Chaim Topol, the Israeli actor most famous for his portrayal of Tevye the milkman has found his way back to the energy of the shtetl.
Millions of people across the world are familiar with the name Chaim Topol or just “Topol” as he was known in his heyday. From Tokyo to Los Angeles masses came to watch the Israeli-born actor perform the role of Tevye the lovable dairyman and hapless star of Fiddler on the Roof. Virtually the only demographic unfamiliar with — and unimpressed by — his star role is the chareidi public he worked so hard to depict. Yet an aging Topol reveals that he’s spent some of his best hours bent over a Gemara training his mind to follow the principles and positions of Abaye and Rava. As he straddles the dual roles of celebrated actor and spiritual explorer he is also taking tentative steps toward the tradition that resonated throughout his most famous role.
The musical play that put Topol’s name in lights is based on a tale written by the Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem. The storyline is a familiar one to many Jews with roots in Eastern Europe: a poverty-stricken Jewish family living in the Russian Pale of Settlement faces new dangers to tradition from both without and within. From without the Russian authorities and soldiers bring a slew of persecution pogroms and eviction. From within the winds of change from the Enlightenment and Communism threaten to topple the religious commitment of an entire generation. Tevye’s family suffers the full brunt of those forces and his daughters for the most part sever their connection to their religion.
It’s ironically fitting that Chaim Topol was cast as Tevye. His family could have been a case study for Fiddler’s plot. Topol stems from a rich Eastern European chassidic heritage that was largely discarded somewhere along the way for the starry vistas of Zionism and then the lure of the stage and screen. But in recent years the plaintive call of “Tradition!” has made inroads in his soul. The iconic actor has yet to make the leap to full observance but there’s a definite flicker of religious awareness in Chaim Topol.
In the early days of the State of Israel Chaim Topol was a source of great pride. An entire generation of Israelis drank in his performances. When I ask him to don his kippah and act out his Gemara study sessions for me he demurs. “Not all the world is a stage ” he says intentionally misquoting Shakespeare. “And Gemara’s not a game.” Then his inner actor finds a solution. “Instead of putting on a show why don’t we learn for real?”
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