Three ladies are talking in the powder room of the Waldorf-Astoria. One of them, Shprintzeleh, is wearing a huge diamond necklace. Her two friends are plotzing: “Oyoyoy, I’m fainting-that’s such an incredible diamond!” Shprintzeleh rolls her eyes, “Ah, you know what? There are only three diamonds like this in the world. The first one they call the Hope Diamond, the second they call the Kaina Harah Diamond. This one they call the Lipshitz Diamond.” The ladies kvell even more: “Gevaldt, Shprintzeleh! You must have such mazal, such amazing luck, to be able to own this treasure.” “Well actually, no,” says Shprintzeleh, “There’s no mazal that comes with this diamond. On the contrary, it comes with the infamous and ancient Lipshitz curse.” “What’s that?” they ask, taken aback. “That, ladies, is …Mr. Lipshitz.”

  * * *

Vayeitzei: The Meaning of Mazal Tov

Parshas Vayeitzei, the seventh portion of the Torah, mentions the birth of the seventh child of Yaakov.[1] When this child is born to Leah’s maid servant, Zilpah, Leah says, “Ba gad,” ‘a good sign has come,’ and therefore gives the child the name ‘Gad’. Rashi gives three interpretations of the word ba gad: a) Mazal tov, b) ‘Born circumcised’, and c) ‘He has betrayed’, as if Leah is telling Yaakov with this name, ‘You betrayed me when you came to my maidservant.’

QUESTIONS
1. Why does Rashi need to give three very different interpretations? Isn’t one enough? Furthermore, what does Rashi really mean by the phrase “mazal tov“? On one hand, the Talmud says, “Eyn mazal l’Yisrael“–’Jews have no luck.’[2] On the other hand, every time we hear good news we exclaim, ‘Mazal tov!’ 2. The phrase “ba gad” is a kri-and-ksiv.[3] The kri, the way the verse is chanted, is two separate words: –ba gad. The ksiv, the way it is written in the Torah scroll, is a single word: –bagad. What secrets lie within this difference?

LUCKY STAR
Mazal can mean ‘star’ or ‘constellation’. Jews traditionally do not base their decisions on horoscopes. Jews are not bound by the influence of the constellations of the zodiac, for our souls are not confined by time, space or any other natural phenomenon. This is the meaning of eyn mazal l’Yisrael, ‘Jews have no luck’–Jews are essentially beyond luck. Chassidus teaches us we should not read eyn mazal as “no luck,” but rather as ‘the mazal of a Jew is ayin–from the level of Ayin, Divine Nothingness, a reality beyond time and space.[4]

Ayin also represents the quintessential level of the soul, which we sometimes call the pintele yid. This mazal, this ‘lucky star’, is the point of the soul that is one with G-d. It is the supra-rational dimension that gives a Jew the ability to surpass reason in the service of G-d. Essentially, a Jew is even willing to die for God, as dramatized in the stories of Channukah and Purim.

RASHI’S FIRST INTERPRETATION: ‘MAZAL TOV’
Given the above interpretation, why do Jews wish one another mazal tov, as if to say ‘Congratulations and good luck’? The word mazal is related to nozel, flowing water.[5] Mazal tov is not a superficial wish, but a powerful prayer: “Good will flow. The tov, the pure goodness of your pintele yid, should flow down and be revealed through your active service of G-d.”

RASHI’S SECOND INTERPRETATION: ‘BORN CIRCUMCISED’

One may argue that nowadays, the supra-rational level of mazal remains dormant in many of us. Rashi responds to this situation by adding that the word gad can also mean ‘born circumcised’. Circumcision involves removing the foreskin, representing the impurities that block access to the pintele yid. ‘Born circumcised’ therefore refers to the fact that a Jew is born with complete access to his mazal.

RASHI’S THIRD INTERPRETATION: BETRAYAL
One might think that being ‘born circumcised applies primarily to people who are frum-from-birth, or born into a great rabbinic dynasty, and therefore a baal teshuvah or a convert may not have such easy access to the mazal of their neshama. Therefore, Rashi concludes: ba gad means Leah felt betrayed when she saw how this child came from her maidservant.[6] She never expected that a powerful Jewish leader such as Gad could come from a mother who was not a ‘matriarch’, let alone a mere maidservant.

The Zohar explains that even though Gad was born from a maidservant, his tribe was the most powerful tribe.[7] When the Jewish people went to conquer Israel and the seven evil nations, the tribe of Gad took a leadership role. They were victorious over the enemies of the Jewish nation, as it is written, “With one stroke of their sword, the tribe of Gad tore off the hand and the head of their enemies.”[8] Gad himself was such a great figure that he is likened in some ways to Moses himself: 1.) Gad was the seventh son and the gematria of the name Gad is seven. Moses was born on the seventh of Adar (he also died on the same date), and he was of the seventh generation from Abraham. 2.) Both of them were born physically circumcised. All of this demonstrates that one can be a great Jew even without a Jewish lineage.

HOLY CALLING
We can now appreciate the difference between the kri and ksiv. The kri has an Alef, representing G-d, Alufei shel Olam, Master of the Universe. The ksiv, however, is without an Alef. Therefore the ksiv represents someone who could appear disconnected from G-d–their Alef being concealed. Often, the only apparent sign of his Jewishness is his name: Goldstein or Cohen, etc. We are not to read (ksiv) him externally, however, but to call (kri) forth the Alef within him, revealing the Oneness with G-d that lies deep within the mazal of his soul.

MONTH OF MYSTIC REVELATION
The portion of Vayeitzei is always read in the month of Kislev. On the 19th of Kislev the Alter Rebbe was liberated from prison in Czarist Russia. This day was later dubbed “the Rosh HaShanah of Chassidus“, and in this sense, ‘the revelation of the hidden dimension of Torah’.[9] One of the basic functions of Chassidus is to reveal the mazal or pintele yid of every Jew. When this revelation is accomplished, we begin to appreciate that all Jews, irrespective of observance or spiritual level, are of one family. Then we will truly love every Jew as our brother or sister.

We find ourselves in the seventh generation from the Alter Rebbe. Just as Moses, the seventh generation from Avraham, redeemed the Jews from Egypt, we too will be redeemed–with the coming of Mashiach.

A STORY
A Jewish community was threatened with total annihilation. The Baal Shem Tov saw this from afar by means of his ruach ha-kodesh, divine spirit. He called in two of his disciples, Rabbi Mordechai and Rabbi Kahos, to establish a beis din of three rabbis to decide upon a way to save this community.

During their meeting, the Baal Shem Tov had an aliyas neshama, a ‘soul-ascent’. He ascended to the Heavenly court and asked if there was a way to nullify this evil decree. The response was negative. Disappointed, he started his decent to earth. On the way down, he passed through many chambers of Paradise. He saw one chamber that was illuminated with unusual brilliance. He asked the administrating angels, “For what great Torah scholar is this room reserved?” They responded, “It’s not for a Torah scholar at all. It’s reserved for a certain simple farmer on earth who recites the whole Book of Psalms five times every day.”

The Baal Shem Tov had an idea: he would ask this farmer for help. After finding him, the Baal Shem Tov approached him and said, “If you knew that in doing so you could save an entire community, would you give up your place in Paradise?” The farmer answered, “I don’t even know if I have a place in Paradise. But if I do, I would be more than happy to give up my place in Paradise to save Jews.”

* * *

It was not the Torah-study of a great Rabbi, nor the charity of a big philanthropist, rather the prayer of a simple Jew that was victorious over the decree of the Heavenly court. The mazal in the soul of this farmer was revealed. When Mashiach comes, the mazal of every soul will be fully revealed in each of us.

ACTION: Recite Psalm 150 five times, and beseech G-d to reveal the mazalof your soul and to bring salvation to anyone in need.

FOOTNOTES
[1] Genesis 30:11
[2] Shabbos, 156a
[3] See Chapter Two for an introduction to the concept of a-kri-and-ksiv.
[4] Sefer HaSichos 5748, Section on celebration of a birthday, p. 401, footnote 45, See also Lekutei Torah, 71d.
[5] Lekutei Torah, Ha’azinu, 71d
[6] “Maid servant”, or shifcha in Hebrew, is a derivative of the word pachos, meaning ‘lesser’.
[7] Zohar I, Vayechi, p. 244b; See also Lekutei Sichos, Vol. 9, p.1.
[8] Rabbeinu Bachaya explains (in his commentary on Parshas Mattos) that the strength of the tribe of Gad is attributed to the tefillin that they wore in battle. On the head tefillin there are two letter Shins: one with three prongs (3=Gimmel), and one with four (4=Dalet), spelling the name ‘Gad‘. (Rabbeinu Bachaya ben Asher was a Rabbinic judge in Spain, and a kabbalist of the 1300′s. His Torah commentary Midrash Rabbeinu Bachaya, is studied and quoted widely to this day.)
[9] Kislev is the third month from Tishrei. The revelation of the Chassidic dimension of the Torah parallels the revelation of the general Torah, which occurred on the third month after Nissan.