How we cite our quotes: Story Number.Paragraph
Quote #1
[…] everyone was delighted to see him—a guest! […] Golde's grilling began: "How are things in Kasrilevka? […] Who died? Who got married? Who got divorced? Who has given birth and who is expecting?"
"Why do you need to know about other people's weddings and other people's brises?" I said. "Better see that there is something to eat." (3.22-23)
A nice little contrast between life-changing, big-time rites and traditions (people getting married, babies having bris ceremonies), and the small-time custom of being a proper host—which here basically means lots and lots of food.
Quote #2
You were talking about today's children. Here's what Isaiah said: I have nourished and brought up children—you bring them into the world, they make your life miserable, you sacrifice yourself for them, you slave away night and day, and what comes of it? […] So I figured that with my daughters it would surely work out. Why? First of all, God blessed me with pretty daughters, and as you yourself have said, a pretty face is half the dowry. (4.1)
Tevye has trouble thinking of his daughters as anything other than marriage fodder—which is pretty much appropriate to his culture, even if it's a little infuriating to read.
Quote #3
"Are you crazy?" I said. "Or are you just out of your mind? You are the matchmaker and the bridegroom? Will you be playing the music too at your own wedding? I've never heard of such a thing—a young man arranging a match for himself!" […] But one thing stuck in my craw that I could not understand, no matter what. They made a pledge to marry? What was our world coming to? A young man met a girl and said her to, "Let's pledge to marry." That was not done! (4.12-20)
You have to love the one-man-band imagery here. But the real question here is: is a marriage a public, societal thing? Or is it private, based on emotions? Tevye is stuck here between one tradition dying out and another one forming.
Quote #4
Ephraim, you must know, is a matchmaker like all matchmakers, and makes matches. […]
"As you know, Reb Tevye, I am a matchmaker, and I have a bridegroom for you, but a groom without compare, the cream of the crop!" (5.49-55)
Are we the only ones getting the sense that the matchmakers in Tevye's society are like the used-car dealers in ours?
Quote #5
For a moment I wondered what would be so bad if I stopped for a while and listened to what [Chava] had to say. […] Maybe, who knew, she'd changed her mind and wanted to turn back. Maybe he'd rejected her and she was asking me to help her get out of gehennam [hell]. Maybe and maybe and many more maybes flew though my mind, and I still imagined her as a small child. I was reminded of her verse As a father pitieth his children—to a father there is no such thing as a bad child. […] All these strange thoughts came to my mind: What did it mean to be a Jew, and what did it mean to be a non-Jew? And why did God create Jews and non-Jews, and why were they so set apart from one another, unable to get along, as if one had been created by God and the other not? To my regret, not being as learned as others in books and religious texts, I could not find an answer to these questions. (6.107-108)
Okay, a bunch of things here. (1) Check out how the questions about Jews and non-Jews that torment Tevye here are the same ones that Chava posed to him at the beginning of the story. (2) Tevye is torn between his duty as a father and his duty (as he sees it, at least) as a Jew. Does he owe more to a small community (his family) or to the larger community of Jews as a targeted and deeply oppressed minority within turn of the century Russia? (3) The problem of what he should do as a father is pretty clear according to his Torah quotation—dads are supposed to love their kids no matter what. So, it's weird that he can't come up with a Biblical verse for the duty to the Jewish community issue—and that he still picks that over his Torah-defined paternal role anyway.
Quote #6
"Walk over to us at the farm, and my wife will treat you to cheese blintzes the likes of which your blessed ancestors never partook of in Egypt." […]
"I will come to you, Reb Tevye, on the first day of Shevuos with a few friends for blintzes. But see to it they are hot!"
"Fire and flame inside and out," I said [to Ahronchik], "from the frying pan right into your mouth!" (7.19-23)
This is a small thing, but it's interesting that food is the one thing that seems to link the rich and the poor (besides Tevye's dairy cart). For this community, food is a pretty deep tradition. (Oh, and, if you ever get the chance to eat some good cheese blintzes? You'll know why Ahronchik is so psyched.)
Quote #7
Seeing that the devil was doing his work, I hitched up my horse and sped to town for a doctor, the best doctor I could find. I arrived home—dear God! My Golde was already laid out on the ground with a candle at her head, looking like a small mound of earth that had been swept up and covered with a black cloth. (8.10)
Wow, talk about commitment to ritual. Are you getting this? This woman got up from her deathbed to set up a candle and cover herself with a cloth before dying? Wha??? Oh, wait. Maybe someone else came in and found her in the house. Still, we wouldn't put it past her.
Quote #8
Considering the kind of pleasure I'd had from children, I thought, maybe Eretz Yisroel might be better. Idiot! Why was I staying around here, and for whom? […] Besides, Pani Sholem Aleichem, I've always been drawn to Eretz Yisroel. I've longed to be at the Wailing Wall and at the tomb of the Patriarchs, at Mother Rachel's Tomb, and to see the River Jordan, Mount Sinai, and Dead Sea, the cities of Pithom and Ramses, and other such places with my own eyes. My imagination carried me away to the blessed land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey. (8.97-98)
Right, so first, a little Shmoop brain snack—"Eretz Yisroel" means "Israel" in Hebrew. When Podhotsur suggests Tevye get over to America, Tevye takes this as a huge insult—but the exact same command to go away works pretty well when the destination is this mythical place that's at the heart of all the midrash that Tevye loves so much. Talk about going to the source.
Quote #9
I came home to find, not a house, but a wreck, the poor walls bare, as if they were shedding tears for all that was happening to them! […]
"You're crying because you're sad to leave your home. You were born here and grew up here, and so you are sad. Believe me," I said, "if I weren't Tevye, if I were somebody else, I would kiss these bare walls and these empty shelves. I would get down on my knees on the earth. I will miss every little thing the same as you." […]
"Papa, I am not talking about our leaving. I am talking about our Chava." (9.54-62)
Are we supposed to be moved that Tevye is so attached to this house? Or are we meant to be reminded of his callousness, or at least cruelty, in being more moved at losing it than at how he's totally cut a child out of his life? Or—wait for it—both?
Quote #10
Like Jacob of old, I was exiled from my village with all my worldly goods, with my children and grandchildren, as their edict required. They made an utter ruin of my property and poor belongings; even my horse had to be sold […] [Russians are] sweeping and clearing out and uprooting every trace of a Jew! As we say in yaaleh veyavo, so as there shall be no sign—nothing will remain of their presence. […]The hooligans were set loose on Jewish cities and villages and given a free hand. They destroyed Jewish property and goods as it says in the Siddur: they shattered windows and tore bedding. I remember once telling you that I was not surprised by such things. I do not scare easily. If it happens, it happens. If it is fated, an edict from heaven, then how can I be an exception among Jews? As we say in the chapter, Each Jew hath his share. (10.1-4)
Here, Tevye is describing a horrific episode of ethnic cleansing in early 20th-century Russia, but it's totally cool because he can find plenty of ways to compare it to other stuff that happened in the Bible. Maybe this is comforting or whatever, but it also makes it seem like the idea of wiping Jews off the face of the earth is just a pattern that happens, and so should just be ignored or somehow absorbed into the cultural fabric. Which seems problematic at best, no?