Tevye, the milkman

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scholem Alejchem's works: Tevye the milky and other stories . New York, 1912

Tewje, the milkman ( Yiddish original title טעוויע דער מילכיקער, Tevye the Milkker ) is a novel by the writer Sholem Alejchem . The book was published in eight parts between 1895 and 1916 and is one of the classics of Yiddish literature . It served as a template for the musical Anatevka and its film adaptation of the same name .

construction

The work is classified as a novel , but with its eight stories from the life of Tewje it is more of a collection of short stories . Alejchem chose a narrative style: The hero Tevye apparently tells the stories to a good friend named Sholem Alejchem.

action

The novel is set around 1905 in the area of ​​the small villages Masepowka, Jehupez, Bojberik and Anatevka. The protagonist lives with his wife Golde and his daughters in Bojberik and earns a living for himself and his family as a milkman. Although he is only a simple Jew without any higher education, he is very well educated in his knowledge of the Torah , the Talmud and the Midrash . Not only does he find suitable verses from the scriptures for a wide variety of life situations, but the text itself refers to it in many places. Bojberik, the home village of the family, forms the center of this microcosm.

  • Author Sholem Alejchem

  • Resident of a Jewish quarter around 1900 in the border area between Poland and Germany

  • Jewish family in Eastern Europe around 1909

  • Jewish Klezmer family from Rohatyn 1912

Prologue - I am too low

The title is an allusion to Jacob's prayer before his encounter with Esau ( Gen 32.11  EU ). The book opens with a letter to the author in which Tevye is more than astonished that his life, simple and banal, is so interesting that it has been printed. The humor that pervades the entire book emerges here for the first time, as Tevye closes his astonished letter by giving the author an address to which he should send the royalty from the sale.

Chapter 1 - The Great Lot (written in 1895)

The episode tells how Tewje's family gnawed at the hunger cloth and he became a milk dealer. When he is on his way home in his car and recites the eighteen prayers, he meets two rich ladies from Jehupez who spend the summer in Bojberik. Tevye brings the lost to their destination. He knows the house because he has supplied it with firewood several times. It is one of the richest in the area. The ladies are greeted happily and Tewje is left behind at first. Then he should be invited to a sumptuous meal in gratitude for ending the wandering women’s wandering. Tevye declines with thanks because it is difficult for him to sit down at a blackboard when his family is poor at home. Then the servants of the company load him tea, sugar, lard, bread and other groceries into the car. He also gets a cow and 38 rubles for free . He and his wife decided to use the money to buy another cow and from then on he was able to provide for the family's livelihood as a milkman .

Chapter 2 - How won ... (written 1899)

His distant relative Menachem-Mendel persuades Tevye, who is now gripped by a slight greed for money, to invest 100 rubles in stocks , even if he doesn't really know what it is. When, after some time, he has not received any news about his investment, Tevye finally visits his relative and meets a shabby, ragged man. He lost his money. Tevye realizes that it is better not to invest in unfamiliar businesses.

Chapter 3 - Children Today (Written 1899)

It is time for Tewje's eldest daughter Zeitel to get married. The widowed and quite wealthy butcher of the village, Lejser-Wolf, asked for Zeitel's hand and the parents agreed. Zeitel, however, does not want to marry him under any circumstances, because she loves the poor tailor's journeyman Motel Kamisol, who is also asking Tewje for Zeitel's hand. Motel manages to convince Tewje to give preference to love marriage. Now Tewje has to convince his wife Golde with a ruse that she too agrees to the marriage and rejects the “good match” of the butcher, which he succeeds. Motel and Zeitel get married and are happy despite their poverty.

Chapter 4 - Hodel (written 1904)

As Tewje is on the way home, he meets the young but penniless high school student Pertschik, who comes to visit more and more frequently after this first meeting and invitation to Tewye. Tewje soon has almost fatherly feelings for the young man, whom the family nicknamed Pfefferl. In return for the hospitality, he gives lessons to the daughters. Every now and then Pertschik leaves the village for several days, but always comes back. At some point Tewje meets his second oldest and very educated daughter Hodel together with Pertschik on a walk in the forest. He suspects that they have fallen in love, but is very shocked when he learns that both have secretly married. Tewje realizes that he can no longer do anything about it and again thinks about a ruse to convince his wife Golde again that everything is fine. Pertschik has to leave the village again soon and Tevje takes him to the train station with Hodel. He suspects that this farewell will be a long one and explains this to Golde again with a ruse. After a while, Hodel receives a letter from her husband and travels to see him. Pertschik is a revolutionary who has been exiled wherever Hodel follows him. The reader only experiences this indirectly. Tewye finds this farewell very difficult.

Chapter 5 - Chava (written 1906)

At first the chapter revolves around Hodel, her husband and her life in Siberia . The third oldest daughter, Chava, quickly becomes the main motive. On the way home from work, Tevye meets the village clerk Chwedjko Galagan when he visits Chava. Chava raves about him as if he were a new Gorky . In the city the milkman runs later, the Pope , the Tevye because of various disputes over the true religion is not good to speak, on the road. The priest tells that he knows a suitable husband for Chava, but that he is not a Jew, which leads Tevye to believe that it is Chwedjko. When he comes back, Chava is not at home. His wife Golde had been privy to it for a long time, and this time she tries to make it clear to Tevye that Chwedjko is not a bad person despite the religious flaws. Tevje misses his Chava very much, but has no idea where it is now. At some point he meets her on the street, where she asks him to stop the car so she can explain the situation to him. However, Tevye only stops for a moment and hardly allows his daughter to speak. According to a Jewish custom, he then declares Chava dead and forbids his family to ever mention her again.

Chapter 6 - Sprinze (written 1907)

After the first pogroms , many Jews have to flee. Tewje's family are spared, but there are a lot of refugees in the village - including those from the upper class - who are supplied by him. He befriends a rich widow. She thinks her son, whom everyone just calls Arontschik, is lazy because, in her eyes, he is only resting on the family's fortune. Tevye takes care of him. A friendship soon emerges and Arontschik falls in love with their fourth daughter, Sprinze. The marriage was met with great approval by Tewje and Golde, as it was a good match. Shortly before the wedding, Tevye is called to the widow. Arontschik's uncle is already waiting there. This makes it clear that the wedding can never take place due to the differences in class. The family of a simple Michmann would by no means take up with his family ties, as this would result in a bad reputation. The uncle assumes Sprinze only has an interest in Arontschik's fortune anyway. The wedding is canceled, Sprinze commits in deep mourning suicide .

Chapter 7 - Tevye Goes to the Land of Israel (Written 1909)

Tewjes wife Golde dies quite unexpectedly. Confronted with the finality of death, in addition to the grief, doubts about his faith arise in him for the first time. Yet he continues to trust in God. It will also be time for the youngest daughter Bejlke to get married. In the village, Efroim occasionally works as a matchmaker . For Tewjes youngest he has the wealthy Jew Pedozur in mind as a good match. Even if she doesn't love him, Bejlke marries him. In order to live up to his reputation, Tevje offers to make his big dream - a trip to Eretz Israel - possible. After the death of his wife and since all his daughters are now being looked after, nothing can keep him in the village. He sells his belongings, accepts the offer and, after saying goodbye to Scholem, starts the trip. Whether the two will see each other again remains open to the reader at this point.

Chapter 8 - Get Out of Your Country (Written 1914)

The title is an allusion to God's invitation to Abraham ( Gen 12.1  EU ). Tevje and Scholem meet again in 1914 after many years. There has been a break between the two, which the reader will notice in the style of the speech. If Tevje's relationship with Scholem seemed very close so far, he now speaks formally to him as "Mr. Scholem Alejchem" and saves him. Tevye reports that he was not in Israel because Zeitel's husband Motel passed away. He had to look after his daughter and grandchildren. He knows from Bejlke that they emigrated to America with Pedozur because of their high indebtedness. Over time, the whole village turned against the Jewish milkman: there was a mob in front of the house. Tevye, in his good way, wants to greet the villagers, all of whom he knows. However, these only threaten him, the Jew, with violence. Iwan Poperile, the town's mayor, explains to the milkman that Jews are being beaten and driven out everywhere in the area. And why should the village make an exception for him? Only the village community is not yet in agreement on what exactly they are willing to do to him, and the mob leaves without having achieved anything. Some time later, Tevye is sitting in front of his house and philosophizing about his God. He is tormented by questions such as why God is silent about all suffering, does not show himself and also does not send the promised Messiah . At that moment a rider appears on a white horse. Tevye thinks he is a militiaman. The rider tells Tevye that it is time to go. He tells his daughter Zeitel that as Jews they will soon be expelled from the village. It is better to go yourself beforehand. While they are packing their belongings, Chava returns. She steps in front of Tevye and just says softly "Father". She is taken back into the family. Tevye now says goodbye to Sholem Alejchem. He also asks his forgiveness for putting so many stories into his head with his telling. But at least that way Scholem would have something to write down. And if God willing, they would both meet again one day.

Emergence

The novel was written over a very long period of 21 years from 1895 to 1916. The author's autobiographical experiences were included in the texts. A first single short story was published in Yiddish in 1895. A German translation was published in 1921. Since then, the work has been continuously reprinted. There were always new translations. When looking at Sholem Alejchem's biography , some events become apparent that also happen to Tevye's family in the text: In 1890 the author, who had speculated on the stock exchange, had to flee abroad because of his debts. Similar to the events in chapters 2 and 7. Alejchem also personally experienced pogroms in 1905. Like Tevye in chapter 8, due to his negative experience with socialism, he later turned to Zionism , similar to how thoughts of this kind are found in chapters 7 and 8 in Tevye's life. Certain autobiographical traits can therefore be assumed in the text.

reception

In a review in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 2003 of Armin Eidherr's new translation, Jakob Hessing came to the conclusion that the novel was a tragic and at the same time humorous account of the life of a man who, with the decline of his family, also described the end of an entire culture / era . The book successfully depicts historical events through which the collective character of the fates described becomes clear. In addition, the novel has its very own Jewish coloring. The text first takes a look at the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe that have now disappeared with their very own culture. The hard-working, not very wealthy, but trusting in God people are shown in their everyday lives. But Tevye is not an idealized resident of the shtetl . Although a traditional Jew, he is also an enlightened person, questions many things in his dialogue with God and experiences the social change in norms and political conditions up close, which makes him a tragic hero despite all the comedy in the text.

Adaptations

Chaim Topol played Tewje in the Oscar-winning film Anatevka (right: Hanna Rovina )

Scholem Alejchem himself turned the material into a play before all parts of the story had appeared. The play, which focuses on the conflict between Tevje and Chava, was premiered in Warsaw in 1905 .

The New York Yiddish Art Theater performed an adaptation of the material by Maximilian Hurwitz in 1924 during his guest appearance at the Carltheater in Vienna in Yiddish. Directed by Maurice Schwartz , who also played Tewje.

The book has been made into films many times, including the US, Yiddish-language productions Broken Barriers from 1919 and Tevya from 1939 and the German-Israeli production Tevje and his seven daughters from 1967.

The book served Jerry Bock as a template for the musical Anatevka (original title: The Fiddler On The Roof ). The libretto was based on the text of the work. In Anatevka, however, Tevye's life and the strokes of fate are portrayed romantically. The humorous punch lines are in the foreground. The political and socially critical aspect is faded out in favor of folklore and clichés about the shtetl. In 1971, Norman Jewison filmed the musical, which made the character of Tewje known to an audience of millions.

The Austrian author Joseph Roth was so impressed by the work that it inspired him to write his novel Job , which borrows a lot from Tewje.

literature

expenditure

Since the first publication in German there have been repeated editions, so the list here is only an example. The edition from 1962 should also be emphasized on the basis of the afterword by Brod.

  • Tevye's stories of the milk merchant . Translated from Yiddish by Alexander Eliasberg . B. Harz, Berlin / Vienna 1922. (German first edition)
  • New edition with an afterword by Max Brod : Gutenberg Book Guild, Frankfurt am Main 1962.
  • Tevye, the milkman . Translated from Yiddish and with an afterword by Armin Eidherr . Manesse, Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-7175-2006-7 .

Secondary literature

Due to the popularity of the material for the musical, there are a large number of texts in English that deal with Alejchem's original work. This selection is also to be understood as an example.

  • Otto F. Best : Scholem Alejchem Tevye the milkman. In: Kindlers Literature Lexicon . JB Metzler, online edition, entry last revised in 2016.
  • Jan Schwarz: Speaking Tevye der milkhiker in Translation: Performance, Humor, and World Literature. In: Gennady Estraikh et al. (Ed.): Translating Sholem Aleichem: History, Politics, and Art . Legenda, London 2012, pp. 199-214.
  • Joseph Sherman: Holding Fast to Integrity: Shalom Rabinovich, Sholem Aleichem and Tevye the Dairyman. In: Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought. 43, No. 1, 1994, pp. 6-18.
  • Alisa Solomon: Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of 'Fiddler on the Roof' . Metropolitan Books, New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-8050-9529-6 .
  • Howard Stern: Shprintze, or Metathesis: On the Rhetoric of the Fathers in Sholem Aleichem's Tevye the Dairyman. In: Gerhard Richter (Ed.): Literary Paternity, Literary Friendship . University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 2002, pp. 337-344.
  • Michael Stern: Tevye's Art of Quotation. In: Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History. 6, 1986, p. 1, pp. 79-96.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lecture "Tevye the Milkman or Anatevka". (MSWord) In: Jüdisches Lehrhaus Göttingen. Retrieved July 5, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Tevye the milkman. In: Pearl Divers. Retrieved July 4, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Hannelore Gärtner (Ed.): BI writer lexicon. Authors from all over the world. 2nd Edition. Bibliographisches Institut, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-323-00195-8 .
  4. ↑ Jakob Hessing: Surrounded by women. No blessing: Scholem Alejchem listens to Tevye, the milkman. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 29, 2003, No. 24, p. 34.
  5. ↑ Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture (EJGK). Volume 6: Ta-Z. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2015, ISBN 978-3-476-02506-7 , p. 77.
  6. ^ Alisa Solomon: Tevye 'Travels. From Yiddish Everyman to American Icon . In: Edna Nahshon (Ed.): New York's Yiddish Theater. From the Bowery to Broadway . Columbia University Press, New York 2016, ISBN 978-0-231-17670-5 , pp. 286 ( preview in Google Book Search).
  7. ^ Jacob Weitzner: Sholem Aleichem in the theater . Symposium Press, Northwood 1994, ISBN 978-0-8386-3636-7 , pp. 4 .
  8. ↑ Armin A. Wallas (Ed.): Eugen Hoeflich. Diaries 1915 to 1927 . Böhlau, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-205-99137-0 , p. 502 f.
  9. ↑ Broken Barriers in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  10. ↑ Tevya in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  11. ↑ Tevje and his seven daughters in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  12. ↑ Sholem Alejchem. Yiddish literary man. In: Deutschlandfunk. May 13, 2016, accessed July 4, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Mark Twain of the Jews. In: Jüdische Allgemeine. March 12, 2009. Retrieved July 4, 2017 .