Power Struggle Among Reb Saunders In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

The Chosen: The Power Struggles Among Reb Saunders, Danny and Reuven In The Chosen, the author, Chaim Potok, creates a series of power struggles between the two branches of Judaism. Raising in two different family, Reuven enjoys his freedom of reading whatever he wants, but Danny struggles to obtain the knowledge from the outside of Hasidism. Modern Orthodox Jews follows their traditions but also allowing secular materials in their community. Hasidic Jewish isolate themselves from the outer world to preserve their pureness to their worship. Reb Saunders, the father of Danny, is the tzaddik, or the leader, of Hasidic Jewish community they are living in. The traditions and believes of Hasidism lead the relationship of Danny and Reuven, Danny

The conflicts among the various Jewish causes Reb Saunders to restrict Danny from contacting with Reuven. As the Zionist Movement is happening, Reuven’s father, David Malter, tries to carry out the support of the Americans for Jews who tries to reestablish their home, but Reb Saunders angrily disagreed with this idea (Sternlicht The Chosen 38). The disagreement of the Zionist Movement between Reuven’s family and Danny’s does not conclude the reason why Reb Saunders restrict Danny from seeing Reuven. Reb Saunders tries to prevent his people from isolating Danny because of hanging around with a non-Hasidic person. However, Danny and Reuven still secretly meet with each other, even after the warning from Reb Saunders. Almost every Jewish group have their own opinion towards the movement, however, among the various groups, Hasidism takes the side to go against the movement. This series of power struggle involve around the Jewish beliefs and the relationship between Reuven and Reb Saunders are the direct result of the religious conflict during the Zionist

The power struggle happens between the father and the son, who refuses to talk to each other because of the tradition of their family. It is such a struggle for Reuven, who functions as the messenger between Danny and Reb Saunders, because he dislikes idea of raising a child through silence. Sternlicht describes Reuven, “He is a true, loyal, unshakable friend, without guile, and totally reliable (Sternlicht The Promise 62).” Reuven, as Danny’s best friend, cannot understand why Reb Saunders does such a horrible thing to his child by not communicating with him at all unless it is about the Talmud. The misunderstanding of Reuven about Reb Saunders causes him not to accept the invitation from Reb Saunders. In addition to the misunderstanding, Reuven also has a frustration about being a middle man. However, his conflict with Reb Saunders causes the power struggle between Danny and his father to be unsettling until he accepts the invitation. Danny wishes to go to Columbia University, and he knows what he has to give up in order to go there. Reb Saunders is the leader of the whole Hasidic Jewish community. There are certain responsibilities lying on the back of Reb Saunders and Danny they cannot just throw away. Danny’s decision forces Reb Saunders to change the candidate of the next tzaddik. Reb Saunders finds out Danny’s capability of reading books and memorizing