Fiddler on the Roof

“Here in Anatevka we have traditions for everything… how to eat, how to sleep, how to wear clothes. For instance, we always keep our heads covered and always wear a little prayer shawl… This shows our constant devotion to God. You may ask how did this tradition start? I’ll tell you—I don’t know. But it’s a tradition… Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do.”

In a religion that prizes scholarly thinking, what is right is not always obvious. Traditions provide guidelines as to what is permissible and what is not. At the beginning of the play, these traditions seem immutable. While Tevye addresses God as much as he addresses the audience, he does not ever receive (or seem to expect to receive) a response. But to Tevye, following tradition signifies a good faith attempt to do the right thing. The fact that some of these traditions have origins that have been obscured by time suggests that some of these traditions are open to interpretation after all.

“A blessing for the Tsar? Of course. May God bless and keep the Tsar… far away from us.”

Mendel, the Rabbi’s son, asks his father if “there is a proper blessing for the Tsar” (4). The Rabbi’s response, while comical, illustrates both the indirect way that the Rabbi speaks as well as a stubborn unwillingness to offer prayer for a figure who is threatening or harmful. As the village’s respected holy man, the Rabbi, who has presumably spent many decades as a scholar of Jewish holy texts, often declines to give answers when asked.

“A poor girl with no dowry can’t be so particular.”

Golde sees marriage very differently from the younger generation. When Tevye later asks Golde if she loves him, Golde defines love as the act of keeping the home rather than a feeling that pre-supposes marriage. The family is poor, and Tzeitel and her sisters have limited options as to which members of the society will be willing to marry them. Tzeitel is appalled at the matches presented who are much older than she is because she wants to marry someone she already loves. For Golde, love is not a necessary part of marriage.

“Well somebody has to arrange the matches. Young people can’t decide these things for themselves.”

Ironically, Hodel learns very quickly that traditions, such as the tradition of using a matchmaker, are not universal even among other Jewish communities. Before long, Hodel isn’t only choosing her own match but is insisting that she will marry Perchik regardless of her father’s wishes.

“And it won’t make one bit of diff’rence if I answer right or wrong. When you’re rich they think you really know.”

Tevye is a poor dairy farmer, but he longs to be wealthy and values education. But education is a luxury, since it takes time that would otherwise be spent working. Rich men receive the benefit of being viewed as wise whether or not they are educated because they are venerated for being powerful. Tevye longs to have the respect that is bestowed upon wealthy men.

“Why should I break my head about the outside world? Let them break their own heads.”

Mordcha the innkeeper’s response to news of persecution against the Jews in other Russian shtetls foreshadows what will ultimately befall the Jews of Anatevka. When the Russians evict the Jewish community from the village, there is no one from the outside who shows up to defend them either. Mordcha’s comment demonstrates a false sense of security that will be disproven by the end of Act I.

“[Y]ou know, it’s no crime to be poor.”

Although Perchik is a socialist revolutionary, he is reluctant to accept Tevye’s offer of free cheese. Tevye’s comment speaks to the shame that often accompanies poverty. At the beginning of the play, Nachum the beggar is introduced as a member of the Anatevka community. Although there is a clear class structure in place, even the poor help others who are poor. Tevye does not have much, but he has cheese and can invite Perchik to Sabbath dinner.

“Motel, even a poor tailor is entitled to some happiness.”

As Motel is fretting about whether or not Tevye will agree that he is good enough for Tzeitel, Tzeitel points out that poverty should not preclude someone from happiness. This idea speaks out in the face of a social structure that respects the rich as if they are morally superior or wiser than others, and a tradition in which the daughters of poor men are often denied appropriate matches and happiness in marriage.

“It’s true that we are the chosen people. But once in a while can’t you choose someone else?”

Tevye’s joke suggests that the title of “chosen people” is often little consolation for the suffering that has befallen the Jewish people over the course of history. Additionally, the Constable has chosen Tevye to be the bearer of bad news about the upcoming attack ordered by the Russians.

“You see, children, the Bible clearly teaches us, you must never trust an employer.”

As a revolutionary fighting the Russian Tsar, Perchik is a socialist and interprets religious stories to support his belief system. The story of Jacob and Laban does, in a sense, illustrate the point that an employer cannot be trusted to offer the promised compensation for one’s labor if the employer can avoid doing so. The story is appropriate for the musical since it is about a man who wants to marry one daughter but is thwarted by her father’s wishes.

“It’s no reason to marry. Money is the world’s curse.”

Perchik’s response to Tzeitel’s engagement to Lazar Wolf seems outspoken and revolutionary but is shared by others of his generation. Tzeitel has no desire to marry for money. When the three oldest sisters sing about Yente finding them matches, they are only interested in rich men for the sake of their mother’s wishes. Money (or lack thereof) dictates their lives due to circumstances beyond their control.

“Tradition. Marriages must be arranged by the papa. This should never be changed. One little time you pull out a prop and where does it stop? Where does it stop?”

Tevye is not incorrect when he suggests that giving in to Tzeitel’s desire to choose her own husband will lead to a slippery slope of daughters bucking tradition. Each daughter’s marriage is more scandalous than the last until Chava’s marriage is entirely unacceptable to him. Tevye desperately clings to his authority in the family but chooses to give up his power to force his daughters to marry the men he chooses because his daughters’ happiness matters more.

“Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles. I was afraid that God would frown. But like he did so long ago in Jericho, God just made a wall fall down.”

After Tevye gives Motel permission to marry Tzeitel, Motel sings about miracles in Jewish tradition in which a powerless underdog overcomes an insurmountable power. The comparisons liken Tevye to these impossible obstacles, but in actuality Tevye gives in rather quickly when Tzeitel begs him not to force her to marry Lazar. Ironically, at the end of the musical, the Jewish people will face the Russians as an unbeatable foe and their only realistic recourse is to give in and leave.

“I’m sorry about that. They mean no harm.”

Fyedka brushes off the actions of the Russians who are harassing Chava in the street and refusing to allow her to pass. Although he forces them to disperse and leave her alone, his assertion that “they mean no harm” serves to excuse their actions. In the end, Fyedka does respond to the Russian subjugation of the Jewish people by leaving the town, but in this moment, he allows it.

“That’s what comes from bringing a wild man into your house.”

Lazar is already bitter toward Tevye at Tzeitel’s wedding because Tevye reneged on their agreement. But his comment about Perchik, who is leading the members of the wedding party to dance with opposite-gender partners, suggests that Tevye will be punished for going against tradition. In this case, Tevye is being punished for bringing a student in to educate his daughters instead of simply training them to be housewives. But in a larger sense, this accusation implies that Tevye will be punished for breaking tradition by allowing Tzeitel to choose her own husband.

“Hodel, your father, the others here, think what happened at Tzeitel’s wedding was a little cloudburst and it’s over and everything will now be peaceful again. It won’t… Horrible things are happening all over the land… pogroms, violence, whole villages are being emptied of their people… and it’s reaching everywhere, and it will reach here.”

While the Jews in Anatevka are, to some degree, aware of the persecution that is occurring all over Europe, they are largely treating the news as something that is only affecting the outside world. Perchik recognizes that the persecution will not stop and is willing to sacrifice his own comfort and possible happiness to fight. While the Jews of the village lose their homes, they are fortunate to survive since the pogroms against the Jews that occurred during this time period on the orders of Tsar Nicholas II left thousands dead.

“At least with Tzeitel and Motel, they asked me, they begged me. But now if I like it or not you’ll marry him. So what do you want from me? Go on, be wed. And tear out my beard and uncover my head.”

Tevye implies that Hodel and Perchik’s decision to marry with or without his permission is akin to destroying his identity as a Jewish man. For Motel and Tzeitel, Tevye’s permission is essential and it seems clear that they will ultimately obey Tevye’s wishes even if it means unhappiness. But Hodel has decided that she will marry Perchik regardless, and Tevye decides to accept the marriage even though it means that Hodel will leave the town.

“He loves her. Love. It’s a new style. On the other hand, our old ways were new once, weren’t they? On the other hand, they decided without parents, without a matchmaker. After all, did Adam and Eve have a matchmaker? … Yes, they did… Then it seems these two have the same matchmaker.”

Tevye grapples with Hodel’s avoidance of using a matchmaker and comes to the realization that like Adam and Eve, Hodel and Perchik had God for a matchmaker. This rationale allows him to choose acceptance of his daughter’s marriage while upholding the belief that he can still assert his authority of the future marriages of his other daughters. He also accepts that tradition can change, and that love can now be a reason to marry. Having seen Tzeitel, who married for love and is now extremely happy even without money or status, Tevye is beginning to understand that marriage does not just have to be a familial, social, and financial transaction.

“Do I love him? For twenty-five years I’ve lived with him, fought with him, starved with him. Twenty-five years, my bed is his. If that’s not love, what is?”

Golde reacts to Tevye’s question as if it is ridiculous. Their marriage was arranged, and they have never had the luxury of talking about love. On their wedding day, they met for the first time and their parents told them that love would develop between them. But Golde defines love as action rather than a feeling. Standing by someone through hard times and happy times has resulted in a marriage that is still strong, even if it didn’t begin with love. However, this is not always the case. Yente describes her late husband as worthless. Fruma-Sarah was miserable with Lazar Wolf. Arranged marriages are a mixed bag, but Tevye and Golde have come to love each other over the years.

“And that’s what comes from men and women dancing!”

When Yente intercepts a letter for Hodel from Perchik, she learns that Perchik has been arrested. She spreads the story, which changes from gossiper to gossiper until it becomes an outlandish tale of misfortune that has supposedly befallen Tevye and his family. Yente, who still holds onto a grudge for being rendered obsolete in Tzeitel’s wedding, is triumphant in describing how the family has been punished for allowing Perchik to dance at the wedding. She blurs the line between tradition, which is done because it has always been done, and religious law, which is followed because it is believed morally right and deemed punishable for disobedience. In this case, dancing is not forbidden and therefore it is not punishable. But Yente’s role stems from tradition rather than religious law, so it is unsurprising that she values tradition so heavily.

“Who says that he isn’t? It’s just that he is a different kind of man. As the good book says, ‘Each shall seek his own kind.’ Which, translated, means, a bird may love a fish, but where would they build a home together?”

Tevye’s statement about interspecies love is one that has been echoed by many who believe that a person should only marry someone who is of their own class, race, or religion. For Chava and Fyedka, Chava is asking to marry someone who is not Jewish. This in and of itself is considered unacceptable. But after the attack on Tzeitel’s wedding, Fyedka is also the enemy. Marrying Fyedka means assimilating into Russian Christian society, which flies in the face of the goal to preserve Jewish culture and communities.

“I know I’m very upset about my horse. He is one of your creatures and he has the same rights I have: the right to be sick, the right to be hungry, the right to work like a horse… And, Dear God, I’m sick and tire of pulling this card. I know, I know, I should push it awhile.”

Through most of the play, Tevye bears bad fortune with humor. Here, just before he learns that Chava has eloped, Tevye expresses his exhaustion. His complaints are usually good-natured but being kicked over by life circumstances becomes a heavy burden. Regardless, Tevye’s faith teaches him to accept his circumstances as controlled by God, even when he doesn’t understand them.

“Accept them? How can I accept them? Can I deny everything I believe in? On the other hand, can I deny my own child? … On the other hand, how can I turn my back on my faith, my people? If I try to bend that far, I will break… On the other hand there is no other hand.”

Tevye grapples with Chava’s decision to elope with Fyedka. He doesn’t want to lose his daughter, but she has done something that not only goes against tradition but also religion. Tzeitel and Hodel’s marriages required Tevye to give up some of his pride and authority in order to make his daughters happy. But to Tevye, Chava’s marriage betrays Judaism and the Jewish covenant with God. In the end, he shows that he cannot fully shun her and will likely one day accept her again. But Tevye’s identity is wrapped around his faith and accepting what he perceives as his daughter’s denial of that faith will destroy his sense of self.