Its very therapeutic writing about my parents dysfunctional behaviour but I do understand that they grew up in a different era, they grew up and an unhappy home environment and decided to look to Judaism and the Jewish community to save them, to protect them from themselves.
In Judaism there are laws, there are rules, how to sleep, how to eat, how to wear clothes, nothing is questioned. These rules keep them in tow. In this world nothing is questioned and from the outside it looks perfect.
It is ruled by TRADITION!
[TEVYE]
Tradition, tradition! Tradition!
Tradition, tradition! Tradition!
[TEVYE & PAPAS]
Who, day and night, must scramble for a living,
Feed a wife and children, say his daily prayers?
And who has the right, as master of the house,
To have the final word at home?
The Papa, the Papa! Tradition.
The Papa, the Papa! Tradition.
[GOLDE & MAMAS]
Who must know the way to make a proper home,
A quiet home, a kosher home?
Who must raise the family and run the home,
So Papa's free to read the holy books?
The Mama, the Mama! Tradition!
The Mama, the Mama! Tradition!
[SONS]
At three, I started Hebrew school. At ten, I learned a trade.
I hear they've picked a bride for me. I hope she's pretty.
The son, the son! Tradition!
The son, the son! Tradition!
[DAUGHTERS]
And who does Mama teach to mend and tend and fix,
Preparing me to marry whoever Papa picks?
The daughter, the daughter! Tradition!
The daughter, the daughter! Tradition!
as you can also from this song - the Mama and daughters do everything - the men do NOTHING!
and Jewish men to this day are taught nothing in the kitchen are not taught to look after themselves, the kids - it is all done by the women!
Fiddler on the roof is a musical which my father loves, he knows all the words off by heart and in tern has taught it to the rest of us.
The synopsis of this story is about the old Jews in Russia, its about Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman with five daughters, explains the customs of the Jews in the Russian shtetl of Anatevka in 1905, where their lives are as precarious as the perch of a fiddler on a roof, his whole life is shaken where one of his daughters doesnt want to marry the match made for her by her father (men and women didnt meet - matches were made for them by their parents and this still exists), his other daughter marries a Polish man (marrying out of the faith is considered a contribution to the holocaust - which wasnt at that time!)
unlike my father, he eventually accepts this and gives his daughter his blessing and permission but only after he sings this song:
Rejection scene:
Papa
I beg you to accept us
[Tevye]
Accept them?
How can I accept them?
Can I deny everything I believe in?
On the other hand
Can I deny my own daughter
On the other hand
How can I turn my back on my faith
My people
If I try and bend that far
I will break
On the other hand
No There is no other hand
2010 - the world has changed, technology allows to connect with people all over the world, the internet allows us to read anything we want, people are more aware and question everything! woman can vote, woman have jobs!
I can not live in "Fiddler on the roof land"
keeping your culture is one thing, closing your mind to the new world around you is quite another!
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