Character Analysis: The Chosen

On an asphalt baseball field in Brooklyn, two teams from local Yeshivah schools meet. At first, it just seems like a baseball game between two Jewish high school teams. But the game quickly turns into a holy war when the caftan and ear lock wearing Hasidic team begins to taunt and bully the less conservative “hell-bound sinners” on the other team. Hate boils as Danny Saunders, the leader of the Hasidic team, purposely hits a pitch right back at the pitcher, crushing his glasses and landing him in the hospital for a week. This is how Chaim Potok 's book The Chosen begins. It would seem that there would be no way the batter, Danny Saunders, and the pitcher, Reuven Malter, could be friends. But Potok uses their friendship to deeply explore differences …show more content…
Reuven decides to become a rabbi and spend his life helping people find peace and meaning in Judaism. Danny decides to become a psychologist so he can help people find peace and meaning through science. Although Reb Saunders failed to satisfy his son 's active mind with the answer that pain is simply to be endured as God 's will, Reb Saunders succeeded in teaching his son to deeply meditate the pain of the world. He said he “had to make sure his soul would be the soul of a tzaddik no matter what he did with his life” (285). Potok insinuates that despite the fact that David Malter and Reb Saunders held very different beliefs, and raised their sons in very different ways, they both created a rabbi. Danny and Reuven both seek to find meaning in their own life by helping others find their own, and they do it in different and ironic ways. Reb Saunders is the leader of a very separated and radical Jewish congregation, yet his son becomes a secular psychologist. David Malter is a professor and is active in subjects relevant to modern Jews, yet his son becomes an Orthodox …show more content…
The Westminster Shorter Catechism states that “The chief purpose for which man is made is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever” (question 1). Paul admonished the Corinthian Christians to live by this: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (ESV I Corinthians 10:31). Dr. John Piper frequently says that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him” (Desiring God.org). The meaning and purpose of every human 's life is to glorify God, which is best accomplished when one is satisfied with who He is and longs to personally know Him better. The Saunders and the Malters were never satisfied with their answers because satisfaction and meaning can only come from doing what glorifies God and thus personally knowing and delighting in Him. Finding meaning takes confidence in who God is, which is what Reb Saunders sought. It takes actively living life in a meaningful way, which Danny and the Malters sought. But it also takes personally knowing and glorifying God in everything one does, which is what God seeks. With this understanding one can have a meaningful