Fiddler on the Roof

“A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof, trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn’t easy. You may ask, why do we stay up there if it’s so dangerous? We stay because Anatevka is our home…”

Tevye opens the show by addressing the musical’s otherwise cryptic title. This breaks the fourth wall and sets the precedent that the show will not simply be a straightforward story. In following with Jewish rhetorical tradition, the situation is presented as a series of questions to be pondered rather than black and white answers. Tevye is not a perfect beacon of Jewish tradition or fatherhood, but he is intelligent, caring, and does the best he can to balance his role as a father who loves his daughters and a patriarch who must lead the family spiritually. The fiddler’s continued presence on the roof represents a resistance to assimilation in the face of adversity.

“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.