Tradition!

Life lessons from Fiddler on the Roof

Apr 01, 2025

I have developed a love of musical theatre in recent years. I’m not sure why it took me so long to recognize the beauty of this art form, but I’m so glad I finally found it! There is nothing quite like the energy in these live performances. Storytelling is powerful but add music to it and it becomes quite magical!

The first musical I saw in my adult life was Fiddler on the Roof. My friend Britt had scored some cheap tickets to see it at TPAC, here in Nashville. I wasn’t that keen on seeing the play, but I always love spending time with Britt, so I went. To say it was life-changing is an understatement. I was completely entranced and knew that I had begun a new journey towards more of these captivating musicals!

There is one song from Fiddler on the Roof that made a deep impression on me. It’s called Tradition. If you don’t know the story of FOTR, I’ll tell you just a bit of it. It’s the story of Tevye, a milkman in the village of Anatevka, who tries to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon his family's lives. He must cope with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters who wish to marry for love, instead of having their husbands chosen for them by the local matchmaker. One by one you see the girls fall in love with boys who don’t fit into the typical “good husband” category, and Tevye has to fight his desire to honor tradition or allow his daughters to be happy.

In this clip from the movie, you can see all the ways that Tevye believes Tradition keeps his culture and society in balance.

I see that same thing happening in our Christian culture today. Many Christians are trying to keep the “balance” in their homes, politics and overall society by desperately leaning on tradition, while refusing to consider that maybe, just mayyybbeee, it might be best to re-think the whys behind the rules.

There is an old joke that goes something like this:

Daughter to Mom: “Mom, why do you cut the ends off the roast before you put it in the pan to bake?”

Mom: “I don’t know. It’s just the way my Mom did it. It probably makes the roast taste better, but I’ll ask her.”

Mom to Grandma: “Mom, why did you always cut off the end of the roast before you put it in the pan to bake?”

Grandma: “Well, I don’t really know, it was just how my Mom always did it! I’m sure there is a very good reason. I’ll have to ask her.”

Grandma, whispering to a waning Great-Grandma as she lay in bed waiting to pass: “Mom, can you please tell me, why did you always cut off the ends of your roast before you put it in the pan to bake? Does it make it more tender? Add more flavor? Allow it to cook quicker?”

Great-grandma turns her head, looks her deeply in her daughter’s eyes as if ready to impart some last great words of wisdom, and softly says: “Because my pan was too small.”

Ha! Sometimes we follow tradition for actually no good reason. We should always be asking the whys.

But back to Fiddler on the Roof: So, when Tevye’s daughters pleaded with him to explain why he wouldn’t let them marry for love and his only response was “Tradition!”, you can see as the story unfolds how it all starts falling apart, even in Tevye’s own mind.

Allowing daughters to choose their own husbands isn’t rare anymore (at least in our culture) - but holding on to tradition, just because it’s, well… tradition, doesn't really make sense when you start applying critical thinking skills. However, many Christians still deem “traditional” values to be the “correct” values.

In my experiences, I’ve learned that isn’t always the case.

During Jesus’ life, he constantly battled the religious leaders over their “traditional” values and theological beliefs. Many people I know have started deconstructing their own faith beliefs because they have realized that some of what they were taught to be “correct” beliefs were simply traditional beliefs, and worthy now of some analysis.

Critics of the deconstructionist movement say they are simply looking for ways to justify turning away from certain theology that they don’t like anymore. But those of us who have been deconstructing know it’s not that at all. It’s not that we don’t like the traditional teachings, but we are simply looking at it with critical discernment and wondering if maybe we’ve been wrong about some things we believed. As I have deconstructed, there are many things I looked at critically that still held water. I haven’t found any teachings of Jesus’ that I’ve thought weren’t valuable. I still believe in the power of resurrection (but maybe in a slightly different way now), that there is a Creator God who loves us deeply, and I still believe the Bible is a holy book full of wisdom.

But I’ve left behind many beliefs as well. Beliefs that say that certainty equals strong faith, homosexuality is a sin, the Bible is all literally true, women can’t be leaders in the church, mixed race marriage is wrong, only one denomination has it “right”, divorce is wrong, and Christianity is the only religion that gets you to “heaven”. I put heaven in quotes because I’m still not sure what heaven actually is, but I don’t think it’s somewhere “up there” or someplace we go as a reward for getting things right down here. Anyway, those beliefs are things I was taught in previous religious settings, but I don’t carry them forward with me anymore.

In my view, Jesus was the original religious deconstructionist. He constantly questioned the status quo. He answered questions with more questions. He wanted his disciples to discern the whys. Even in those days, there were many man-made add ons to God’s commands and were passed down as traditions.

Do you think about your whys behind your thoughts, beliefs, actions? Have there been any traditions in your life that you have questioned and come up with different beliefs about?

Tell me everything… M

Tradition!

Life lessons from Fiddler on the Roof

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