Every week in my psychology practice, I meet people from around the world who share stories marked by loss, hope, fear, love, displacement, and resilience. Listening to them has deepened my understanding of how culture and tradition influence identity, relationships, and a sense of belonging. Yet I also see how these very foundations can be used to justify war, leaving individuals and families caught in an impossible dilemma: whether to uphold long-held customs and beliefs or to challenge them in order to stay true to the people and values that matter most to them.

Through this lens—and against the backdrop of ongoing global conflicts—I recently reflected on the story of Tevye and his family, who lived in a small Jewish village in Imperial Russia. I sometimes find that a story or metaphor helps me clarify what a client’s struggle may be pointing to. Tevye is the protagonist in Sholem Aleichem’s story “Tevye the Dairyman” (Mann, 2022; Aleichem, 1996), which was later adapted into the celebrated musical “Fiddler on the Roof” (Stein, 2007; Solomon, 2013). It is a tale of family, faith, and the struggle to preserve tradition and belief in a changing world.

Tevye’s final refusal to bless his daughter’s marriage is not only an act of religious conviction but also a reflection of the internal breakdown that happens when it feels impossible to hold both love and tradition at........

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