Over the course of Reuven and Danny’s long
conversation, we see that the two boys have much in common. They
share a ravenous intellectual curiosity, they both study Talmud
diligently, they both evidence a deep commitment to and respect
for Jewish tradition, they are both taught by David Malter, and
they were even born in the same hospital. More important, we see
how they complement each other: Danny is interested in science and
the humanities, while Reuven’s strength is in mathematics. Danny
is delighted to learn that Reuven knows so much about a subject with
which he is unfamiliar because he sees that Reuven is an intellectual
equal who can teach him about things he cannot learn on his own.
Throughout The Chosen, all the characters hunger
for knowledge, and Danny’s excitement over Reuven’s ability to teach
him foreshadows the mutually beneficial role the boys will play
in each other’s life. Each will teach and be taught by the other.
The epigraph of Book One of The Chosen is
a quotation from Proverbs. It reads, “I was a son to my father.
. . . And he taught me and said to me, ‘Let your heart hold fast
my words. . . .’” This quotation emphasizes the importance of teaching
imparted by a father to a son, and it is in his relationship to
his father that Reuven’s situation differs most strikingly from
Danny’s. Whereas Reuven’s father speaks to Reuven freely about all
subjects, Reb Saunders only teaches Danny about Jewish law and custom.
Reb Saunders attempts to restrict his son’s education to Hasidic
customs and precepts, reflecting a small-minded and limited worldview
in which such topics are the only ones worth learning.
Reb Saunders’s silence seems unusually cruel
and inexplicable, and his lack of non-liturgical interaction seems
to imply a fundamental distance or coldness in his relationship
with Danny. But in this chapter, Potok hints that silence doesn’t
always imply coldness and distance when, after Danny reveals his
doubts about God’s will and Reuven responds, the two boys “[sit]
in silence a long time. It was a warm silence, though, not in the
least bit awkward.” This brief passage foreshadows the multifaceted role
silence plays later in the novel.
When Reuven says to Danny, “You look like a Hasid, but
you don’t sound like one,” he shows that one’s senses can contradict
and complement one another, each offering insight into the world
that the others lack. Although Reuven’s eye heals completely, his
experience in the hospital teaches him how fragile his vision is,
both literally (in terms of the injury to his eye) and figuratively
(in terms of his misperceptions about Danny). By listening to Danny,
Reuven learns aspects of his friend that his eyes could never see.
