Do you know what Mazal Tov means?

Thank you again for all the votes. It made me smile to see how many people recognized the phrase. The actual words really mean good luck, but it's used the same way you'd use congratulations. When hearing any good news, such as a birth, engagement, or when going to any celebration, such as a bar mitzva, brit etc... one would say mazal tov.

 

OK, everytime I see this thread, I keep hearing "Simmon tov, and Mazel tov, Mazel tov, and Simmon tov"!

 

:ibiggrin: That's Siman, as in a 'sign'.

 

Thanks, I was transliterating from what I heard in my head.

BTW, Esther, every time we finish a chapter in my Hebrew class, we review with a game of Jeopardy...the class' favorite category is "backwards transliteration" I give them an English word, and they have to write the it in Hebrew letters.

 

That sounds like fun! Do they do well? I think it's great that you challenge them this way. I think these are the stuff kids remember.

 

They really do! And they find it a lot of fun. It is amazing. We changed the Hebrew curriculum to Modern Hebrew, and they suddenly like coming to class. Last year this group just read prayers, didn't translate, just read prayers. Needless to say, they were very bored and didn't learn much. Now that they are learning the Modern Hebrew, they find reading prayers isn't so bad, since they can start understanding parts of the words.

 

That's awesome! I love Modern Hebrew. It's a rich fun language.