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Family Loyalty In The Chosen By Chaim Potok

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Family roots reach deep into the soul of an individual, taking hold and rarely loosening their grip. Fierce loyalty characterizes families, specifically those who spend time bonding with one another. Families who love Jesus exhibit Christ-like traits when interacting with one another. Usually, when a problem surfaces, families either overlook it or work through it. Family loyalty varies in the different ways people express themselves and the ways the family shows love. In The Chosen, written by Chaim Potok, the two main characters Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter respect their families, even when their family members display some very obvious flaws. The characterizing traits of family loyalty are respect, love, and forgivingness. Respect is a tremendous aspect of family loyalty. Without this glue, families would fall apart or be more distant with one another. A father figure who commands respect leads the family in a common purpose, and usually earns the admiration and trust of his family through this. In The Chosen, Danny's father Isaac Saunders, more commonly known as Reb, leads his family, and also his people by commanding respect and gaining admiration. "'He's more than a rabbi.' Danny said. 'He's a tzaddik'"(118) Even when Reb commanded Danny not to associate with his best friend for …show more content…

Danny's father ignores him throughout the entire story, only directly speaking to him at the very end of the book, but Danny is able to maintain his respect for his father because he loves him. "'I thought you said your father never talks to you.' 'He doesn't'"(116) Because of his respect and love for his father, Danny tries to comprehend his father's method of raising him instead of deciding to hate him because of it. Love for Reb Saunders perseveres throughout, even if it is a blind love because of the respect and awe he feels for his father. Love enables families to overcome differences to create

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Also, since David was working so hard during the end of the book, Reuven felt obligated as a son to help his father’s dream to expand the Jewish population and form a new Jewish state. Becoming a rabbi would be the best way for Reuven to continue his father’s dream after his death. Reb Saunders also affected Danny’s career path. Reb Saunders said that Danny would not be a Jewish tzaddik for a synagogue, but a “tzaddik for the world. And the world needs a tzaddik” (Potok 287).

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Reuven was glad that Danny came to visit again despite their previous encounter. after sending Danny away, he was surprised at his own actions and had come to regret it at the end. His own father reminded him that the Talmud says that if a person is willing to apologize for his own wrongdoing, then you must at least try to understand and forgive him and that is exactly what Reuven intends to do after feeling angry and depressed with himself from what he had said to Danny. Throughout this chapter, an unlikely friendship between the two boys develop. They begin to talk and learn more about one another rather than dwelling in fateful day of the ballgame; in other words, they let bygones be bygones.

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He made Danny realize suffering by raising him in silence, which also taught him to have compassion towards others. Reb realizes he can not prevent Danny from his thirst for knowledge. He decided Danny’s “soul would be the soul of a tzaddik no matter what he did with his life” if he learned to show

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