Are You Christian? Get Your Free Jewish Holidays Cheat Sheet.<\/a><\/p>\nYet, when I was seven, my parents decided to take me to see\u00a0Fiddler on the Roof<\/i>. Looking back now as parent of a seven-year-old, I would not have been so bold.<\/p>\n
Since that first experience, I have been I love with this story. I\u2019ve seen the musical four times and the movie at least half a dozen. It\u2019s one of my favorite resources for classes and sermons on Jewish tradition and history.<\/p>\n
And I am not alone.<\/p>\n
50 years after it first opened on Broadway, Fiddler on the Roof remains popular. It is even beloved in Japan, where very few Jews live.<\/p>\n
What explains this universal appeal?\u00a0What makes a musical about a small Jewish village in Russia in the 1890s speak to millions of people around the world in the 21st<\/span>\u00a0century?<\/p>\n1. It\u2019s a story about change and loss:\u00a0<\/b>Fiddler on the Roof illustrates the slow collapse of a traditional way of life.<\/p>\n
The end of the nineteenth century, much like our own times, was on of fundamental change. The small villages of Europe began to lose their residents to the lure of the bigger cities and the golden shores of America.<\/p>\n
Modern ideas began to upend the traditional beliefs and practices. Trade and military service brought people into contact with those they never would have encountered a generation ago.<\/p>\n
Change always creates a feeling of loss.<\/em>\u00a0No matter how old we are or where we live, we experience change. We can relate to what happened in the Jewish village of Fiddler, even though we never lived there.<\/p>\n2.\u00a0It\u2019s a story about family bonds:\u00a0<\/b>We can all relate to generational conflict. It is as old as humanity. It is even more pronounced in times of great change.<\/p>\n
We know people whose marriage defied their parents wishes. We know people who became a teacher when their parents may have hoped for a doctor.\u00a0Perhaps we are those people.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nWe struggle to maintain family bonds amidst such change. We feel the father\u2019s pain as his daughters move away. We feel their mixture of excitement and fear as they leave their hometown.<\/p>\n
The story of Fiddler on the Roof is both universal and unique. It is the story of one family, and it is the story of all of us.<\/div>\n
3. It\u2019s a story about human yearnings:\u00a0<\/b>Amongst Fiddler\u2019s most treasured songs is\u00a0If I Were a Rich Man<\/i>. Dancing around his modest cottage, Tevya\u00a0imagines the huge house, the adoring friends, and endless privileges he would have.<\/p>\n
He pictures the leisure time, the special seat in the synagogue and the different clothes he and wife would enjoy.<\/p>\n
Who among us has not dreamed of a different life, at least for a moment? Who among us has not walked through\u00a0 first-class cabin on a plane\u2014or walked by a lavish fancy restaurant\u2014and not thought it might be nice to sit or dine there?<\/p>\n
Like Tevya, our yearnings are not simply financial. We yearn for a return to simpler times. We yearn for meaningful relationships. We yearn for a more perfect world.<\/p>\n
At its core, yearnings represent the sacred impulse within us.<\/em>\u00a0The world as it is is not yet the world as it should be. As long as this is so, Fiddler on the Roof will continue to touch our hearts and souls.<\/p>\nAre You Christian? Get Your Free Jewish Holidays Cheat Sheet.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As I child I could not sit through movies or meals. Sitting through a musical was out of the question. Are You Christian? Get Your Free Jewish Holidays Cheat Sheet. Yet, when I was seven, my parents decided to take me to see\u00a0Fiddler on the Roof. Looking back now as parent of a seven-year-old, I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":507,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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