Reviews

Mapping the Human Heart: Chaim Potok’s The Chosen
by Marilyn Green Faulkner

“Long ago, in The Chosen,” Chaim Potok writes, “I set out to draw a map of the New York world through which I once journeyed. It was to be a map not only of broken streets, menacing alleys, concrete-surfaced backyards, neighborhood schools and stores . . . a map not only of the physical elements of my early life, but of the spiritual ones as well.” (Chaim Potok, “The Invisible Map of Meaning: A Writer’s Confrontation,” Triquarterly, Spring 1992) Born and raised among the Hasidic Jews of New York, Chaim Potok transports us to a world completely strange, yet strangely familiar.

The Chosen is the story of two young men who form a friendship that changes both their lives. Reuven, an orthodox Jew, and Danny, a Hasidic Jew, struggle to understand each other, though to the outside world they are simply both Jews. Through their relationship Potok teaches us about Hasidism, the ultra-conservative sect that originated in Poland in response to the persecutions suffered by Jews hundreds of years ago. Each group of Hasidic Jews is led by a Tzaddik; a mystical leader who is rabbi, prophet and even a Messianic figure to his followers. They dwell in a world closed even to other Jews, and as Reuven enters this world through his friendship with Danny, we have the rare opportunity to experience a fascinating culture within a culture.

Chaim Potok says that he wrote The Chosen in order to come to terms with his own Jewish upbringing, particularly the fundamentalist viewpoint that taught him to see the Jewish race at the center of world history. Raised in an unquestioning orthodox home, Chaim graduated from his local Yeshiva and was ordained a rabbi. It was at this point that his life changed completely, when he was sent to Korea for two years. Of this experience he says, “When I went to Korea I was a very coherent human being in the sense that I had a model of what I was – I had a map. I knew who I was as a Jew. When I went to Asia, it all came unglued. It all became relativized. Everything turned upside down.”

Potok’s father had taught him that Jews suffered because they were God’s chosen, yet over a million Koreans had been senselessly slaughtered during the war. Were they also chosen in some way, or was all the suffering meaningless? As a boy, Potok had been taught to believe that paganism was evil, yet in the faces of devout Buddhists in prayer he saw the same intensity that he knew in the faces of the faithful Jews in his synagogue. How could God hate these sincere, devout people? Chaim began to question his assumption that Judaism was the only truth worth knowing and also his assumption that America was the only great nation. He concludes: “That experience not only relativized my Jewishness, it relativized my American-ness and my western-ness simultaneously. It set everything into specific culture contexts and at the same time taught me that my culture could be viewed from outside its perimeters by another culture, and be seen in an altogether different way. What happened was that I began to see my culture from the outside. When that happens to your head, you are never the same again.”

Chaim Potok understands that by helping us see into another culture, we may get a new perspective on our own. One of his early inspirations was James Joyce, who wrote only about his home town of Dublin. Joyce said, “If I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities in the world. In the particular is contained the universal.” As we get into the heart of a lonely Hasidic boy we learn some universal truths about the human struggle, and find curious parallels between his world and our own. The Chosen is the book of the month for May. I’m already receiving comments from readers who have enjoyed it and its sequel, The Promise. Here is a sampling:

Thank you so much for putting, “The Chosen” on the reading list. I just finished it and found it so spellbinding. I know so little about the Jewish people that this book opened a whole new world for me. My last real contact with Jewish people was when I lived in Cleveland, Ohio when I was in grade school. My two best friends were Jewish, but at that time I did not appreciate what it really meant to be Jewish. Barbara

The central question posed by the book(s) is asked by Reuven. Can a man be rooted deeply enough in one world to enable him to be concerned only about the people of the other, and not their ideas? Is there an invisible thread connecting me to the inhabitants of both those worlds? Maybe one has to take a stand and abandon one or the other entirely. Thoughtful men have been wrestling with this question since the beginning of time. Potok examines this question in depth, and from this examination come some profound truths…

Reuven’s father tells him, “Human beings do not live forever, Rueven, we live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So we 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, that the blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. The span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so that its quality is immeasurable, though its quantity may be insignificant. 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. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest……….I want to be worthy of rest, when I am no longer here……

Few goals are worthy of greater dedication. Phil

Write to me about The Chosen. We’ll share more comments during the last week of the month. Since the last article I have received a few more comments about Silas Marner that are well worth sharing:

I just kept thinking of the similarities between Silas and Rumpelstiltskin. Both were weavers for gold. (sort of) Rumpelstiltskin wanted a baby for his gold. And that woman tricked him out of the deal. Silas got a baby for his gold and it wrought a great change in him. Who knows what good a baby would have done the cunning Rumpelstiltskin? Ami

I recall reading this in high school so I thought I would read something about the author. I found a fascinating biography of George Eliot by Rosemary Sprague. To read about her life and associates added depth to my reading again of Silas Marner. Sorry I didn’t get in my recommendation that members look into this biography along with Silas. D.L.

I am part way done with “Silas Marner” and find it much more meaningful reading it as an adult compared to when I was a young person. I especially find it interesting since I am a weaver and look at his occupation in different eyes since I know some of the work and joy that weaving can be. Of course, he earned his living from weaving – I’d starve if I had to do that – mine is for relaxation and creativity. Barbara

The Silas Marner Miracle: You asked if a treasure had been replaced in our hearts by another. I will say perhaps not replaced, but rather added to. It did not, however, take only a moment. Losing my “treasure” in a car accident after only 16 months of marriage burst every dream I’d had. THIS they never taught you about in Laurels! To add to my heartache, I was 5 months pregnant with our child, whom he would now never see. But into my life several years later came a new treasure who slowly, but surely, has filled my life and lessoned the pain of my loss. The first treasure has never left my heart, and never will. But I have learned there is room for two. That a broken heart can be healed, even if it’s just a little, is a miracle in my life. D.

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