# Fiddler on the Roof **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [February 14, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850 "2009-02-14T19:20:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/41 "2009-02-15T02:51:51Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I think I feel a _song_ coming on…! The symbolism of a pursuing Death in a movie about Medieval Europe and the plague; Tradition chasing Tevye towards modern America, then fleeing from him, then following him again… ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/42 "2009-02-15T03:52:38Z")
To add my own experience into the mix, it parallel’s **Typo Knig** ’s pretty closely. My family has accepted the nice Catholic boy I married because the alternative, to them – losing a child and grandchild – was worse. My brother has also married outside the faith, although they were married by a rabbi, signed a ketubah, and have joined a synagogue. Robin ---
**Author:** ![lynne-42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lynne-42/32/3138_2.png) [@lynne-42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynne-42)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/43 "2009-02-15T04:02:05Z")
I have seen Fiddler live and on film many times, including school productions and with Topol. I own the film on DVD and often have it playing during the day just for the music. Unlike almost every other musical, it never loses the ability to draw out emotions and to make me sing. There are only a few others I would rank in that league - but that is not the OP! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/44 "2009-02-15T04:03:54Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > T My brother has also married outside the faith, although they were married by a rabbi, signed a ketubah, and have joined a synagogue. I am curious; what denomination of Judaism? Thanks, CP ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/45 "2009-02-15T04:09:38Z")
> [@lynne-42](#): > > it never loses the ability to draw out emotions and to make me sing. Cannonball Adderly’s cover of Fiddler songs is the only one of my Jazz CDs Mrs. Plant will listen to. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/46 "2009-02-15T04:24:43Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Cannonball Adderly’s cover of Fiddler songs is the only one of my Jazz CDs Mrs. Plant will listen to. 🙂 Maybe the jazz version of Chaveleh wouldn’t send me into convulsive sobs. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/47 "2009-02-15T04:31:03Z")
I love this movie. Our local art deco theater does old movies and they did this a couple of year ago. They made it a sing-a-long with the lyrics on the screen (not that I needed them). Some days when I’m working a sad case I feel like Tevye asking god, ‘was that really necessary?’ ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/48 "2009-02-15T05:05:46Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Maybe the jazz version of Chaveleh wouldn’t send me into convulsive sobs. Check it [out.](http://www.amazon.com/Fiddler-Roof-Cannonball-Adderley/dp/B000093U3V) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/49 "2009-02-15T05:43:11Z")
Sheldon Harnick, who wrote the lyrics, hosted a presentation his songs a couple of years ago. He said that during the first performances of Fiddler he would leave the theater weeping when they sang “Do you love me?” It took some time before he realized why. Sheldon, a modern American, married a woman he met and fell in love at work (an actress). His parents had a traditional arranged marriage. They were his inspiration for “Do you love me?” although he hadn’t realized it when he wrote the song. Until I heard that story I had thought that the song was about an old married couple wondering if they still had love like the youthful marriages of their daughters. Although it is obvious from the lyrics, I didn’t realize that it is about a couple who had entered marriage as complete strangers. That they had really never said “I love you” until their daughters romances got them to consider the question. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/50 "2009-02-15T12:50:37Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Is the audience supposed to think, “Aw, what noble, good souls Chava and Fyedka are!” Or are we supposed to think, “Aw, what a pair of idiots Chava and Fyedka are, thinking they can outrun bigotry!” > > Thoughts? If I have my timing right, I thought “Out of the frying pan and into the fire.” I don’t think Krakow in about 20 years would be anyone’s idea of a vacation spot. Oh, **Sampiro** …I’m sorely tempted. I wonder how much the tickets are? I like “Do You Love Me” too…very poignant, that after 25 years they finally realized it. My daughter asked me about that thing by the door that everyone would touch as they entered and left the house. I think it starts with an “m,” but I couldn’t remember the significance…does it hold prayers or pages from the Torah? ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/51 "2009-02-15T13:22:50Z")
It’s a mezuzah. It holds the “s’hma,” a bit of a prayer from the Torah, I think. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/52 "2009-02-15T13:30:30Z")
And here’s your [link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mezuzah) ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/53 "2009-02-15T13:35:09Z")
Any sort of prayer, or a specific one? As far as Tevye being as bad as the Russians…when my father married outside the “faith” (he was part of a very religious Christian sect in the midwest) his parents disowned him. I never met them. I can’t worship a God who would tell me to disown my own child for falling in love. I think Tevye’s very devout, yearns to discuss theology with learned men, and is very insular. He acknowledges the “others” in the town, and will even drink and dance with them, but that’s as far as it goes. **jsgoddess** …you’re probably right…he wouldn’t seek to drive them out of town if he had the choice. The “unofficial demonstration”…I told my daughter that was so the sheriff could show he had control in the neighborhood. Tevye mentioned a “pogrom” and I couldn’t explain to her exactly what that was. Off to wikipedia! ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/54 "2009-02-15T13:41:38Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Any sort of prayer, or a specific one? The sh’ma is about as specific as you get: it’s a kind of “Listen up, Jews, I’m tellin’ ya” kind of thing (more formally, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One…”). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/55 "2009-02-15T13:58:44Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > My daughter asked me about that thing by the door that everyone would touch as they entered and left the house. I think it starts with an “m,” but I couldn’t remember the significance…does it hold prayers or pages from the Torah? A mezuzah. The first and second paragraphs of the Sh’ma. “And you shall speak of them (the Torah laws) when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up…And you shall write them upon your doorposts of you house and upon your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:7,9 ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/56 "2009-02-15T14:13:38Z")
Is that considered a good gift as a housewarming present, or do Orthodox Jews consider it part and parcel of the house, like the oven and the dishwasher? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/57 "2009-02-15T14:24:52Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Is that considered a good gift as a housewarming present, or do Orthodox Jews consider it part and parcel of the house, like the oven and the dishwasher? I was late, apparently.🙂 They take the old ones with them, and you may give one as a gift. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/58 "2009-02-15T16:23:04Z")
And let’s not forget [Tefillin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tefillin), for our more observant friends. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/59 "2009-02-15T16:32:23Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I asked the Conservative Rabbi about that when I converted. He smiled and replied, “I’m sure _some_ do.” > > There are pictures of pogrom victims in _Nicholas and Alexandra._ > > I asked the Reform Rabbi who the Fiddler was. He is following Tevye at the end of the film. He reminds me of Death in _The Seventh Seal_ who chases his victims about at the end of the movie. Rabbi is a fan of _Fiddler_ and thought for a moment before he remarked, “Tradition.” I always took him to be a personification of Jewish mysticism - the insane sort of joy of life, that one could fiddle happily while balanced, precariously, on the roof (read: celebrate life while surrounded by people who might one day decide to kill you). ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850/60 "2009-02-15T16:32:25Z")
> [@Typo\_Knig](#): > > And let’s not forget [Tefillin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tefillin), for our more observant friends. “Why do we wear them? I’ll tell you. I don’t know.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiddler-on-the-roof/485850.md?page=4)