"Who is the Chosen?"
            
             When I selected "The Chosen" as the novel I would read for this assignment I did not foresee myself enjoying it. After all, it is just a story about two Jewish boys, and their experiences as they grow into men- kind of sounds like the typical Disney cliche with the exception of a Judaist emphasis. However in the end, not only would I be glued to the pages of Chaim Potok's book, but I would get caught up emotionally in the struggle between head and heart, opposing beliefs, and two boys that while longing to find their places within their respective worlds would find themselves in one another.
             I remember hearing in class that many Jews came to America because it was a land flowing with milk and honey: there were many advantageous opportunities for them, and the streets were paved with gold. However quite the opposite is true in the neighborhood that Reuven and Danny grow up in. Far from being paved in gold, the streets and sidewalks are cracked and full of potholes. The amazing opportunities that supposedly awaited the Jews are more accurately conveyed as store owners "eking out their meager livelihoods and dreaming of Shabbat" when they could finally close down their shops and focus on something other than their circumstances. One would think that these dire situations would bring the communities together, however quite the opposite is true- the Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods are clearly distinct and separate from the Hasidic ones.
             From the very beginning pages of this novel it is made obvious that though Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter live only a few blocks apart, they are separated by a great religious abyss. Potok explains through Reuven that there is an especial difference in the parochial schools that both boys attended: Danny is being taught in Yiddish and his teachers emphasize the Talmud and other religious studies as the main focus, whereas Reuven is offered more ...