the Berasit Hebrew Dictionary

מזל

The word 'mezel'. does not technically exist in the ancient Hebrew texts. What we do find are a few obviously related words, and a few possibly related words.

Due to both etymological and semantic similarities, it is likely that mezer an alternate spelling of 'mezel'.

'mezer' (מזר) appears only twice within the texts, but contextual evidence is relatively strong for the interpretation of 'mezer' as a “pitchfork” (farming implement).

Intriguingly, there's another word with a very similar meaning. 'mezeleg' appears to be a fork for meat and specifically in the context of grilling large quantities of meat.

Thus, both 'mezer' and 'mezeleg' seem to refer to “a big fork”. It is a bit strange that the “L” and “R” appear to be conflated. This particular conflation is not a previously identified typical phenomena, but it is true that a lot of alternate spellings do exist within the corpus, and have not yet been thoroughly analyzed.

Nevertheless, 'mezer' is also the apparent root of mezereh, mezerot, and mezerim. However, none of these words appear to refer to big forks, but it seems possible that the name of 'mezer' for a pointy (often five tined) fork was influenced by the pointy (often five sided) star-shape which is reminiscent of the pictographic shape implied by 'mezel'.

'mezel' (often pronounced “mazel”) means “star”.

This word may be heard as a modern celebratory exclamation “mazel tov!” literally meaning “good stars”, but used with the intention of “Good Luck!” The term is used in Jewish mysticism to describe the root of the soul. In this paradigm, only a ray of our soul actually inhabits our body, while the main part of the soul, the mezel, remains 'above', shining down into the body from a distance.

'mezel' refers to stars in general, but sometimes is contrived to refer to a specific group of stars or astronomical constellations, including and sometimes limited to those included in the zodiac, the apparent band of sky surrounding the plane of the ecliptic. This interpretation tends to focus around two minor spelling variation of 'mezel', formed by adding the ot suffix, yielding 'mezelot' or 'mezerot' is typically interpreted as “constellations”¹⁾. This word is often pronounced “mazalot” or “mazarot” (often spelled mazzaroth). These are all variations on the same word. Although the association with stars appears to be correct, there is no evidence to back up any specific constellation associated with any of the various spellings of 'mezel'.

'mezel' should be translated “stars”, not constellations. However, constellations are stars, so the constellations (including the zodiac) are conceptually included within 'mezel. For a more fullsome understanding of the concept of “stars” within the yeberi culture, one also must examine a few other words, including kokab/kochvay and kokavim. standardize spellings and link.

Technically, the sun, our closest star, is also included within the definition of 'mezel', a fact which must inform the related concept of mezereh.