This is TLV1.

Streetwise Hebrew.

Shalom, it's me Guy from Streetwise Hebrew.

Lately, I visited lots of friends who have newborn babies,

and this made me think of what we can tell them

wishing them congrats for the new son or daughter.

So Mazzal Tov is the first and main wish. Mazzal means luck. Tov means good, but it does not mean good luck.

It's congratulations.

You can say it for anything happy, birthday,

someone who passed an exam, got a promotion, etc.

She'll be by mazal tov, literally may it will be with good luck,

but it means congrats.

In Hebrew, it's mazal tov. In Yiddish, Germanic Jewish

dialect, it's Mazeltov. So in Diaspora Ashkenazi communities, you'll be hearing Mazeltov. To the Israeli ear,

it sounds a bit like grandmother's language. So be aware of this. Hebrew Mazaltov, Yiddish, Mazeltov.

And we can get into the politics of language where in early Zionism, people wanted to speak Hebrew

in a certain way, which later came to be the Israeli way, where the stress is at the end, like Shabbat,

and Shabbas in Yiddish. Mazaltov, Mazeltov, and Shabbas in Yiddish.

Mazaltov, Mazeltov in Yiddish.

As people wanted to fit in in the first years of the state formation, they moved away from the Mazeltov and Shabbas to Mazaltov and Shabbat.

Religious Ashkenazi communities in Israel might still use the Yiddish way of saying things

if you grew up in diaspora Jewish communities

...