Like dark matter, luck is something that is not seen but is known to be real; we see its shadow pass, but we are completely unaware of its origin. Those who believe in the force of luck have pointed out that it is a generous halo that belongs to each person, or «the positive result of an unlikely event.»
Luck has often been related to chance; More generally, the haphazard and random behavior of the universe and its creation could be attributed to a matter of luck. In everyday life, this force is associated with the inexplicable ability to achieve something when you really want it. Science calls it «opportunity.» In this sense, we would all carry a series of luck or opportunities, and the strategy to observe them would be to pay more attention to details.
On the other hand, there are rationalists who believe that the thought of this force is an illusory act, since no fact that is not confirmed by causality can be possible. In juxtaposition, those who believe in luck affirm that not all the events in the world have been able to be confirmed, since the human being himself is in an infinite process of knowledge.
Mazal Tov, the most beautiful locution about luck
It is difficult to confirm if luck is real, but, in its passage through human consciousness, a special connection with destiny has been attributed to it. This is the case of the Hebrew locution that synthesizes the universe of luck: Mazal Tov.
It is not surprising that one of the oldest languages in the world, Hebrew, captures a sense of luck that is as practical as it is universal. The term Mazal Tov encompasses a beautiful and rightly sensible worldview that can give us a clearer idea of what it is or where it comes from. Mazal Tov (in Hebrew מזל טוב, and in Yiddish מזל טוב) translates into Spanish as Mazal = luck and Tov = good.
The word mazal is an acronym made up of three words (MZL): Makom, which means «the place»; Zman, which means «the time» and La’asot, which means «the doing». So luck in Hebrew is seen as Being in the right place at the right time. Some studies are correct in pointing out that the third word is not La’asot but Limud (knowledge); however, this variation does not change the sense of meaning, the «knowing how to be» in the right place and time.
Among Jewish beliefs, it is thought that emotions such as joy can reconfigure the mazal in our favor, since it is an act that literally «flows», that is in motion. Another way to modify our mazal is to change our daily actions, because with this we move both in personality and perspective. Finally, good actions, or what may sound the same, the act of praying, contribute to change luck and destiny, since they make life a ritual of continuous acts and turn said acts into an instrument for the exercise of mind.
This last theological reference is fully aligned with what is professed by other doctrines or religions such as Buddhism and, in short, some universal texts of knowledge with great philosophical value.
One last explanation of Mazal: it comes from the ancient Hebrew mazzāl, which means «constellation» or «destination», and derived from it, manzaltu, which means «position of a star».
Thus, Mazal Tov could be translated as «good luck»; the good luck of being in the right place at the right time; the force that draws the decisive position of each star in the constellation that is life; the luck that writes our destiny.
Author’s Twitter: @surrealindeath
* Illustrations: Joanna Neborsky
It might interest you