The Chosen by Chaim Potok

Following My Name is Asher Lev, I continued with Chaim Potok. The Chosen turned out to be just as beautifully written as my preceding read.

Reuven, an Orthodox Jew and son of a respected local Talmud lecturer, Mr Malter, tells the story in first person of how he strikes up an unlikely friendship with the strict Hasidic Jew, Danny, son of a Rebbe Saunders. The novel opens with a baseball match in which Danny spitefully hits the ball into Reuven's eye. Reuven ends up in hospital for a few weeks after and during this time Danny comes to apologise. Under his father's instruction, Danny suppresses his anger at Reuven, forgives him and begins a friendship with him. They intellectually challenge one another, reading books and discussing them. Reuven and Danny become great and inseparable friends, spending all their time together. When the time comes, they end up going to the same university.

When news of the Holocaust atrocities hit US headlines, Mr Malter's career takes a sudden turn as he pioneers for Zionism and for Jews to be accountable for their own future. The news of Mr Malter's extremism reaches Reb Saunder's who forbids Danny to talk to Reuven. The following years are wrought in the pain of not being able to communicate with each other, until finally Saunders relinquishes the punishment.

Potok hugely contrasts the two styles of parenting. Reb Saunder's (Danny's father) nurtures his child in silence which is only broken on shabbot for Talmud training. Saunders uses the Hasidic parenting technique to teach Danny to listen to silence. Whilst, Mr Malter spends time nurturing his child in conversation, caring for him and teaching him how to read Talmud and be a critical thinker. The results of the parenting styles are evident in the boys as they begin to exhibit how it has affected them. Ironically, Danny who was intended to continue the family line of Rebbes as the firstborn rebels against this future and becomes a psycologist. Whilst Reaven who is free to chose his career, choses to become a Rebbe. From the outset of the novel, Potok challenges our perceptions of people. Danny with his earlocks, skull cap and black clothes appears to be the epitome of a devoted, practicing Jew, yet his heart does not align with this. Reuven outwardly appears to be far less religious than his friend, yet longs to serve God and the Jewish community with a sincere heart. Potok challenges our judgements of people from their appearance, and helps us to understand we cannot understand a person from the outside, - we must delve deeper. The opening scene and the drawn out time in the hospital allows the reader in hindsight to understand the point Potok makes. We may be phisically blind, but spiritually adept in seeing: We may have sight, but be spiritually blind. The metaphor is woven throughout the novel. The things or people around us are not always as we perceive them to be. We must strive to understand, not by sight, but by faith.