TRAYF (Yiddish for forbidden or impure food) is an intimate drama about two friends whose intense religious and personal bonds are strained to the breaking point by the pull of the secular world. The two friends are Zalmy (Ilan Eskenazi) and Shmuel (Ben Hirschhorn), teenagers who belong to the Chabad community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, circa 1991. Chabad, as a program note describes, “is a specific dynasty of Hasidic Judaism and is one of the largest Hasidic groups and Jewish organizations in the world.” Its male members dutifully obey the dictates of a messianic rabbi, wear traditional Jewish garb, study the Torah in Orthodox fashion, spend their spare time in doing mitzvahs (good deeds). TRAYF shows us what Chabad members like Zalmy and Shmuel do in their spare time, when they are not under the thumb of their parents or driving around in their “mitzvah tank” (community car) handing out pamphlets, proselytizing, etc.
What they do is act, at times, like normal teenaged boys, talking about girls, sex, pop music, sports (in Shmuel’s case, roller-skating). They are curious about these things, despite Chabad’s opposition to anything like secular or “modern” behavior.
A catalytic character enters the story, Jonathan (Garret Young). He is half-Jewish, works in a music store, and lives with a girl, Leah (Louisa Jacobson). He is a visitor from the larger, freer society out there, yet he feels that God wants him to be fully Jewish and turns to Zalmy and Shmuel to help him join the tribe. There is something fanatic about him, though, in the way he tries to become even more Jewish than those Yeshiva bochers, praying all the time and refusing to so much as touch poor, love-lorn Leah.
Zalmy and Shmuel at first work together to guide Jonathan in his quest to join the Chabad community, but their mitzvah takes a turn when Jonathan’s personal problems impinge on their relationship. TRAYF then becomes a kind of love story, with Jonathan playing the spoiler, the outsider who breaks up a happy marriage. This isn’t to imply that TRAYF is telling a homosexual story, though there is an erotic undercurrent to many of the male inter-actions in the play.
It should also be said that there is considerable humor and joy in TRAYF, which comes as no surprise as the Hasidim are known for their love of Jewish music and dance. The deftly directed play also offers splendid performances by its four-person cast.
