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Mapping the
Human Heart: Chaim Potok's The Chosen
by Marilyn Green Faulkner
"Long ago, in
The Chosen," Chaim Potok writes, "I set out to draw a map
of the New York world through which I once journeyed. It was to
be a map not only of broken streets, menacing alleys, concrete-surfaced
backyards, neighborhood schools and stores . . . a map not only
of the physical elements of my early life, but of the spiritual
ones as well." (Chaim Potok, "The Invisible Map of
Meaning: A Writer's Confrontation," Triquarterly, Spring 1992)
Born and raised among the Hasidic Jews of New York, Chaim Potok
transports us to a world completely strange, yet strangely familiar.
The Chosen
is the story of two young men who form a friendship that changes
both their lives. Reuven, an orthodox Jew, and Danny, a Hasidic
Jew, struggle to understand each other, though to the outside world
they are simply both Jews. Through their relationship Potok teaches
us about Hasidism, the ultra-conservative sect that originated in
Poland in response to the persecutions suffered by Jews hundreds
of years ago. Each group of Hasidic Jews is led by a Tzaddik; a
mystical leader who is rabbi, prophet and even a Messianic figure
to his followers. They dwell in a world closed even to other Jews,
and as Reuven enters this world through his friendship with Danny,
we have the rare opportunity to experience a fascinating culture
within a culture.
Chaim Potok
says that he wrote The Chosen in order to come to terms
with his own Jewish upbringing, particularly the fundamentalist
viewpoint that taught him to see the Jewish race at the center of
world history. Raised in an unquestioning orthodox home, Chaim graduated
from his local Yeshiva and was ordained a rabbi. It was at this
point that his life changed completely, when he was sent to Korea
for two years. Of this experience he says, "When I went to Korea
I was a very coherent human being in the sense that I had a model
of what I was - I had a map. I knew who I was as a Jew. When I went
to Asia, it all came unglued. It all became relativized. Everything
turned upside down."
Potok's father
had taught him that Jews suffered because they were God's chosen,
yet over a million Koreans had been senselessly slaughtered during
the war. Were they also chosen in some way, or was all the suffering
meaningless? As a boy, Potok had been taught to believe that paganism
was evil, yet in the faces of devout Buddhists in prayer he saw
the same intensity that he knew in the faces of the faithful Jews
in his synagogue. How could God hate these sincere, devout people?
Chaim began to question his assumption that Judaism was the only
truth worth knowing and also his assumption that America was the
only great nation. He concludes: "That experience not only relativized
my Jewishness, it relativized my American-ness and my western-ness
simultaneously. It set everything into specific culture contexts
and at the same time taught me that my culture could be viewed from
outside its perimeters by another culture, and be seen in an altogether
different way. What happened was that I began to see my culture
from the outside. When that happens to your head, you are never
the same again."
Chaim Potok
understands that by helping us see into another culture, we may
get a new perspective on our own. One of his early inspirations
was James Joyce, who wrote only about his home town of Dublin. Joyce
said, "If I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart
of all the cities in the world. In the particular is contained the
universal." As we get into the heart of a lonely Hasidic boy we
learn some universal truths about the human struggle, and find curious
parallels between his world and our own. The Chosen is
the book of the month for May. I'm already receiving comments from
readers who have enjoyed it and its sequel, The Promise.
Here is a sampling:
Thank you so
much for putting, "The Chosen" on the reading list. I just finished
it and found it so spellbinding. I know so little about the Jewish
people that this book opened a whole new world for me. My last real
contact with Jewish people was when I lived in Cleveland, Ohio when
I was in grade school. My two best friends were Jewish, but at that
time I did not appreciate what it really meant to be Jewish. Barbara
The central
question posed by the book(s) is asked by Reuven. Can a man be rooted
deeply enough in one world to enable him to be concerned only about
the people of the other, and not their ideas? Is there an invisible
thread connecting me to the inhabitants of both those worlds? Maybe
one has to take a stand and abandon one or the other entirely. Thoughtful
men have been wrestling with this question since the beginning of
time. Potok examines this question in depth, and from this examination
come some profound truths...
Reuven's father
tells him, "Human beings do not live forever, Rueven, we live less
than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives
against eternity. So we may be asked what value is there to a human
life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have
to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of
an eye? I learned a long time ago, that the blink of an eye in itself
is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. The span
of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something.
He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so that its quality is
immeasurable, though its quantity may be insignificant. A man must
fill his life with meaning , meaning is not automatically given
to life. It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning. A life
filled with meaning is worthy of rest..........I want to be worthy
of rest, when I am no longer here......
Few goals are
worthy of greater dedication. Phil
Write to me
about The Chosen. We'll share more comments during the
last week of the month. Since the last article I have received a
few more comments about Silas Marner that are well worth sharing:
I just kept
thinking of the similarities between Silas and Rumpelstiltskin.
Both were weavers for gold. (sort of) Rumpelstiltskin wanted a baby
for his gold. And that woman tricked him out of the deal. Silas
got a baby for his gold and it wrought a great change in him. Who
knows what good a baby would have done the cunning Rumpelstiltskin?
Ami
I recall reading
this in high school so I thought I would read something about the
author. I found a fascinating biography of George Eliot by Rosemary
Sprague. To read about her life and associates added depth to my
reading again of Silas Marner. Sorry I didn't get in my recommendation
that members look into this biography along with Silas. D.L.
I am part way
done with "Silas Marner" and find it much more meaningful reading
it as an adult compared to when I was a young person. I especially
find it interesting since I am a weaver and look at his occupation
in different eyes since I know some of the work and joy that weaving
can be. Of course, he earned his living from weaving - I'd starve
if I had to do that - mine is for relaxation and creativity. Barbara
The Silas Marner
Miracle: You asked if a treasure had been replaced in our hearts
by another. I will say perhaps not replaced, but rather added to.
It did not, however, take only a moment. Losing my "treasure" in
a car accident after only 16 months of marriage burst every dream
I'd had. THIS they never taught you about in Laurels! To add to
my heartache, I was 5 months pregnant with our child, whom he would
now never see. But into my life several years later came a new treasure
who slowly, but surely, has filled my life and lessoned the pain
of my loss. The first treasure has never left my heart, and never
will. But I have learned there is room for two. That a broken heart
can be healed, even if it's just a little, is a miracle in my life.
D.
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