Hasidic Jew have many extreme traditions, one is to raise a child in silence. The father only talk to his son about the Talmud and the goal of this is to help the child find their own good soul. For Reb Saunders in The Chosen, silence is a painful yet effective way to bring up his child.
             The silence Reb Saunders imposes on his relationship with Danny is problematic because it causes Danny to rebel against him. Danny goes behind his fathers back to the library and reads books that his father would disapprove of. He begins to study psychology and reads the works of Freud. Also, he tells Reuven that he secretly hold Zionist beliefs despite his fathers bitter hatred and disapproval of the Zionists. Finally, Danny decides to turn his back on the inherited position of tzadik in order to become a psychologist. Although these actions cut Reb Saunders deeply, they also are moving Danny toward being his own person and having a soul, which is exactly what Reb wanted.
             Reb Saunders believed that silence was the correct way to bring up a child there are a few problems that arise in that process. Danny has a hard time choosing or even having friends because in order for him to have any they have to take a test to be worthy of being his friend. It is also hard because Reb Saunders always asks Reuven about Danny so it puts a stuggle on their relationship because Danny wants to be able to confide in Reuven even knowing that what he tells him his father will later find out from his own best friend.
             Another example of silence being a problem is that it separates Danny and his father. It is hard for Danny to express his feelings to his father since he never has before. Reb Saunders does not know anything about his son because he has created such a distance between then.
             Even though Danny didn't realize that the silence that his father bestowed upon him was a good at first, in the end he found that his heart was in a good plac...