Analysis Of Hasidism In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

Chaim Potok’s novel, The Chosen, describes a friendship between two Jewish boys raised in two different Jewish sects. Danny Saunders, a Hasidic Jew, slowly develops a true, long-lasting friendship with Rueven Malter, a modern Orthodox Jew. Although, Danny and Rueven experience difficulties early on in their friendship because of their different religious beliefs and practices, they learn to work through their differences and form a friendship that surpasses all of their religious inconsistencies. The story takes place in the 1940s in the neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York. Jews inhabit most of the Williamsburg area and few non-Jews live here. During this time in the United States Jews experienced an immense amount of persecution because of World War II and the Holocaust. Potok uses his novel to describe the differences between the different sects of Judaism and how the different sects learn to appreciate one another.

The Hasidim, or "pious ones" in Hebrew, belong to a special movement within Orthodox Judaism, a movement that, at its height in the first half of the nineteenth century, claimed the allegiance of millions in Eastern and Central Europe--perhaps a majority of East European Jews. Hasidism gained popularity among the common people because of its charismatic leaders and the emotional appeal of its messages which stressed joy, faith and ecstatic prayer, accompanied by song and dance. Hasidism experienced a great decline during World War II and the Holocaust, but it was transplanted by immigrants to America, Israel, Canada, Australia, and Western Europe. Hasidism thrives today in areas such as New York and other American cities. Hasidic Jews thrive as a creative minority because they have conserved many of ...

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...e world, but he breaks that rule by showing readers that Danny reads books other than the Talmud and other Jewish readings. Potok thoroughly describes Hasidim and reveals the strict traditions Hasidic Jews attain.

The extreme close-knit community of the Hasidic Jews proves to be immensely admirable and beneficial to it’s culture, but their lack of sharing Hasidim is not admirable in any sense. As Christians we are to spread the gospel and our faith as much as possible which is something Hasidim refutes. Matthew 28:19 says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This verse reinforces our need, as Christians, to spread the gospel and not keep it to ourselves. Throughout The Chosen we see the disadvantages of being unable to speak about Hasidim outside of the Hasidic culture.