The Chosen 889too, could not be more contrary. However, when one
considers each father’s devotion to his son, which
is immeasurable on both sides, one sees that Reb
Saunders, a Hasidic rabbi, and David Malter, an
ardent Zionist, are more similar than they first seem.
Each man strives to make his son a pillar of compas-
sion and righteousness, though each man’s method
for achieving those ends is drastically different.
David Malter’s approach to raising his son is
dialogic. When Reuven is younger, he and his father
discuss the politics of World War II, the fate of
Jewish people in concentration camps, and Reuven’s
friend, Danny. As Reuven ages, their conversations
turn as David Malter preoccupies himself with
Zionism. Reuven watches him pour his energy into
the movement, and his pride for his father’s work
reaches its climax when, “with tears of pride,” he lis-
tens to his father’s rousing speech during a “massive”
rally at Madison Square Garden. When the United
Nations votes on the partition plan to create a Jew-
ish state, Reuven and his father’s reactions exemplify
the traits that characterize David’s parenting style.
“We alternately wept and talked until after three in
the morning when we finally went to bed,” Reuven
recounts. David and his son relate through a profu-
sion of language and emotion, unlike Danny and
his father.
Just like David Malter, Reb Saunders has high
hopes for his son. After years of silence, Danny
learns that his father’s approach was intended to
make his son feel pain so that he may have compas-
sion for others. Reb Saunders explains to Danny,
“Better I should have no son at all than to have a
brilliant son who had no soul.” Reb Saunders saw
in young Danny a child with a brilliant mind and
no soul. To combat this extreme flaw, which Reb
Saunders had witnessed in his brother many years
before, the rabbi speaks to Danny only during Tal-
mud study. By this method, Danny’s father is certain
he will raise a tzaddik, a Hasidic spiritual leader and
a highly moral man, though the pain of his decision
weighs heavily on both himself and his son. Reb
Saunders suffers, and makes his son suffer, for the
salvation of Danny’s soul.
Reb Saunders is also a parental figure to a con-
gregation of followers. Following the slaughter of
the majority of his community by Cossacks in the
Bolshevist Revolution, including the murder of his
first wife and two children, Reb Saunders escaped
Russia with 43 surviving families. With fatherly
strength, he led these survivors to Ellis Island and
then settled with them in Brooklyn, where they
raised their families and started their lives over.
Reuven is perplexed when he learns this history,
and he questions Danny about why men would fol-
low Reb Saunders unquestioningly. Danny explains,
“They would have followed him anywhere” because
“[h]e’s a tzaddik.” In other words, Reb Saunders is
a holy man whose righteousness is boundless. His
people’s trust and devotion is mighty, as they see him
as a powerful bridge to God.
Each father’s primary parental relationship is
with his own son, but each also has a parental rela-
tionship the other’s son. In the case of Reb Saunders,
Reuven is used as a conduit to Danny; Reb Saunders
speaks to Danny through Reuven. He realizes that
Reuven does not understand his choices in raising
Danny, but he believes Danny comprehends the
intention and the purpose. Through Reuven, Reb
Saunders may finally speak, “Forgive me . . . a wiser
father . . . may have done differently.” Danny’s father
admits he did the best he could do. David Malter is
not in favor of the rabbi’s silence toward his son, but
he also argues that every father has a right to raise
his son as he wishes. David has some influence on
Danny, since he recommends texts to him when they
first meet in the library as strangers and later acts as
a voice of reason. When Danny prepares to inform
his father about his plans to become a psychology
student at Columbia University, it is David Malter
who urges him to think about Reb Saunders’s reac-
tion and to prepare for it.
The varying styles of parenting that David Mal-
ter and Reb Saunders practice have a common aim.
Both fathers wish to raise compassionate, faithful
men, and each son responds to his father’s parenting.
Though different in their methods, their common
hope is duly born out of their hearts.
Jeana HrepichreLIGIon in The Chosen
Chaim Potok’s The Chosen reveals a succession of
conflicts. All of these conflicts center around each
character’s deeply rooted sense of righteousness and