Having promised Motel and Tzeitl his permission to marry, Tevye needs to find some way to get Golde on board with the change of plans. Knowing her (and almost everyone at the time) to be superstitious about dreams, he invents a faked “bad dream” which is tailored carefully to make Golde believe that Tzeitl is fated to marry Motel, and that marrying Lazar will lead to disaster.