The Chosen

Reuven hated not talking to Danny, but Danny is used to silence. Reuven calls Danny’s dad “crazy” and “sadistic,” but Danny maintains that his dad is a good person. Danny’s eyes bother him, and Reuven jokes about the baseball game before he helps Danny with a graph. Danny likes experimental psychology now, and he might get a doctorate in psychology at Columbia University. As for Talmud class, Danny and Reuven battle for 45 minutes, and Rav Gershenson tells the boys this isn’t a “private lesson.”

In June, Reuven goes to the wedding of Danny’s sister, and he’s the only non-Hasid there. He speaks to Reb Saunders for the first time in ages, and Danny’s dad implores him to come over on Shabbat afternoons. Reuven dislikes Hasidism and Reb Saunders more than ever.

Reuven tells Danny a comment he heard from another student: A tzaddik sits silently, and his followers listen carefully. Danny doesn’t reply, and Reuven is sorry he mentioned it. Danny then says a person can learn from silence. Danny’s dad remains silent, and Reuven jokes about Danny finding a girlfriend to relieve his suffering. Danny says his dad already picked a wife for him.

In June, Levi has his bar mitzvah (a Jewish ceremony marking a young person’s ability to take responsibility for their spirituality and actions), and he seems fragile yet tenacious. The day after his bar mitzvah, he becomes sick and has to go to the hospital. Danny worries—if something happens to Levi, then Levi can’t take over for his father.

Reuven tells his dad about Danny’s plan to be a psychologist and not a tzaddik. Reuven asks if Danny will keep his beard, earlocks, and fringes in graduate school. Reuven doesn’t know. He also doesn’t know what Danny will tell his father. Malter says Danny must prepare for the showdown with his dad. He has to anticipate questions. Reuven asks about the silence between Danny and his dad, but Reuven’s dad can’t explain it, though he implies it relates to compassion.

Reuven tells Danny about what his dad said, but Danny remains timid about the inevitable confrontation. He applies to graduate schools, and Reuven says his dad will see the mail he receives from them. Danny’s solution: Get the mail first.

Reuven brings Danny over so Danny can speak to Malter face to face. Danny plans to tell his dad the day he becomes a rabbi. Danny isn’t mad at his dad, but he doesn’t understand his actions. Malter says Danny’s dad will explain.

Danny’s plan to intercept the mail fails. He receives acceptance letters from Harvard, Berkeley, and Columbia, and his dad sees them but doesn’t confront Danny. Danny fears an “explosion,” and his dad keeps asking why Reuven doesn’t come over. He should come over on Passover. Reuven speaks to his dad, and his dad says he should go there and listen to Reb Saunders.

On Passover, Reuven and Danny speak to Reb Saunders in his study. Reb Saunders says a person is born with a little spark of goodness, and it must be nurtured, enlarged, and guarded. A lot of things can put out the spark, like genius. God “cursed” Reb Saunders with a “brilliant” son. He remembers watching Danny read when he was four: He didn't read the book so much as swallow it.

Reb Saunders’s brother was like Danny. He was sick, and his dad raised him differently, so his brother went to France and became a superb mathematician. He died in a gas chamber at Auschwitz.

As a child, Reb Saunders’s dad used to wake him in the night to make him cry. He told him about the suffering of the Jews, and he took him to hospitals and made him listen to poor people. Reb Saunders’s dad didn’t talk to him. He thought words were mean and deceptive—they can’t express what’s in a person’s heart. The heart communicates through silence. To learn about other people’s pain, a person must face their own pain, and pain is good: It counters apathy and conceitedness, and it teaches people that they’re frail and to rely on God.

Reb Saunders doesn’t want his son to be like his brother. He’d rather have no son than a genius without a soul. When Danny was younger, he spoke to him. As he grew older, he stopped speaking to him: Danny could search his soul for answers. Reb Saunders struggled with how to teach a brilliant mind, and he chose silence. Through silence, Danny learned to listen to the pain of others.

Reb Saunders thinks Reuven has a good soul and that God sent Reuven to be Danny’s friend. Reb Saunders knew Danny wanted to be a psychologist: He saw the letters from the school, but he also saw his eyes and heard his soul. Danny can be a psychologist and a tzaddik, even if he’s not an actual tzaddik. Danny says he’ll shave his beard and earlocks, but he’ll remain an observant Jew.

Reb Saunders apologizes for his reaction to Malter’s Zionism. He still thinks the genocide was God’s will, not a means for a Jewish state: His brother didn’t die for the creation of Israel. His voice becomes shaky, and he asks Danny for forgiveness. He says a smarter dad may have acted differently. He admits he’s not “wise.” As Danny cries, his dad leaves the room.

Reuven speaks to his dad about what happened, and his dad says a father has the right to raise his son how he wants. Reuven is glad his dad didn’t raise him like Danny’s dad. Malter counters: He’s not a tzaddik—he didn’t have to raise him that way.

Before moving into his room near Columbia, Danny says goodbye to Reuven. Danny’s beard and earlocks are gone. He says he might raise his future son in silence. He also promises to come over sometime to study the Talmud with Reuven and his dad.