turn it into something bad.
Mazal, on the other hand, is normally connected to the constellations. We are taught that each month has its own mazal. The earliest recorded source for the phrase “mazal tov” is in the Aramaic translation of the Torah by the great Tana Yonatan ben Uziel, whom the Sages describe as being the most prominent of Hillel the Elder’s students. In Genesis (30:11), when Leah hears that her maidservant had given birth to a boy, the verse describes her reaction, “And Leah declared, ‘Bah Gad [good luck] has come!’ So she called his name Gad.” Yonatan ben Uziel translates the words “Bah Gad” into Aramaic as “Mazlah Tavah.”
The generally accepted translation of “mazal” is luck. However, Rabbi Chaim Elazar Spira (1868-1937) the saintly Rebbe of Munkatch, offers a thought-provoking alternative (Divrei Torah 6:44). He says that the word mazal is rooted in the word “nozel,” which means to pour. He explains that Hashem is continuously pouring mazal into the world. Each person is the recipient of Hashem’s mazal, uniquely calculated and intended for them. But a person can choose to ignore their own mazal and cause themselves immeasurable losses.
Rabbi Yom Tov ben Avraham Asevilli (1260-1320), known by his acronym, Ritva, the head of the famed Yeshiva in Seville and the author of one of the classic commentaries on the Talmud, writes (end of Pesachim, Haggadah Shel Pesach) that people tend to blame their inadequacies on their life circumstances. When they look around and see others who are more successful than they are, who are more brilliant than they are, they blame it on their own lives. So often we explain our shortcomings by comparing our lives to others. We tell ourselves that obviously others are more successful because they were born with better mazal. To prove how misconceived this approach is, the Ritva points out that Yaakov and Eisav were born to the same parents, they had the same mazal and they were brought up in the same home. Yet, Yaakov, by choosing the path of righteousness, became the founding father of the Jewish nation, whereas Eisav chose the path of debauchery and wickedness. Ultimately, my successes are not defined by my mazal. Rather, my successes are defined by the choices that I make with the mazal that Hashem has blessed me with.
This is why we declare “May there be a siman tov and mazal tov for us and for all of Israel, Amen.” As we enter into the new month, we are entreating Hashem that He will send us a good month. A month with easily identifiable simanim and good fortune. But, we are also reminding ourselves that the amount of siman tov and mazal tov we will experience during the month is dependent upon us and the way we connect to it.
To be continued…
