The Chosen

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1967

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Book 1, Chapters 1-2

Book 1, Chapters 3-4

Book 2, Chapters 5-7

Book 2, Chapters 8-12

Book 3, Chapters 13-14

Book 3, Chapters 15-18

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Book 3, Chapters 13-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Book 3, Chapter 13 Summary

The boys begin Hirsch College, but the college only teaches experimental psychology, and Danny is upset: He doesn’t understand how mazes and rats relate to the mind. Yet Danny soars with Jewish studies and the Talmud. The department raves about him, and people ask him to settle Talmudic spats. Rav Gershenson likes to spend three days on two lines, so Danny learns a lot from him.

Reuven and Danny discuss the psychology professor and chairperson, Nathan Appleman, who dismisses Freud’s followers as “Dogmatic Freudians”—they don’t want to challenge his theories but confirm them through “dubious” inferences and analogies. Reuven wonders if Appleman is on to something, and Danny says any followers of a genius are “dogmatic,” and Freud was a genius. Reuven jokes about turning Freud into a tzaddik.

Reuven’s dad has had three colds in five months, and he’s dedicated himself to the increasingly violent Zionist movement (people who support the creation and preservation of Israel). With his Zionist activities and teaching duties, Malter often comes home after 11 p.m.

Reuven thinks his dad works too much, and he insists his dad visit Dr. Grossman for a checkup. Reuven’s dad says people don’t live forever. In the context of eternity, their lifespan is a blink of an eye. Malter asserts that neither the blink of an eye nor the span of a life matters, but the eye that blinks and the person that lives that span matter—they have meaning, and a person must give their life meaning. If Malter didn’t work hard, his life would lack meaning.

At the college library, Reuven reads about experimental psychology. Most of the books don’t cite Freud. One book mentions him negatively—he’s a sensationalist who lacks discipline. The second semester starts, and during lunch, Reuven praises experimental psychology, so Danny storms away.

The next morning, Reuven and Danny reunite. Danny had an hour-long talk with Appleman. Appleman isn’t opposed to Freud’s conclusions but his methods. His judgments come from a few patients—Freud is generalizing. Appleman doesn’t dislike Freud as much as Freudians, who make tons of money as analysts and refuse to let others test their beliefs. No one is God—not Freud, not Einstein.

As experimental psychology relates to math, Reuven tutors Danny in math, and Danny learns it quickly. Yet he sticks to the belief that experimental psychology and the human mind don’t belong together.

The subject of Israel dominates Hirsch College, with students joining groups that support and oppose it. Danny doesn’t join any group, but he wants to join Reuven's pro-Israel group. During lunch, a Hasid calls a pro-Israel student worse than Hitler, and there’s almost a fight. The issue splits the rabbis, but the college faculty supports Israel. There are discussions about allegiances: What side would an American Jew be on if America and Israel went to war?

To drive support for Israel, Reuven’s dad helps plan a rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Malter reads his speech to his son—the takeaway: The creation of Israel gives meaning to the genocide. A snowstorm arrives the day before the rally, but it’s a success.

Danny and Reuven meet in the bathroom because Danny’s dad read about Malter’s speech in the Yiddish media and bans him from seeing Reuven. Failure to comply means Reb Saunders will yank Danny out of college and send him to an out-of-town yeshiva for rabbinical ordination.

Reuven relays the news to his dad, and his dad says Reb Saunders had to act to satisfy his followers. Reuven calls Danny’s dad a “fanatic,” and Reuven’s dad says such fanaticism has helped the Jews survive for 2,000 years. If the Jews in Palestine have a tiny bit of that fanaticism, there will be a Jewish state in no time.

Book 3, Chapter 14 Summary

Reuven and Danny stay away from each other, and the separation harms Reuven’s schoolwork. When Reuven talks to his dad about his troubles, his dad defends Reb Saunders. Reb Saunders starts the League for a Religious Eretz Yisroel. They threaten to banish Jews who support Israel and to boycott pro-Israel stores. They hold an anti-Zionist rally, but not many people attend.

News of the violence in Palestine follows Reuven and his dad on their August vacation in their cottage near the Peekskill, and Malter continues to work for the Zionist cause while at the cottage. Malter isn’t healthy.

When Reuven returns to school in September, Danny looks thin and pale. He won’t acknowledge Reuven, upsetting Reuven—though Reuven tries to forget him.

Reuven has Rav Gershenson’s Talmud class with Danny. The students have 9 a.m. to noon to prepare. They then eat lunch. From one to three, there’s class. The students don’t know who Rav Gershenson will call on. In the first week of October, he calls on Reuven, whose satisfactory answer makes Danny smile. By November, Reuven is the lone student Rav Gershenson hasn’t called on twice. Maybe Rav Gershenson is in cahoots with Reb Saunders.

Reuven’s dad speaks at another Zionist rally at Madison Square Garden, and Reb Saunders’s group continues to plaster the neighborhood with anti-Zionist material. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations adopts the Partition Plan (making Palestine separate Arab and Jewish states). Reuven’s dad is ecstatic, but Arabs in Palestine react violently, and Reb Saunders’s anti-Zionist group keeps excoriating Zionists. At a Jewish National Fund (a group that buys and builds land for Israel) meeting, Reuven’s dad has a second heart attack, and, in school, Danny gives Reuven a compassionate look.

Living with his housekeeper, Reuven methodically studies the Talmud at night. Soon, he’s days ahead of the students in Rav Gershenson’s class. He finally calls on Reuven, and Reuven explains the passage and its contradictory commentaries for an hour and a half. The next day, Reuven spends two hours on seven words. As Reuven speaks, Rav Gershenson holds his head in his palms. Reuven’s acumen causes jealousy, but he thinks Danny is smiling. After the fourth straight day of speaking, Rav Gershenson speaks and asks Reuven about a medieval commentary that tries to reconcile the passage. Reuven says it’s pilpul—the analysis is petty.

After class, Rav Gershenson asks Reuven if he studied the passage—“inyan”—by himself. Reuven did—his dad is in the hospital. Reuven tells Rav Gershenson he studied the Talmud with his dad, and Rav Gershenson says Malter is a fantastic scholar and teacher. Rav Gershenson doesn’t want Reuven to use such a painstaking method, but he will call on Reuven more from now on. He likes listening to Reuven, and he’s been waiting all year to discover how great his dad is at teaching the Talmud.

Book 3, Chapters 13-14 Analysis

Appleman’s critique of “Dogmatic Freudians” (281) and Danny’s defense of Freud links to Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge. Danny claims, “The Freudians have plenty to be dogmatic about. Freud was a genius” (287). In other words, knowing a lot can lead to stubbornness. A “genius” can believe that they possess all the applicable answers, so they stop challenging themselves and dismiss critiques as beneath them. Danny proves his dogmatism by sticking with Freud and mocking Appleman. He then subverts his dogmatism and searches beyond himself for answers when he speaks to Appleman and asks Reuven to help him with math so that he can grasp experimental psychology. Ultimately, Danny’s quest for knowledge trumps his dislike of experimental psychology, and he works hard to understand it, even if it is not his preferred approach.

Freud becomes a symbol of idolization or creating false gods. After Danny asserts Freud’s genius, Reuven jokes, “What do they do, make a tzaddik out of him?” (282). His quip merges Freud and Hasids and suggests Danny is doing to Freud what Hasids tend to do with their leaders––they mistake them for god. Neither the tzaddik nor Freud knows everything. As Reuven’s dad quips, “Danny is discovering that Freud is not God” (287).

The theme of Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge is also highlighted in the depiction of Reuven’s methodical study of the Talmud and the detailed answer he gives to Rav Gershenson’s question. Potok has Reuven speak for two hours on seven words to indicate the depth of Reuven’s quest for knowledge and his ability to advance his knowledge even when his father is in the hospital. Reuven’s long-held desire to be a rabbi is sincere, and his motivation and scholastic ability make him an excellent Talmudic scholar.

Concerning Israel, Danny’s dad and Reuven’s dad think they know what’s right. Their knowledge produces an intense dogmatism, with Reuven’s dad working himself sick and Danny’s dad threatening to banish Jews and boycott businesses. Though they're on different sides, the juxtaposition reveals that each father is intensely certain that they’re right. The politics of Israel continue to impact Reuven’s personal space. It strains his relationship with his father, as Reuven bluntly asks his dad, “How many fathers do I have?” (288). He’s worried his dad might work himself to death. Israel also ostensibly suspends Reuven’s friendship with Danny. Due to Israel, the line separating the personal and the political is nonexistent in Reuven’s world.

Highlighting the theme of Silence and Communication, both fathers have found their voices—albeit opposing ones—on the creation of Israel. Malter has always shared his views freely with his son, and now he publicly presents his views in support of Israel at rallies. Malter’s public voice is what gives voice to Reb Saunders. Even though the conversation is only recounted by Danny, the reader learns that Danny and his father had three arguments over the public nature of the rally and Danny’s friendship with Reuven. The silence has been broken, and the outcome is that Danny must end his friendship with Reuven. The supposed termination of the friendship circles back to The Intricacies of Friendship. Genuine friends don’t stop being friends because of someone else. After an icy period, Danny and Reuven stay close. Danny is “nodding his head and smiling” (332) during Reuven’s virtuoso performance in Talmud class. After Reuven’s dad has a heart attack, Reuven says Danny “brushed against me and managed to touch my hand for a second. His touch and his eyes spoke the words that his lips couldn’t” (325). True friends can express themselves to each other without talking.

Reb Saunders’s fervent anti-Zionism and threats to upend Danny’s life if he stays friends with Reuven provide more clues that he’s not a kind tzaddik. Yet Potok keeps Reb Saunders a mystery. Though Malter and Reb Saunders have different beliefs, Malter doesn’t think Reb Saunders is bad. After Reuven calls Danny’s dad a “fanatic,” Malter replies:

[T]he fanaticism of men like Reb Saunders kept us alive for two thousand years of exile. If the Jews of Palestine have an ounce of that same fanaticism and use it wisely, we will soon have a Jewish state (312).

The reader doesn’t have to agree with Malter, but his voice makes it hard for them to view Reb Saunders as a clear antagonist or villain.