Leibesh Is there a proper blessing for the czar?
Rabbi A blessing for the czar? Of course. May God bless and keep the czar... far away from us.
As the good book says, when a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick.
Mendel Where does the book say that?
Well, it doesn't say that exactly, but somewhere there is something about a chicken.
Villager An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.
Very good. That way the whole world will be blind and toothless.
He's right, and he's right? They can't both be right.
You know, you are also right.
I know, I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can't You choose someone else?
A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask, why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous? Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: Tradition!
Money is the world's curse.
May the Lord smite me with it. And may I never recover.
You made many many poor people, I realize of course it's no shame to be poor, but it's no great honor either. Now what would be so terrible if I had a small fortune?
As Abraham said, "I am a stranger in a strange land..."
Mendel Moses said that.
Ah. Well, as King David said, "I am slow of speech, and slow of tongue."
Mendel That was also Moses.
For a man who was slow of tongue, he talked a lot.
Fyedka I'm a pleasant fellow, charming, honest, ambitious, quite bright, and very modest.
Because of our traditions, every one of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do.
Your daughter has a quick and witty tongue.
Yes, the wit she gets from me, as the good book says...
The good book can wait, it's time for Sabbath.
The tongue she gets from her mother.
Mordcha If the rich could hire others to die for them we, the poor, would all make a nice living.
As the good book says, if you spit in the air, it lands in your face.
As the good book says "Each shall seek his own kind". In other words a bird may love a fish but where would they build a home together?
