When was the chosen by chaim potok published

For those wanting to learn more about the Jewish faith or who simply A book that encourages us to debate and discuss our differences; at least, 3. For those wanting to learn more about the Jewish faith or who simply like coming of age stories. Oct 18, Lucy rated it really liked it Recommends it for: everyone. I love how Chaim Potok is able to create a story about so many different things.

There are dozens of topics within his books to discuss, enjoy and ponder, but he manages to twist and turn his story, so at its end, you get the Rubik's cube sides all neatly back to the same color. Danny Saunders, a genius boy with a photographic memory, is destined to take hi I love how Chaim Potok is able to create a story about so many different things.

Danny Saunders, a genius boy with a photographic memory, is destined to take his father's place as the community tzaddik, or spiritual leader of Hasidic Jews. To teach his son compassion, he parents him with silence, like his father did before him, and the only time father and son talk is when they discuss the Talmud, a Jewish book consisting of different rabbi's discussions of Jewish laws and ethics.

But, the father-son relationship is only one side of the thematically complicated but narratively simple story. There is much food for thought about friendship "You think it is easy to be a friend? If you are truly his friend, you will learn otherwise" which Danny's father, Reb Saunders, tells the narrator of the story, Reuven Malter, and certainly proves to be true. There is a fantastic development about the Zionist movement, and the opposition within the Jewish community against Israel to be created after the second World War.

There is an interesting, albeit outdated, flirtation with psychology and Freudism. And much, much more I find that one of Potok's greatest achievements is his ability to narrowly write a story that happens in a close, sheltered environment about a specific religious belief, and have it easily apply to many different beliefs and situations. I found myself thinking to myself most of today about how this story, about a community of ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jews, has a lot in common with my current community.

The characters in the story are living and functioning in an almost self-contained environment. Their schools are Jewish. Their sports teams are Jewish. Their stores, hospitals, friends and neighborhoods are Jewish.

The conflict is not "us vs. They don't see the world around them. Ding, ding, ding!!! Like poor Reb Saunders had to discover by isolating his son from his best friend, and what David Saunders knew, but didn't have the courage to proclaim, good exists in all shapes and sizes and from all walks of life.

It exists down the street, where perhaps the homes aren't matching brown stucco craftsman style. It exists at the other school. It exists in literature and areas of study and even at the church with the different shaped spire. There is goodness everywhere.

This belief of mine is fundamentally different from Reb Saunders, who explained that each person is born with a tiny spark of goodness which is enveloped in a shell of ugly and evil. It is the responsibility of the parent, the church, the community to protect that spark, encourage it, feed it so that it can grow and expand to eventually fill the shell and push out the evil.

While there is certainly plenty of evil surrounding us all, I think it only gets more bold and has more room to grow when we huddle around our goodness. It, goodness, is bigger than we allow it to be. We need to link goodness to goodness and charge down the street, all ablaze together. Kind of a tangent, but I love books that make me go off down one.

I can't say this book is a favorite, because it didn't make me feel the way a book needs to, but I'm certainly glad I've read it and happily encourage anyone who hasn't to do so. Jul 22, Melissa McShane rated it it was amazing Shelves: own , favorites , contemporary-fiction , protag-male , classics. This book holds up so well to multiple re-readings. It's a story of friendship, of family love, of the relationships between fathers and sons, set against the background of Hasidic Judaism.

This time, I'm unconvinced that raising a child in silence, as Danny's father does, will result in a compassionate child, but I am moved by Danny's struggle to be both himself and what his father and his father's followers need him to be. Reuven, the narrator, serves both as a channel for what the reader who This book holds up so well to multiple re-readings.

Reuven, the narrator, serves both as a channel for what the reader who can't be presumed to know anything about Orthodox Jews needs to learn and as a support for the brilliant Danny, without being diminished by his best friend's brilliance.

In fact, Reuven's complementary abilities keep Danny from being unbelievable in his intellectual flawlessness; Danny acknowledges that he and Reuven think differently, and one of my favorite scenes is a class in which Reuven takes four days to explicate a difficult passage of the Talmud while Danny silently cheers him on. It's a brilliant book, emotionally challenging, and one I will no doubt come back to again. Today I discussed this all-male book with a small group of all-male max security prisoners.

They liked it, fascinated by the details of Jewish life and customs, and were eager to talk about the dynamics between fathers and sons. We had a great conversation about why the first fifth of the book is taken with a description of a baseball game. This is one of the few books I know, and certainly the most popular, that makes Talmud study sexy. One prisoner hoped that the Hasidic Danny and the Modern O Today I discussed this all-male book with a small group of all-male max security prisoners.

One reader stumped me at the end of our session: Why does the Talmud say that silence is more valuable than words? May 22, Jan Rice rated it it was amazing Shelves: audio , religion , fiction. The silent treatment was the aspect I kept thinking about.

But book not quite suited for my bibliotraumatic shelf, at least not at this remove. This book was impressive. Wondering, though, if I would react differently now, in light of my reaction to the Potok I'm currently reading and to the play My Name Is Asher Lev that I saw in I only began keeping lists of books and when I read them in around Even then, it was hit-or-miss at first; reviews started out as thumbnails and did Intense.

Even then, it was hit-or-miss at first; reviews started out as thumbnails and didn't come until later.

Couldn't find this one but husband's list provides me with a backup. Early , so maybe actually listened in Since we both listened, maybe a car trip. Double-checked and found I had listed after all. Jul 01, Alina rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: everyone except immature boys. I read the Asher Lev books in high school and loved them, but this was great in a whole different way. The boo The book, in addition to being well written, gave a great history of the Jewish issues and polarization after WWII, with the fight to create a Jewish state.

Fascinating way to get a glimpse of American Jewish history in the guise of fiction. Also fun to learn some new Yiddish words. Jan 25, Hayden added it. I'm not even going to bother to rate this or give it a review. This book was so boring. Oct 11, Matthew rated it it was amazing.

I read this in Very nice empathy with the believable Jewish characters is so possible and a vivid sight ,every page. Look into the Jewish family of 20th Century U. View 2 comments. Dec 30, Josh Caporale rated it really liked it.

By no means did Potok disappoint. I felt that The Chosen, being an earlier work of his, would be a great starting point and a great starting point it was. I felt that what I read was a great and important story about a time, place, and circumstance that I am now much more aware thr 4. I felt that what I read was a great and important story about a time, place, and circumstance that I am now much more aware through the point of view of a perspective that is not my own.

While the paperback version I read did not have a summary on the back, the plot is not too difficult to understand. The story is told through the eyes of Reuven Malter, an Orthodox Jew that lives with his father and has a maid, Manya, that tends to them during the day.

Reuven's father, David, is a respected teacher and Zionist. Reuven, who dreams of being a mathematician, tells his story with a sense of logic and in many ways we could relate to his "matter of fact" disposition. The main story in this text is Reuven's relationship with a Hasidic Jewish student from another school by the name of Danny Saunders, whose father, Reb Saunders, is a respected figure in his community. During a baseball game where Danny and Reuven's teams are competing, a ball that Danny hits slams right into Reuven's eye and it requires medical attention.

While they relationship starts as what seems to be a bitter rivalry, it quickly turns into Danny and Reuven's relationship and how two people from different backgrounds and different ways at approaching life find common ground and an ability to benefit from one another.

This novel also explores how each sees themselves as Jewish men, while also as men that are looking to pursue what they wish, regarding of their religion. For Reuven, it is mathematics, while for Danny, it is psychology. I learned a lot about Judaism, especially Hasidic Judaism, in this text at hand. Chaim Potok does a great job informing readers about this religion through the eyes of Reuven and his experiences and also through the teachings of David Malter and Reb Saunders.

At the same time, Potok makes this an entertaining work and one that possesses a realistic tone and sense of humor. There was also that sense that just about everything was explained, which resolved any issues that may have developed. If there was any criticism, I would say that came from its tendency to be a bit stand-offish and how the displaying of information may create a dense atmosphere for the reader, but only to the point where it took a half-star from the final score.

I feel that the reason for Reb's silence toward his son, Danny Reb only spoke to his son while they were studying , says a lot about the tone of how this story was told and how these lives were lived.

Being an ordained rabbi, Chaim Potok did a remarkable job telling this story and gave me a greater understanding about Hasidic Judaism and the explanations to what seemed like complexities through Reb Saunders' very own stories.

Jul 05, Megan Baxter rated it really liked it. Chaim Potok is a master at creating characters that you genuinely care about, and then putting them in positions where the one thing that they feel they must do is the one thing that will hurt them the most, and often, the one thing that will separate them forever from their families and heritage.

The Chosen is almost as good, and probably should have gotten five stars, but Asher Lev made me walk arou Chaim Potok is a master at creating characters that you genuinely care about, and then putting them in positions where the one thing that they feel they must do is the one thing that will hurt them the most, and often, the one thing that will separate them forever from their families and heritage.

The Chosen is almost as good, and probably should have gotten five stars, but Asher Lev made me walk around for days feeling like someone had rearranged my brain, and while I really enjoyed The Chosen, it didn't have as profound an effect on me - hence the four stars. There are no easy answers in these books, and all the tension is sharply and devastatingly created to put characters on the knife's edge. Both books hurt, in a way, because you wish there was a way in which everything could work out perfectly, and yet, the unflinching view of what is and is not possible, given society, religion, culture, and family dynamics, makes that impossible.

Nov 13, Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing. I read this 'gem' in High School!!! Happy 'almost' Hanukkah to my Jewish friends! May 01, Sara rated it it was amazing. Re-reading in July Review from first reading in May What an interesting education I received from this book! I learned so much about the nuances of the Jewish faith and the challenges they faced during and after World War II. I never knew of the Jewish resistance to the Israel state.

I also found myself greatly engaged and intrigued by the origins of Hassidic Judaism. In addition to being extremely fascinating and highly educational, this book caused great reflection for my own life. W Re-reading in July Review from first reading in May What an interesting education I received from this book! While we grow to love Ruven and Danny and their fathers and get lost in their stories, this book also allows the reader to consider carefully how these life lessons can be applied to our own lives.

A true classic. A very well-written, highly didactic and compellingly self reflective text. Readers also enjoyed. Young Adult. About Chaim Potok. Chaim Potok. He received an Orthodox Jewish education. After reading Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited as a teenager, he decided to become a writer. He started writing fiction at the age of At age 17 he made his first submission to the magazine The Atlantic Monthly. Although it wasn't published, he received a note from the editor complimenting his work.

In , at the age of 20, his stories were published in the literary magazine of Yeshiva University, which he also helped edit. After four years of study at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America he was ordained as a Conservative rabbi. He was appointed director of Leaders Training Fellowship, a youth organization affiliated with Conservative Judaism.

After receiving a master's degree in English literature, Potok enlisted with the U. Army as a chaplain. He served in South Korea from to He described his time in S. Korea as a transformative experience.

Brought up to believe that the Jewish people were central to history and God's plans, he experienced a region where there were almost no Jews and no anti-Semitism, yet whose religious believers prayed with the same fervor that he saw in Orthodox synagogues at home. Upon his return, he joined the faculty of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and became the director of a Conservative Jewish summer camp affiliated with the Conservative movement, Camp Ramah.

A year later he began his graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and was appointed scholar-in-residence at Temple Har Zion in Philadelphia. In , he spent a year in Israel, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Solomon Maimon and began to write a novel. In Potok moved to Brooklyn. The following year, he was appointed editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society in Philadelphia and later, chairman of the publication committee.

Potok received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. In , Potok relocated to Jerusalem with his family. He returned to Philadelphia in After the publication of Old Men at Midnight , he was diagnosed with brain cancer. He died at his home in Merion, Pennsylvania on July 23, , aged Other books in the series. Reuven Malther 2 books. Books by Chaim Potok. Some of the best stories take a few hundred years to tell. But if you're in the mood for uncanny connections, hoping back and forth through Read more Trivia About The Chosen Reuve Quotes from The Chosen.

It has a quality and a dimension all its own. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life.

There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye? I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something.

He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant.

Do you understand what I am saying? A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning. That I do not think you understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here. Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Jewish Book Club: The Chosen. Around the World Sign up and get a free ebook! The Chosen By Chaim Potok. Trade Paperback Hardcover eBook.

About The Book. Reading Group Guide. By clicking 'Sign me up' I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the privacy policy and terms of use. Must redeem within 90 days. See full terms and conditions and this month's choices. About The Author. Chaim Potok. Product Details. Test your knowledge of The Chosen with quizzes about every section, major characters, themes, symbols, and more. Go further in your study of The Chosen with background information, movie adaptations, and links to the best resources around the web.

Ace your assignments with our guide to The Chosen! SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Summary Read our full plot summary and analysis of The Chosen , scene by scene break-downs, and more. Literary Devices Here's where you'll find analysis of the literary devices in The Chosen , from the major themes to motifs, symbols, and more.