The Chosen

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1967

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Book 1, Chapters 1-2

Book 1, Chapters 3-4

Book 2, Chapters 5-7

Book 2, Chapters 8-12

Book 3, Chapters 13-14

Book 3, Chapters 15-18

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge

Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge go together, as the main characters are devoted to Judaism, and their religion spurs them to learn, teach, and educate themselves. Danny, Reb Saunders, Reuven, and David Malter are intensely knowledgeable. Danny reads seven or eight books a week on top of covering four pages of the Talmud a day, while Reb Saunders has the brainpower to intentionally include errors in his sermons for Danny to catch. Reuven demonstrates his prowess through math and his dissection of a Talmud portion in Rav Gershenson’s class, and Reuven’s dad publishes articles, teaches, and still has the energy to give his son a mini-lecture on the history of Hasidism at night.

The intellectual might of the four primary characters dominates the book and leaves little room for other characters to develop. Their minds occupy the spotlight and the central conflict: What should a person learn? Reuven’s dad thinks a person should study the Talmud but not exclusively. His yeshiva teaches extra English classes, and he suggests books for Danny to read—books that his dad might not like. Reb Saunders thinks an upstanding Jew should almost exclusively study the Torah, declaring, “Torah is a task for all day and all night” (181). Knowledge of the Torah (and the Talmud) summons God. As Reb Saunders puts it, “If one man studies Torah, the Presence is with him. If one man studies Torah, the Master of the Universe is already in the world” (180). Danny wants to learn from other sources, telling Reuven, “I just get so tired of studying only Talmud all the time” (114).

What Danny wants to know and what Danny’s dad thinks he should know drives the story. The battle over knowledge takes over his life and Reuven’s life, who tries to help and understand what Danny is going through. He doesn’t want to be tzaddik and confine himself to the world of the Torah and the Talmud. He wants to go to Columbia and learn about psychology and become a psychoanalyst. He wants a different sort of knowledge, and he doesn’t think this knowledge means he can’t be a good Jew. Though he loses his beard and earlocks, he remains a Jew and promises to study the Talmud with Reuven and his dad after he goes to Columbia.

The irony is that Reb Saunders doesn’t think academic and book knowledge is automatically bad. His concern is that Danny won’t know his soul, asking, “How will I teach this mind what it is to have a soul? How will I teach this mind to understand pain?” (380). Danny sees the tzaddik as limiting, but Reb Saunders views traditional scholarship as restrictive. Danny’s dad wants him to know about abstract, difficult feelings. Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge don’t have to conflict. Danny can study the Talmud, learn about secular subjects, and know what it is to have a soul and feel pain.

Silence and Communication

Silence and Communication connects to Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge. Typically, communication produces knowledge. When Reuven’s dad communicates with him about the history of Hasidism and the tzaddik, he helps him learn. Similarly, when Danny reads a book by Freud, the author (Freud) communicates knowledge to the reader (Danny).

Reb Saunders believes communication produces knowledge, but his overwhelming emphasis is on communication with the Torah and the Talmud. Quoting Rabbi Meir (really, Rabbi Yaakov), Reb Saunders says, “He who is walking by the way and studying, and breaks off his study and says, ‘How fine is that tree, how fine is that field,’ him the Scripture regards as if he had forfeited his life” (161). Maintaining constant communication with Jewish texts is a life-or-death issue for Hasidic Jews. Thus, Reb Saunders only communicates to his son about the Talmud, as that’s the key to life—everything else is frivolous.

The lack of communication with his dad pains Danny. Reuven’s dad describes him as “a terribly torn and lonely boy” (151). The silence anguishes Danny and perplexes him. It also confounds Reuven and his dad. They don’t know why Reb Saunders doesn’t speak to Danny, and they can’t know—he doesn’t explain until Chapter 18. As with Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge, Silence and Communication propels the narrative. If Danny’s dad was communicative from the get-go, the characters and reader would know why Reb Saunders is silent with his son, and then most of the conflict would vanish. The reader stays with the story to discover why Reb Saunders prefers silent communication to verbal communication.

The toll of Reb Saunders’s communication style is shown when Danny recounts how his father broke his customary silence when he was angry about Malter speaking at a pro-Israel rally. Danny recounts to Reuven that there were three arguments with his father wherein Reb Saunders used Danny’s desire for an education as leverage to get him to end his friendship with Reuven. His father’s verbal explosion, his frustration at Malter appearing at a rally that was reported in the paper, his sadness at his friendship with Reuven being interrupted—all of this results in Danny’s not being alright.

Silence and Communication, like Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge, go together. Silence is a type of communication. Through his silence, Reb Saunders teaches Danny about the soul. Communication with words can’t grasp such an elusive thing: Only communication without words—silence, first-hand experience—can spur a person to fathom the intangibility of suffering, pain, and the soul. Reb Saunders says, “I did not want to drive my son away from God, but I did not want him to grow up a mind without a soul” (380-81). Through silence, Reb Saunders communicates to Danny the knotty, intangible feelings that compose the soul.

The Intricacies of Friendship

Reuven’s friendship with Danny centers the story. If Reuven doesn’t listen to his dad and becomes Danny’s friend, then Reuven doesn’t have to worry about Danny and his relationship with his dad, and the narrative needs a new conflict to explore. When Reuven makes Danny his friend, he takes on Danny’s troubles, and Danny’s issues dominate Reuven’s life. They don’t erase Reuven’s conflicts or agency, but Reuven can help Danny because he’s his friend, and his friend is having a harder time than he is. Friends tend to take on each other’s struggles. If a friend struggles, they feel obligated to help them through it.

When Danny doesn’t recognize Reuven’s struggles with his father’s health, Reuven grows irate, “To hell with you, Danny Saunders. You could at least show you know I’m alive” (317). After his dad’s second heart attack, Danny, acting as a good friend, brushes against him and touches his hand. Though Danny and Reuven aren’t supposed to be friends or communicate, they figure out how to express their solidarity and compassion. Close friends don’t always need words to communicate.

In the story, friendship isn’t simple or linear: It’s messy and intricate. Friends don’t always start on good terms. Initially, Danny and Reuven are enemies, with Danny admitting that he wants to kill Reuven and his team, and then he hits the ball at Reuven, hurting his eye. At the hospital, Reuven isn’t ready to be Danny’s friend, and Malter has to step in and push his son into the friendship. Friendships require patience and guidance—a person might not recognize a friend. However, once they become friends, their relationship progresses quickly, and soon they find themselves discussing how they will be attending the same college. They find common ground in Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge, even though they practice their faith differently and have different interests for academic pursuits.

Once Reuven and Danny become friends, they are honest. Reuven says what he thinks of Danny’s dad, and Danny tells Reuven about his time at the library, admitting, “I’ve never told this to anyone before” (115). Truthfulness leads to conflict, with Danny upset over Reuven’s blunt assessment of Freud. Danny’s dad also creates conflict when he forbids Danny from seeing Reuven due to Reuven’s dad’s fervent Zionism. Yet Reuven and Danny stay close. Their friendship is nuanced and up and down, but it proves Malter’s point. As Malter tells his son at the hospital, “You know what a friend is, Reuven? A Greek philosopher said that two people who are true friends are like two bodies with one soul” (105). Nothing can separate Reuven and Danny: They share the same soul.