Show Synopsis:
Tevye is a poor Jewish milkman who struggles to marry his three eldest daughters off to suitable men in their small Russian Jewish village, which keeps hearing rumors of the tsar's demands to drive the Jews from their homes. He asks the matchmaker Yente for help with Tzeitel's marriage, but she is trying to encourage Motel to overcome his fear of Tevye's temper to ask him for Tzeitel's hand, which would defy the tradition of letting adults decide. After their engagment, Tevye fakes a nightmare to convince his wife Golde that Tzeitel marrying Motel is for the best. During the wedding, the young radical Perchik dances with Hodel, defying Jewish tradition that the sexes may not dance with each other. A few months later, he proposes to her, and though Tevye is shocked, he gives them his blessing. He even consents to Hodel leaving to join Perchik in his exile in Siberia. Months later, Chava asks him for permision to marry Fyedka, but Fyedka is not Jewish, and Tevye will consider Chava to be dead to him and the family if she marries him, which she does. As the Jews are expelled from their villages, Chava, Fyedka, Tzeitel, and Motel leave for Poland while Golde and Tevye leave for America with their two youngest daughters.	

Character:
Motel Kamzoil, a young tailor who gains courage to confront Tevye about marrying his daughter Tzeitel; steadfast.

Song Context:
Tevye has just granted Motel her permission for him to marry Tzeitel, although they have broken tradition by falling in love and agreeing to marry without anyone's intervention or involvement. He celebrates with his fiancee.	

Fun Facts:
1. The plot of Fiddler on the Roof was developed from Yiddish short stories by Sholom Aleichem. 
2. From the opening number, Jerome Robbins and the rest of the creative team were determined to show "tradition" and how it breaks down throughout the play as Tevye sees his daughters leave him one-by-one. 
3. The story of Daniel and the lion is in the sixth chapter of the Hebrew Bible. When King Darius decreed that the kingdom could not worship anyone except himself for thirty days, Daniel kept praying despite the likelihood of being executed. Darius threw him in the lion's den, but he emerged unharmed, and those responsible for influencing the king into composing the decree were thrown to the lions.