Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar:
Psalm 34:8: “O taste and see that God is good.”
Yesterday in class we took a break and watched “Fiddler on the Roof.” The whole movie focused on the following old Hebraic expression: “Our God and God of our fathers?” This is expressing two types of people who believe in God. The first type believes in God because they follow the path of their forefathers. This was Tevye, he was very strong in his faith at the beginning of the movie because he was following the traditions of his fathers. He could not be enticed away from his belief even when presented with numerous refutations. We learn at the beginning that he does not know where the traditions come from or how they started, but they are traditions and it is the traditions that give him his balance. The Fiddler does not fall of the Roof because tradition gives him his balance. At the beginning of the movie, Tevye represents the “God of our Fathers.” We easily see the disadvantage to this as he follows his faith like a commandment, done by rote, without reason or understanding and he never investigates his faith.
However, as the movie progresses, Tevye is forced to do extensive investigation of his faith. As his daughters fall in love and desire to marry a man that is not chosen by a match maker or blessed by him, Tevye is forced to investigate the reason and understanding of the tradition of using a matchmaker and to decide what is really of God, ie., his daughter’s happiness or following a law taught by his fathers. He is forced to make a decision on this tradition without the benefit of his elders. With two out of three daughters he immediately decides to give his blessing to a union formed outside the tradition he was raised in. At the end he even gives his blessing to the daughter who has married a Christian, something totally outside his tradition. By the end of the movie Tevye has moved from the God of his fathers to “his” God. The second type of person who knows his Creator through personal investigation.
However, we also see that at the very end he, his family and community are forced to leave their homes because they are Jewish and cling to the basic tenets of their faith. As they leave their homes the Fiddler appears to Tevye in the final scene. Tevye smiles and welcomes the Fiddler. Tevye has at this point followed the teachings of Psalms 34:8 as taught by the sages. He has tasted (meaning taste for yourself) and see (that is, see the conduct of others, the same as your forefathers conducted themselves) and found that the Lord was good (tov – harmony). Tevye had “tasted” of the Lord in rejecting certain traditions, but also still clung to the traditions of his fathers that did not come in conflict with his relationship with God and found that it was
“good” or brought him in harmony with his God.
During the wedding scene a young radical announces he will dance with a woman. Everyone is shocked. Even the rabbis son declares that dancing with a woman is a sin. Yet, when they consult the rabbi he has to admit that the Torah does not forbid it. Their forefathers made it a sin, not the Scriptures. Soon everyone ends up dancing with their wives or girl friends, even the rabbi dances with a woman. They tasted of the Lord.
How many traditions do we follow that are not Scriptural but have just been handed down to us from previous generations. How many Christians are just “environmental Christians.” They follow the teachings of their fathers, but have never investigated God for themselves. David declares that we must investigate, taste of the Lord ourselves. The first step is the salvation experience, finding and accepting Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior. Yet, David further says “and see.” Ok, maybe the music of our fathers does not fit us and we create our own music. The style of worship our parents followed, does not fit us, so we create a new style. We need to investigate and find God as our God, but we must remember He is still the God of our Fathers and many of the beliefs of our fathers (the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, the trinity, the inspiration of Scripture) must never be rejected. As, like the Fiddler, we play out our own tune to God standing on a roof top. We could easily fall off that roof as we play our own personal tune to God. We could fall into heresy, or apostasy or even lose our faith. It is the basic traditions or beliefs of our fathers, the firm stand on the Word of God, that will give us our balance and keep us from falling off that roof. As we work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), as we taste of God, learn about God as He relates to us personally, we are like a Fiddler on the Roof, and the basic, Biblical foundations of our faith is what keeps us from falling off of that roof.
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