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# Shalom Aleichem
- URL: https://www.hawkword.com/poetry/shalom-aleichem/
- Published: 2023-02-16T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-17T10:40:36.000Z
- Description: Tradition, Tevye tells us from the stage, is how the universe maintains its order. Oh sure, since he's a milkman, not a sage, and rarely been outside his shtetl's border, he talks of prayer shawls and covered heads; o...
- Author: A. Gee
- Tags: Poetry, Sonnet, Allpoetry Import, #Import 2026-04-25 19:56

Tradition, Tevye tells us from the stage,  
is how the universe maintains its order.  
Oh sure, since he's a milkman, not a sage,  
and rarely been outside his shtetl's border,  
he talks of prayer shawls and covered heads;  
of how to eat, to sleep, to die, to marry,  
but all the while tradition weaves its threads,  
forsaking neither synagogue nor dairy.  
Is that, then, the best measure of a man,  
how fervently he meets God's expectations;  
adhering to a rigid, best laid plan,  
indifferent to the rise and fall of nations?  
God knows the answer but remains aloof.  
You'll have to ask the fiddler on the roof.