richard mcbee

Heaven's Mistake
Yentl
Yiddish World Premiere of a play by Leah Napolin and Isaac Bashevis Singer

Yentl: Papa, didn't you tell me, when we study together, that I have the soul of a man?
Reb Todrus: I only meant that as a compliment.
Yentl: So why was I born a woman?
Reb Todrus: Even Heaven makes mistakes!

Heaven's mistake indeed! And yet we all know individuals just like that, people who somehow just don't fit in. No matter how much they try, the pre-existing roles of husband, wife, parent, breadwinner, scholar, or even, God forbid, man or woman does not seem to fit them comfortably. Yentl, by Isaac Bashevis Singer, asks penetrating questions about such a person in the traditional Jewish world in Poland of 1873. These questions, some of them offensive at first, are important for us to examine as the sometimes threatening secular world and feminism continues to influence traditional Judaism.

Published as a Yiddish short story in 1962 and then translated into English and reworked into a Broadway play in 1973, it feels like it could have been written today. And in a way it was written today. The 1973 Broadway play has been now translated for the Yiddish stage by Jacob Weitzner and is currently presented by the Folksbiene Yiddish Theater at the PCMH Theater at 344 West 36th Street until December 29, 2002.

	The story itself is simple…kind of. Yentl is the only child of Reb Todrus and falls in love with learning Torah with her father. Then, after he dies, she decides to dress as a yeshiva bocher so she can continue to learn Gemara. Now she calls herself Anshel and meets another student, Avigdor and they become great friends and learn together at the yeshiva Bechev.
Yentl and Avigdor Learning
Eleanor Reissa as Yentl
Tzahi Moskovitz as Avigdor
Folksbiene Yiddish Theater

Avigdor's true love is Hadass, but her parents won't let them marry. Avigdor suggests that Anshel (really Yentl) marry Hadass in his place. At first Anshel (really Yentl) refuses but then Avigdor gets engaged to a shrewish widow, Pesha. Anshel (remember she is Yentl) feels abandoned by her friend and begins to fall in love with the kind and beautiful Hadass and proposes marriage! How can this be? End of Act I.

	Act II begins with the wedding of Anshel (really Yentl…) and Hadass. Later we see Avigdor's marriage falling apart because his wife can only think about business. The village gossips start to notice that there is something not quite right about Anshel (who is really a …), Hadass doesn't get pregnant, Anshel doesn't grow a beard or go to the mikveh on Friday afternoon with the rest of the men. Anshel (still Yentl) and Avigdor go off to Lublin where Anshel, not able to bear the deception any longer, tells her friend that she is not Anshel but is Yentl, a woman. Avigdor is shocked, angry but ultimately attempts to understand his friend. Anshel sends a get to Hadass and Avigdor divorces Pesha and finally marries his first true love, Hadass. Yentl cannot bear to return to the village and so continues to learn Torah, now alone, in a distant yeshiva. Avigdor and Hadass have a child and…the play ends. That was simple, right?
Avigdor and Hadass and Yentl
Vera Felice as Hadass;
Folksbiene Yiddish Theater

What is not simple is that this spirited Yiddish production of Yentl raises a host of dilemmas that question just about everything sacred about male/female relations, gender identity and how they might apply to Torah study. Singer allows us to see through Yentl's eyes and experience her emotions as she struggles with deeply conflicting desires; first struggling with forbidden Torah study, forbidden clothes, friendships and then finally forbidden relationships. The consequences of sin are lies, betrayals and the squandering of friendships, as one seems to lead to the next.

Each step of the way the play poignantly makes us conscious of the dangers of sin. Yentl, scolded by her father for trying on his clothes, is told, "You deceive not only others, my child, but yourself as well. When the body dresses in strange garments, the soul will be perplexed." After her father dies, she wants to say kaddish for him, only to be criticized by the minyan. How can she express her grief? Addressing his departed spirit, she pleads, " Papa, if they made a mistake up in Heaven, shouldn't it be corrected?" Then, as she begins to cut her hair and put on his clothes, it is clear to us that in her grief she cannot help herself.

We see Yentl, now as Anshel, enthusiastically learning with her new friend Avigdor. They debate if a woman is allowed to learn Torah. He says to her, "A learned woman is a monstrosity. She is neither male nor female says the Talmud. Run from her like the plague." He is speaking, unknowingly, about his best friend in yeshiva. How can she contain her passion for Torah and still keep him as a friend? Additionally he is addressing the audience. Do we believe she is a monstrosity, as Yentl or as women in our midst now?

The engagement party for Avigdor is a wonderfully boisterous scene in which the shy and rather conflicted Yentl is encouraged to take a drink, and then another and another until she is dancing wildly. First she tries to dance with one of the women (forbidden of course since she is Anshel) and then she grabs one of the women's scarf and wraps it around her neck. The Rabbi exclaims, "Anshel, I cannot allow this…" Yentl answers, "The truth is hidden behind seven veils. Everyday is the festival of Purim and we all wear masks! I may look to you like a yeshiva boy, correct? But in truth, I may be - - - an angel - - - or a demon!" Then she dances with her best friend Avigdor, seemingly permitted since he is a man and Anshel is a…what? Finally they embrace and she collapses in fright. We hear her mummer, calling out to her father, "Papa, its Yentl, Yentl" and then mumbles, "there is no one here by that name…" The sheer confusion of identity as she confronts again the loss of her father and her feelings for Avigdor sweeps us into her tortured emotions. Yentl ruefully says about her behavior that she is "entangled in lies up to my peyos!"

Lies, compromises, confusions and deceptions plague Yentl through the entire play as she struggles with events that seem to take on a life of their own. Because of her growing friendship and, indeed, love for Avigdor, she consents to marry the woman he cannot have, Hadass. Yentl, for friendship, will take Avigdor's place in an impossible, not to mention forbidden marriage. And yet by deceiving Hadass, whom she has grown to love also, Yentl manages to fool everyone but, of course, herself. And finally, even she cannot tolerate the lies and confusions. She must confess to her true friend and companion in Torah study. Avigdor is shocked at first, appalled at the sins he has inadvertently committed, but then grows to understand his friend's dilemma as the playwright Singer hopes we, the audience, will too.

The Folksbiene has put on a courageous production, skillfully directed by Robert Kalfin, that dares to present the complex and serious issues of this play while entertaining us with classic Yiddish Theater depictions of Jewish village life throughout. Eleanor Reissa as Yentl commands the stage, easily shifting from introspective monologues to the headstrong and at times confused Yentl. She seems to grow in complexity as the character develops until the full poignancy of Yentl's character is revealed in the final scene where she says the Shema, alone and still dedicated to her love of Torah. Tzahi Moskowitz is splendid as the yeshiva student Avigdor. His role is a foil for Yentl's schemes and yet his sensitive performance maintains his own character and, is additionally, an absolutely uncanny rendition of a yeshiva bocher. Vera Felice delivers an intelligent rendering of the sweet, but ultimately simple Hadass.

	The fourteen other actors and actresses all put in spirited performances of a breathtaking forty-four roles. The energy and concentration of the company is awesome. Needless to say the appearance of Mina Bern as Yachna the bath attendant provides the classic gold standard of Yiddish Theater acting that the rest of the company easily rise to.
Yentl and Yachna
Mina Bern as Yachna
Folksbiene Yiddish Theater

Yentl convinces us that indeed, "sometimes Heaven makes a mistake." The individual is still responsible for their foibles and sins that can follow. But who can say for certain how we would act if these kinds of desires welled up in our heart one fine day? There are perhaps no clear answers to these questions, except that we must realize that inevitably some people are made different, even terribly different, and that they too need our compassion. Spanning the simpler world of Eastern Europe to our very complex society, Yentl tells us that they are more like us than we might realize. They, Heaven's mistakes, love, fear and strive towards God in ways amazingly familiar to us all.

Richard McBee
November 6, 2002

Yentl, Yiddish World Premiere of a play by Leah Napolin and Isaac Bashevis Singer
Folksbiene Yiddish Theater, PCMH Theater, 344 West 36th Street, NY, NY
For information, 212 213 2120. Ticketmaster, $45. 212 307 4100 Simultaneous English Translation headsets.
Until December 29, 2002.

Published in The Jewish Press