The Chosen

The Chosen is a book by Chaim Potok published in 1967. It is about two teenage Jewish boys who form a friendship, though they come from different worlds.

Plot

Reuven and Danny meet at a inter-yeshiva baseball game. A ball hit by Danny hits Reuven's glasses, and almost blinds one of his eyes. Danny comes to visit Reuven in the hospital, and the two strike up a friendship.

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The story follows Reuven and Danny through their high school years. Reuven once comes to visit Danny at his shul. He sees that every Shabbat afternoon, Danny and his father engage in a battle of wits regarding knowledge of the Talmud. Throughout high school, Danny becomes interested in psychology and teaches himself German to be able to read Freud in the original. And Reuven hides his reading from Danny's father.

Related Topics:
Shul - Shabbat - Psychology - German - Freud

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Danny and Reuven go to Hirsch College, a Modern Orthodox institution in Brooklyn. While there, discussion about the State of Israel arises, and Reuven's father, prompted by the Jewish genocide in World War II, becomes an active Zionist leader. Unfortunately, Danny's sect is very anti-Zionist, as they believe that any Jewish nation that exists before the coming of the Messiah is an desacration to God, and so Reuven and his father are put in cherem, a Jewish form of excommunication, until the Israeli War of Independence, where a student from Reuven and Danny's yeshiva is killed in the fighting. Reuven becomes very depressed while this is going on. Meanwhile, Danny becomes serious about going into psychology, as opposed to taking over leadership of his sect from his father. He becomes ever more fearful about facing his father. However, in the end, Reb Saunders gives up and lets Danny follow his wishes.

Related Topics:
Israel - Zionist - Cherem - Excommunication - Israeli War of Independence

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