The Chosen

by Chaim Potok

For a long time there was terrible bitterness between the Mitnagdim, the opponents of Hasidism, and the followers of the Besht.

if the son of a Hasid married the daughter of a Mitnaged, both fathers would say Kaddish after their children, considering them to be dead and buried. So great was the bitterness.

“The Hasidim had great leaders—tzaddikim, they were calle...

community had its own tzaddik, and his people would go to him with all their problems, and he would give them advice. Th...

Many tzaddikim lived like Oriental monarchs. Some of them were out-and-out frauds, and they exploited their people terribly. Others were very sincere, and a few were even great scholars of the Talmud. In some Hasidic sects, the study of the Talmud became as important as it had been before the time of the Besht. Secular literature was forbidden, and the Hasidim lived shut off from the rest of the world. Anything that was not Jewish and Hasidic was forbidden.

you. Reb Saunders’s son is a terribly torn and lonely boy. There is literally no one in the world he can talk to. He needs a friend. The accident with the baseball has bound him to you, and he has already sensed in you someone he can talk to without fear. I am very proud of you for that.

“Reuven, as you grow older you will discover that the most important things that will happen to you will often come as a result of silly things, as you call them—‘ordinary things’ is a better expression. That is the way the world is.”

“I don’t understand it,” I said. “Weeks and weeks go by, one Shabbat follows another, and I’m the same, nothing has changed, and suddenly one day something happens, and everything looks different.”

There were many synagogues in Williamsburg.

The synagogue where my father and I prayed had once been a large grocery store.

The synagogue was attended mostly by men like my father—teachers from my yeshiva, and others who had come under the influence of the Jewish Enlightenment in Europe and whose distaste for Hasidism was intense and outspoken.

The prayers went slowly; the man at the podium had a fine voice and waited until each portion of the service had been completed by everyone before he began to chant.

I did not wear a prayer shawl; they were worn only by adults who were or had once been married.

I must be careful not to read until Dr. Snydman gave me his permission, he said, but there was

nothing wrong if I attended classes and listened.

“He always has to approve of my friends,” Danny said. “Especially if they’re outside the fold. Do you mind my telling him that we’re friends?”

“You’ve been living five blocks away from me all these years, and I never knew who you were,” I said.

“We stick pretty close together. My father doesn’t like us to mix with outsiders.”

Russia was Esav and Edom, the land of Satan and the Angel of Death. They would travel together to America and rebuild their community.

After the customary period of quarantine, they were permitted to leave the island, and Jewish welfare workers helped them settle in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

“My father told me about Hasidism last night. He said it was a fine idea until some of the tzaddikim began to take advantage of their followers.

“Something like that. He’s a kind of messenger of God, a bridge between his followers and God.”

feel like a cowboy surrounded by Indians,” I told him in a whisper. Danny grinned at me reassuringly and let go of my arm. “You’re in the holy halls,” he said. “It takes getting used to.”

Treat the son as you would the father, because one day the son will be the father.”

I suddenly realized that Danny was probably going to have as much trouble with his friends over our friendship as I would have with mine.

Your father would probably say the text was all wrong.” He was talking quietly and grinning broadly. “I read some of your father’s articles. Sneaked them off my father’s desk. The one on that passage in Kiddushin about the business with the king is very good. It’s full of real apikorsische stuff.”

“The great and holy Rabban Gamaliel,” he said, “taught us the following: ‘Do His will as if it were thy will, that He may do thy will as if it were His will. Nullify thy will before His will that He may nullify the will of others before thy will.’ What does this mean? It means that if we do as the Master of the Universe wishes, then He will do as we wish.

What are we that the Master of the Universe should do our will?”

Will the Master of the Universe obey the will of a man whose life is dust? What is the great and holy Rabban Gamaliel teaching us?”

“Rabbi Halafta son of Dosa teaches us, ‘When ten people sit together and occupy themselves with the Torah, the Presence of God abides among them, as it is said, “God standeth in the congregation of the godly.”

And whence can it be shown that the same applies even to one? Because it is said, “In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come unto thee and I will bless thee.”’

But that the Presence can reside in one! In one! Even in one! That already is a mighty thing. Even in one! If one man studies Torah, the Presence is with him. If one man studies Torah, the Master of the Universe is already in the world. A mighty thing! And to bring the Master of the World into the world is also to raise oneself up from the dust. Torah raises us from the dust! Torah gives us strength! Torah clothes us! Torah brings the Presence!”

What does the world know of Torah? The world is Esav! The world is Amalek! The world is Cossacks! The world is Hitler, may his name and memory be erased! Of whom, then? Of the people of Israel! We are commanded to study His Torah! We are commanded to sit in the light of the Presence! It is for this that we were created!

‘If thou hast learnt much Torah, ascribe not any merit to thyself, for thereunto wast thou created’? Not the world, but the people of Israel! The people of Israel must study His Torah!”

The people of Israel must study...

“The world kills us! The world flays our skin from our bodies and throws us to the flames!

The world laughs at Torah! And if it does not kill us, it tempts us! It misleads us! It contaminates us!

The world is Amalek! It is not the world that is commanded to study Torah, bu...

It is not the worl...

“It is written, ‘This world is like a vestibule before the world-to-come; prepare thyself in the vestibule, that thou mayest enter into the hall.’

‘This world is like a vestibule before the world-to-come; prepare thyself in the vestibule, that thou mayest enter into the hall.’

We are only half alive in this world!

‘Whoever does not labor in the Torah is said to be under the divine censure.’

He is a nozuf, a person whom the Master of the Universe

man, a tzaddik, studies Torah, for it is written, ‘For his delight is in the Torah of God, and over His Torah ...

It is a life dedicated to God that makes the difference between the nozuf and the tzaddik!”

From this we learn that the righteous man who removes himself from Torah also removes himself from the world-to-come!”

“We see that without Torah there is only half a life. We see that without Torah we are dust. We see that without Torah we are abominations.”

“When we study Torah, then the Master of the Universe listens. Then he hears our words. Then He will fulfill our wishes. For the Master of the Universe promises strength to those who preoccupy themselves in Torah,

Universe promises strength to those who preoccupy themselves in Torah, as it is written, ‘So ye may be strong,’ and He promises length of days, as it is written. ‘So that your days may be lengthened.’ May Torah be a fountain of waters to all who drink from it, and may it bring to us the Messiah speedily and in our day. Amen!”