“Avram” will not have a son, but “Avraham” will have a son and so “Sarai” will not give birth, but “Sarah” will give birth. Rashi explains on the verse in the Chumash, “And took outside,” that “Hashem said to Avraham, ‘Go outside your astrology, through which you see that according to the stars you will not have a son in the future. Our Sages teach that the concept of mazel does not apply to the nation of Israel, meaning that there is the chance, however slim, however remote and difficult, for us to overcome what has been written in the stars. But if, chas v’shalom (G-d forbid), a person’s mazel isn’t so good, then that’s what he has to live with and it’s not possible to change it without starting the world over from the beginning. Such a person clearly has no need of our blessing. If a person has good mazel, then he was born with it and it can be traced all the way back to the beginning of the world. Based on this, we have to wonder about why we frequently wish each other, “Mazel Tov!” Just what good does it do to say such a thing, what difference could it possibly make? How frightening, then, is the power and influence of mazel that, in order to change it, one needs to turn the world back to its very beginnings – and all of this for a “maybe”, for just a mere chance that things might possibly be different the next go around, that one might be born at a time when the stars and planets would be aligned differently and more to his liking!Īs we can see, changing a person’s mazel, something that was clearly fixed in time and quite literally set in the stars, is terribly difficult. ![]() He said that he had been sitting with Hashem and he had asked Him: “Creator of the Universe, how long must I suffer in this world from such tremendous poverty?” Hashem answered, “Elazar, my son, would you like me to turn the world back to its beginnings? It’s possible that you will be born at a time of greater sustenance.” Rabbi Elazar said, “All of this and only a possibility?” After inquiring from Hashem whether he had lived most of his days already, seemingly to consider if it was even worth taking the chance of starting over and finding out that he was closer to the end of his days than the beginning, he declined Hashem’s rather generous offer. When Rabbi Elazar awoke, they asked him why he had been crying and laughing. The rabbis happened to come and visit him and witnessed him crying and laughing while he was sleeping. He ate the garlic skin and, because of his weakened state, fainted straight away. Once, because of his tremendous poverty, he did not have anything that he could eat following a bloodletting (a standard medical procedure at the time) except for a garlic skin. The gemara tells of Rabbi Elazar ben Pedas who was wretchedly poor. Mazel is quite powerful, as the gemara teaches that life, children, and sustenance are not dependant on merit, but on mazel. In fact, the gemara has an entire discussion regarding the impact that the day of the week on which a person is born has upon his life, as well as the influence that the particular hour of the day and how the sun, moon, and other planets and constellations under which he was born have on his life – this is what we mean by mazel. ![]() We often think of mazel as being synonymous with “luck” or “fortune”, as though we’re simply wishing someone “Good Luck!” when we say “Mazel Tov!”, just another way of saying, “Best wishes to you and your family on this special occasion”, but the term “mazel” actually refers to the stars, planets, and constellations (eg. No matter the simcha (joyous occasion), be it a wedding, bris, or bar mitzvah, we customarily greet each other by saying, “Mazel Tov!” In fact, it seems that any time we hear good news – a new job, a new car, a new house – we wish the person sharing that good news, “Mazel Tov!” We say these words all the time, almost automatically, but do we ever really stop and think about what we’re saying or even why we say them? We say it so often, but what does it really mean? And does saying it actually make any difference – can we really change what’s been written in the stars?
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