# GQs about FIDDLER ON THE ROOF **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 7, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gqs-about-fiddler-on-the-roof/355807 "2006-05-07T21:49:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gqs-about-fiddler-on-the-roof/355807/1 "2006-05-07T21:49:45Z")
In the “Sabbath Prayer” song, Golde waves her hands toward herself over the candles in an almost stylized fashion. This has also been done in every stage version I’ve ever seen. Is this a ritual or is she just making sure they stay lit (because she stops after a while)? Does anybody know if any member of the B’way cast other than Leonard Frey appeared in the movie? (I know that Zero Mostel and Bea Arthur from the B’way cast were considered but it was ultimately thought he was too “Bronx” and she was too “Maude”, besides which Topol and Molly Picon were too perfect.) I’ve also heard at some point (can’t cite) that Laurence Olivier was considered for the role (I know he was considered for Don Vito Corleone and for Grandfather/Old Lodge Skins in Little Big Man- he may have been a decent Vito but there’s no way in hell he could have trumped [Chief Dan George](http://collections.ic.gc.ca/heirloom_series/volume5/george1b.jpg) as either.) Lastly, has anybody seen [Tevya](http://imdb.com/title/tt0032012/), the non-musical version from 1939? I was curious that the imdb reviewer says this Tevye is more “cerebral, chipper and acerbic”. I always thought Fiddler’s Tevye was all those things (he was a very intelligent man, just unlearned, and other than his inability to accept a Christian son-in-law he was kind and very pragmatic about tradition). I read Sholom Aleichem’s book once upon a time (so old it fell apart in my hands) and remember that it was much darker than the musical (among other things Golde and Motel both die, one of his daughters [Teibel, perhaps, who’s not in the movie- he had 7 in the book] marries a multimillionaire who loses his fortune, etc., and as memory serves it ends with Tevye, Tzeitel and her children walking to Palestine/Jerusalem as penniless Zionists) and I was wondering how much of this made the movie (which according to imdb was shot on a farm in New Jersey). Feel free to hijack this thread in any way shape or form as long as it’s somehow connected to some film or stage or other adaptation of Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye stories. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gqs-about-fiddler-on-the-roof/355807/2 "2006-05-07T21:52:49Z")
PS- Sholom Aleichem said “You can take a Jew out of a shtetl, but you cannot take a shtetl out of a Jew”. This is said many different ways, most frequently down here perhaps as “You can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy” but I’ve heard it used with NYC, The Bronx, theater, Air Force, etc… Does anybody know if it’s original to Aleichem (born as Sholem Yakov Rabinowitz and not as “Jerry Rivers” or “Patricia Neal” as so often believed). ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2006, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gqs-about-fiddler-on-the-roof/355807/3 "2006-05-08T00:45:16Z")
re: the hand movements, I believe it has something to do with welcoming the Sabbath and since it is some sacred ritual, the woman closes or shields her eyes to prevent looking at the flames. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gqs-about-fiddler-on-the-roof/355807/4 "2006-05-08T01:18:07Z")
Comparing lists on the IMDB and the IBDB, Zvee Scooler was in the opening night Broadway cast (as Mordcha) and the movie (as the rabbi). ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gqs-about-fiddler-on-the-roof/355807/5 "2006-05-08T01:22:31Z")
Regarding lighting the Shabbat candles, **phungi** has it right. > [@](#): > > [http://www.jewfaq.org/prayer/shabbat.htm](http://www.jewfaq.org/prayer/shabbat.htm) > > At least two candles should be lit, representing the dual commandments to remember and to keep the sabbath. The candles are lit by the woman of the household. After lighting, she waives her hands over the candles, welcoming in the sabbath. Then she covers her eyes, so as not to see the candles before reciting the blessing, and recites the blessing. The hands are then removed from the eyes, and she looks at the candles, completing the mitzvah of lighting the candles.