The holocaust metaphor is certainly appropriate but not entirely doom laden or even necessary The calf does not have free will. The swallow though free does not choose to be so.The calf's fate is certain for as in Jude the Obscure where in the beautiful pig slaughter episode Hardy shows us Jude's sentimentality and sensitivity, but his practical and down-to-earth wife simply says, "Folk must eat". The Tevia-like wagoner knows this but his view is balanced. If the story is Jewish in essence at all it is in the fact that the calf would be ritually slaughtered and therefore accorded...
The holocaust metaphor is certainly appropriate but not entirely doom laden or even necessary The calf does not have free will. The swallow though free does not choose to be so.The calf's fate is certain for as in Jude the Obscure where in the beautiful pig slaughter episode Hardy shows us Jude's sentimentality and sensitivity, but his practical and down-to-earth wife simply says, "Folk must eat". The Tevia-like wagoner knows this but his view is balanced. If the story is Jewish in essence at all it is in the fact that the calf would be ritually slaughtered and therefore accorded some natural dignity. Our Shalom Aleikom character is being rueful and philosophical. The winds are of course elemental and cannot literally laugh but saying so helps us to feel.
Baez did not write the song, it was written in 1940, a year before Baez was born. The holocaust metaphor is appropriate though.
The holocaust metaphor is certainly appropriate but not entirely doom laden or even necessary The calf does not have free will. The swallow though free does not choose to be so.The calf's fate is certain for as in Jude the Obscure where in the beautiful pig slaughter episode Hardy shows us Jude's sentimentality and sensitivity, but his practical and down-to-earth wife simply says, "Folk must eat". The Tevia-like wagoner knows this but his view is balanced. If the story is Jewish in essence at all it is in the fact that the calf would be ritually slaughtered and therefore accorded...
The holocaust metaphor is certainly appropriate but not entirely doom laden or even necessary The calf does not have free will. The swallow though free does not choose to be so.The calf's fate is certain for as in Jude the Obscure where in the beautiful pig slaughter episode Hardy shows us Jude's sentimentality and sensitivity, but his practical and down-to-earth wife simply says, "Folk must eat". The Tevia-like wagoner knows this but his view is balanced. If the story is Jewish in essence at all it is in the fact that the calf would be ritually slaughtered and therefore accorded some natural dignity. Our Shalom Aleikom character is being rueful and philosophical. The winds are of course elemental and cannot literally laugh but saying so helps us to feel.