Essay examples --

YENTL,† the play now in production at the Cleveland Play House, is based on Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short story, â€Å"YENTL, THE YESHIVA BOY.† The play had a short Broadway run in 1975, but the story is best known to the general public because of the film version, which was written, produced and directed by and starred Barbara Streisand. The tale centers on Yentl, a girl whose father, a learned Orthodox Rabbi, defies religious custom and teaches his daughter to read and debate Jewish law and theology. When he dies, she is at a loss as to how to continue to learn, to achieve. She cuts off her hair, dresses as a young man, enters a â€Å"yeshiva† (a religious training school), and lives as a man. Her unusual friendship with Avigdor, her study partner, and marriage to Hadass, Avigdor’s former fiancà ©, sets the story on a track of intrigue. To truly understand â€Å"YENTL,† requires a knowledge of Orthodox Judaism as practiced in the shetls (villages) of pre-World War II eastern Europe, as well as Isaac Bashevis Singer. Orthodox Judaism centers on the belief in one, all knowing God, and adherence to a strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah. The belief system in Eastern Europe, before the Holocaust, intertwined religious laws with traditions, mysticism and superstitions. These beliefs carried over into patterns of daily life and influenced such things as the foods eaten, the patterns for birth and marriage and death, the clothing worn, and the role of males and females. Singer lived for much of his formative years in a Polish/Russian shtetl, and was well trained in all aspects of Orthodox Judaism. The winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, Singer, like his greatest literary influences, Chekhov ... ... three times through forked fingers when they are discussing a positive action, such as a marriage or a birth. This is an old superstitious action to ward off the â€Å"meesa meshina,† the evil spirit.) But, production questions abound. Depending on which area a person comes from, pronunciations differ. But the Hebrew pronunciations should have been uniform to represent that these people are from the same place. Why the great variance of Hebraic sounds? Most of the cast speaks in standard English, representing commonality of language, but one cast member uses an indefinable accent and overplays his part for laughs. Why? A general air of superficiality invades the production. Why? Unless done with reality, the play loses its â€Å"tam† (Yiddish for taste), fringes on mockery of the way of life being depicted, and weakens the accomplishment of the author’s purpose.