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Isramom8
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Tue, Nov 25 2008, 11:22 pm
msym wrote: | the book left me feeling very bothered |
How?
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chanchy123
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Wed, Nov 26 2008, 3:06 am
Yes and yes.
My mother made me read this book when I was in seventh grade I think. It was one of the first "adult" books I read.
It is a great book.
I actually used the chapter exlpaining Chassidut as reference for my history "bagrut" on chasidut (I did pretty well actually). Besides, that this book is a great book for a young Jewish teenager. It has so many insights into the big question of the relationship between Judaism and modern life and it is still relevent today. This, besides being just a good story.
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shosh
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Wed, Nov 26 2008, 3:36 am
I read quite a lot of Potok as a teenager. I loved his writing style. He wrote of the Chassidic community in warm terms, showing religious life in a nostalgic light and he did not describe it in openly negative terms. However, what bothered me was how all the religious main characters dropped out of their chareidi lifestyles, as if being Chassidic is all very nice but it's a thing of the past. (I think the only character who didn't, if I remember rightly, was Asher Lev, but then if I am correct that novel is based on a true story.)
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zaq
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Wed, Nov 26 2008, 12:44 pm
shosh wrote: | what bothered me was how all the religious main characters dropped out of their chareidi lifestyles, as if being Chassidic is all very nice but it's a thing of the past. |
IIRC, in The Chosen, the more modern young man was gravitating to the right by the end of the book, but all of Potok's other main characters are headed the other way. I don't get the sense that they're leaving because yiddishkeit is old-fashioned so much as because it's constricting, claustrophobic, inflexible, and doesn't satisfy the characters' emotional needs. The straying seemed to get more and more severe with each successive book, too, and I'm assuming there's a strong autobiographical element to the books. The strong christian overtones in Asher Lev's Brooklyn Crucifixion are very disturbing.
What bothered me about Potok's books is not just that there was this progression of his characters drifting further and further away from yiddishkeit, but also the overall negative outlook towards yiddishkeit as a whole. His work would be less offensive if he showed a more balanced view, including at least some characters who are educated, normal, socialized individuals, not brainwashed automatons or repressed geniuses, who still manage to be happy following their traditions.
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Frum
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Mon, Dec 08 2008, 10:49 am
I read the Chosen and the Promise. I liked the Chosen especially.
The funny thing is that this book actually strengthened by emuna. I was really intrigued by Re'uven and his father. To me, they were the main characters in the book. The same is true for my BT husband.
So I see what many people are writing here, how the ideas of the writer often affect the reader, but I do think these two books were written with a love for authentic Judaism, prob. contrary to other books of his that I haven't read.
The same feeling stuck with me after seeing the movie.
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sunset
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Thu, May 18 2017, 10:22 am
I just read The Chosen and honestly I dont see the theme as 'against chassidim'.
In the beginning after it describes Danny a bit I immediately thought to myself, omg he is a psychopath. Just from what the book mentioned.
About the father's silence toward his son, that enraged me and yes it did make Chassidim look bad. Therefore I was totally not expecting the end where the father explains his silence. He knew from when his son was little that his son was 'a mind with no soul' and this was his way of teaching his son to feel the pain of others.
Not saying that's the right way but the father really knew and cared about his son.
And in the end the son actually does want to go on helping others, as a clinical psychologist.
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