Potok, Chaim

Average customer rating:

"Starting with Moses & all the prophets......
Be Advised, Speciality is Key
Thorough and thought provoking
Best guide to "Numbers" yet available
Excellent commentary on the Torah.

JPS Torah Commentary, 5 Volume Set

Manufacturer: Jewish Publication Society of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Leviticus: The Traditional Hebrew Text With the New Jps Translation (J P S Torah Commentary)
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Bible Commentary:Genesis
Ecclesiastes: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation (The Jps Bible Commentary)

ASIN: 0827603312

Customer Reviews:

"Starting with Moses & all the prophets.............2006-08-28

I own four JPS Torah commentaries; Genesis, exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Whilst written by Jewish scholars, they are a huge help to the Christian preacher and Bible study scholar. In depth knowledge of the language, and traditions offer fascinating, whilst sad insights to the Jewish interpretation of the Torah. I would recommend these books very highly to anyone with a strong faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah. They, even unknowingly clearly point to him as the Saviour of the world.

We own a lot to the Jewish people, from whom Salvation comes.

Be Advised, Speciality is Key.......2005-04-13

Because of the degree of specialty of each of the writers (each are specialists on the Law), a decent (at least some) amount of Hebrew knowledge is key, to allow the reader to evaluate decisions made by the authors. It is also key to remember that these commentaries (following after the aims of JPS) are thoroughly Jewish and track the development of understanding for the passages discussed, though not necessarily to the detriment of the series. A great work, worth the shelf space of any Rabbi, Preacher, or Scholar. rq ladonai kvd

Thorough and thought provoking.......2000-12-06

Of the five commentaries in the JPS series on the first five books of the Bible, Milgrom's is the best.

Milgrom's commentary reveals a healthy respect for classical Jewish commentators but doesn't hesitate to address and add modern Biblical research. Milgrom excels when explaining the more obscure portions of Numbers, such as the rituals, calendars, and sacrifices. In addition to his verse by verse commentary, Milgrom adds lengthy excurses, exploring in more depth the issues raised in the commentary.

For example, his insights into the meaning of "tzitzit" - the fringes attached to four cornered garments - are outstanding. Milgrom argues that attaching the linen tzitzit with the dyed blue thread (techelet) to one's garment as required by the text, rendered the garment "shaatnez" - a forbidden combination of wool and linen. Milgrom notes that "shaatnez" is generally forbidden to be worn, but was permitted to be used in the construction of the Tabernacle and the clothing of the priests. By allowing, indeed requiring, every Israelite to attach shaatnez tzitzit to the corners of his/her garments, the Bible was drumming into the people the mandate that they be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

Similarly, Milgrom's treatment of the paradox of the Red Cow, whose ashes purified those rendered impure by contact with the dead but rendered impure those who handled them is a tour de force of modern Biblical scholarship.

On almost every page, you will enjoy reading insights you may never before have come across. This book is a treasure for anyone willing to spend the time it requires.

Best guide to "Numbers" yet available.......2000-10-17

Like all the volumes in the JPS Torah commentary series, this volume is simply the best in its area. It contains the complete Hebrew text of Genesis, the JPS's new English translation, and an extensive original commentary that illuminates the text like a 1000 watt searchlight. On average, each four or five lines of text gets a full page of explanation and commentary, so every subject gets covered in detail.

Like all the JPS Torah commentators, this work use of traditional rabbinic commentaries, and the Mishna, Midrash and Talmud. But it doesn't end here: The commentary goes on to make good use of literary analysis and comparative Semitics; intertextual commentary relating each book to other biblical books, and evidence from modern archaeological, discoveries.

Excellent commentary on the Torah........1999-10-28

JPS Torah commentary is excellent. It has been an outstanding tool in my personal study of the Law. The scholarship is evident and the detailed comments provide great insight into the scriptures. Highly recommended for students of the Law.

Average customer rating:

Love it
The Chosen By Chaim Potok
So boring...
Reb Saunders and his rebel son
Classic tale of friendship may not be best audio choice

The Chosen
Chaim Potok
Manufacturer: Fawcett
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0449213447
Release Date: 1987-04-12

Amazon.com

Few stories offer more warmth, wisdom, or generosity than this tale of two boys, their fathers, their friendship, and the chaotic times in which they live. Though on the surface it explores religious faith--the intellectually committed as well as the passionately observant--the struggles addressed in The Chosen are familiar to families of all faiths and in all nations.

In 1940s Brooklyn, New York, an accident throws Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders together. Despite their differences (Reuven is a Modern Orthodox Jew with an intellectual, Zionist father; Danny is the brilliant son and rightful heir to a Hasidic rebbe), the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship. Together they negotiate adolescence, family conflicts, the crisis of faith engendered when Holocaust stories begin to emerge in the U.S., loss, love, and the journey to adulthood. The intellectual and spiritual clashes between fathers, between each son and his own father, and between the two young men, provide a unique backdrop for this exploration of fathers, sons, faith, loyalty, and, ultimately, the power of love. (This is not a conventional children's book, although it will move any wise child age 12 or older, and often appears on summer reading lists for high school students.)

Book Description

"Anyone who finds it is finding a jewel. Its themes are profound and universal."
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
It is the now-classic story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each. And as the boys grow into young men, they discover in the other a lost spiritual brother, and a link to an unexplored world that neither had ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and find the peace that neither will ever retreat from again....

Customer Reviews:

Love it.......2007-05-12

I remember having to read this in High School for a 6 weeks book report. I loved it so much I read it at least 4 times cover to cover, but I think it was actually 6 times. I can't wait to get hold of it now, almost 20 years later and read it again.

The Chosen By Chaim Potok.......2007-04-13

This book was sensational it was a book that made you laugh and cry. it was the kind of book that made you wish you were there and stop all the wrong doing. Anyone who likes baseball or Softball should like this book

So boring..........2007-03-23

I have heard for years how good this book is. It never looked particularly interesting to me personally, so I put it off and put it off. I finally got around to picking up a copy, and was pleasantly surprised for the first 75 pages or so. It did engage me. And then...what I expected: the author began to describe the tedious nuances of the slightly-different faiths in excruciating detail. I just didn't care. I found myself skipping whole paragraphs hoping to get back to the storyline. Eventually, I just threw in the towel. Judging from all the positive reviews here on Amazon, and from friends and coworkers, I trust that there is something worthwhile here. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it. So, take the advice that makes sense for you. You know yourself better than most, right? I should have trusted my own instincts. But, sometimes we're wrong, right? Might be worth picking up at the library first. If you can make it to the end, more power to you...

Reb Saunders and his rebel son .......2007-02-26

"The Chosen" is deceptively plain. At times, it reads like a novel for young adults; its descriptions are explicatory (but not patronizing), its language is simple (but not simplistic). Potok takes an archetypal story of two boys growing up and presents the Brooklyn Hasidic community and its history in terms that even "goyim" can understand. Occasionally Potok's prose style is a little too edifying--several sections have the feel of a primer cast as conversation ("What a lecture it has been!" exclaims one of characters at the end of a chapter)--but the payoff is worth the book's didactic tone.

Even its exciting opening scene, which features a high school baseball game as a metaphor of holy war, is told in the unadorned style one would expect from a "boy's novel." Reuven, son of an Orthodox Jewish scholar confronts Danny Saunders, a Hasidic rabbi's son who has a fearsome reputation as a "murderer" in baseball. Danny lives up to his reputation, sending a line drive straight at Reuven's eyeglasses; the two boys become uneasy yet steadfast friends while Reuven recovers in the hospital.

After this inauspicious encounter, the two boys are initiated into each other's world--and we are introduced to theirs. Reuven shows off his own Talmudic training at a Hasidim Shabbat service, while Danny, with his new friend's help, secretively fills his thirst for the "forbidden" (to him) literature in the public library--especially the works of Freud (in the original German, no less). Although Danny, a brilliant student as well as a formidable athlete, wants to be a psychologist, his father, Reb Saunders, is grooming him as the next dynastic tzaddik ("righteous one") to head a community in which "secular literature was forbidden, and the Hasidim lived shut off from the rest of the world."

The struggle between Reb Saunders and his rebel son is supplemented by several digressions into the arcanae of Talmudic study, which in Potok's hands become bizarrely stimulating. And an important subplot pits the two boys (and their fathers) against each other because the Hasidim virulently oppose, for religious reasons, the founding of the nation of Israel.

The novel is set in the post-War era in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg (where I now live), and it's fascinating to see, through the prism of fiction, how much--and how little--has changed in the Hasidic community. (Readers interested in a more recent work might check out "Teacha!" by Gerry Albarelli, who taught in a Brooklyn yeshiva for Hasidic students.) While it's an undeniably facile sketch of a complex society, "The Chosen" benefits from its true-to-life portrayals and from a compelling story of friendship.

Classic tale of friendship may not be best audio choice.......2007-02-25

I listened to this book in the audio download edition and my comments pertain specifically to that edition.

The Chosen is a classic that I've meant to read for years. I finally took the plunge with the audio edition. I'm not sure if it was the slow-moving story or the reader, but it took me a long time to get through the book.

The story is understandably a classic of both coming of age literature and Jewish literature. It tells the story of the friendship between Reuven, an Orthodox Jewish teenager, and Danny, a Hassidic teen and brilliant Torah scholar who is heir to the rabbinate of his sect. Although the Hassids and other Jews do not usually interact, Danny and Reuven become friends after an accident playing baseball on rival teams, and remain close through several years of high school and college. Both boys struggle with issues of growing up, what they want to be versus their fathers' wishes for them (Danny more so than Reuven) and in this way the story is a universal one. However it is also of a very specific time and place, one of the American Jewish experience as World War II came to an end, the true horrors of the HOlocaust came to light, and the drama of Israel's founding was played out. The story offered a new insight to me on that time and I enjoyed that aspect.

However, I was underwhelmed by the narrator Jonathan Davis' performance. It was a bit too monotonal for my tastes and had a hard time holding my attention. However the book itself is quiet and moves at a stately pace so I don't know how much of it is the pacing of the book or the choices of the narrator. I never abandoned the book entirely but found myself taking breaks to listen to more exciting books or podcasts, and then returning.

Still it was a book well worth reading and I am glad I finally did so. I may tackle more of Potok's work, however, I'll probably opt for the print version over the audio.

Average customer rating:

Simple, but wonderful
An undeniable classic
My Name is Asher Lev
My Name Is Asher Lev-- A Reader's Review
A Must Read

My Name Is Asher Lev
Chaim Potok
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Gift of Asher Lev
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ASIN: 1400031044
Release Date: 2003-03-11

Book Description

Asher Lev is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prays three times a day and believes in the Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe. Asher Lev is an artist who is compulsively driven to render the world he sees and feels even when it leads him to blasphemy.In this stirring and often visionary novel, Chaim Potok traces Asher’s passage between these two identities, the one consecrated to God, the other subject only to the imagination.

Asher Lev grows up in a cloistered Hasidic community in postwar Brooklyn, a world suffused by ritual and revolving around a charismatic Rebbe. But in time his gift threatens to estrange him from that world and the parents he adores. As it follows his struggle, My Name Is Asher Lev becomes a luminous portrait of the artist, by turns heartbreaking and exultant, a modern classic.

Download Description

In My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok creates the original, deeply moving story of Asher Lev, the religious boy with an overwhelming need to draw, to paint, to render the world he knows and the pain he feels, on canvas for everyone to see. A loner, Asher has an extraordinary God-given gift that possesses a spirit all its own. It is this force that must learn to master without shaming his people or relinquishing any part of his deeply felt Judaism. It will not be easy for him, but he knows, too, that even if it is impossible, it must be doneâ¬¦.

Customer Reviews:

Simple, but wonderful.......2007-01-19

The opening is wonderful. I was hooked from the first paragraph. The book slows for the next hundred pages while the reader sees Asher's development as a boy coming of age in Brooklyn. As the conflict of the story (and the conflict of the artist) begins to surface, the book becomes addicting.

Chaim Potok is a brilliant writer. Every word is thought out. Every sentence delightfully leads the reader smoothly to the next. He uses repetitiveness in terms and dialogue to draw parallels and show progression in thought. His subtlety is amazing. Many points that seem nearly pointless continually resurface as significant later in the story.

Anyone wanting to understand art should read this book. Anybody want to better their own talents should read this book. Anybody simply looking for a simple, beautifully written book should pick up and read, My Name is Asher Lev.

An undeniable classic.......2007-01-12

"My Name is Asher Lev" is the story of a young man becoming an artist, learning to see as an artist sees, and learning that his art may end up costing him his relationships with both his family and his faith.
In this book, Potok expertly depicts what it must be like for a genius to begin truly seeing the world, and the passages in which he does so are a marvel.
Every artist, every painter, every writer should read this book to further understand the sacrifices required by art, the WORK required by art, and the relationship between a person's character and a person's creations.
And every literate person should read this, to better understand the world around him or her, and to better see the world's true sadness and beauty and joy.
The book's sequel, "The Gift of Asher Lev," is good but not as good. You'll probably want to read it after reading this one, but I don't recommend it as it kind of ruins the story.

My Name is Asher Lev.......2006-10-24

This story was incredible. It really illustrates its purpose and leaves the reader breathless with a feeling of accomplishment. Whoever reads this is connected to Asher and feels his every emotion. You're disturbed by what he's disturbed by, his brief moments of happiness are you respites from unhappiness, you dread what he dreads. Made of the highest quality of writing, My Name is Asher Lev is truly what many have already dubbed it; a 'modern classic'.

My Name Is Asher Lev-- A Reader's Review.......2006-08-23

My Name Is Asher Lev--A Reader's Review

My Name Is Asher Lev. My Name Is Asher Lev. Wow! What a book. If you had told me that more than a hundred and twenty-five pages into the book that I would eventually love it, I would vehemently argue to the contrary.

But, it's true. This story became intriguing. This story became enlightening. This story became exciting. I'll start from the beginning.

This is the story of the family of Rabbi Aryeh Lev, his wife Rivkah, and their only child, Asher. They live in the densely Chasidic area of Crown Heights, in Brooklyn, New York. The story takes place over a twenty-five year period from when Asher was about to start day school.

In the first third of the book, we're treated to a meditation of sorts on the existence of living in the aftermath of a post WW 2 world. Europe was almost completely destroyed. Six million Jews murdered (such acts are called "genocide" not "ethnic cleansing"--there's nothing clean, or pure or even righteous about murder/ genocide). And, the daunting task of Jewish renewal, restoration, and restitution was just beginning.

In the relative safety of a northern US metropolitan city, descendents of European Jews, more specifically (but not limited to) Chasidic Jews made frequent trips abroad to address the needs of cultural and political restoration. This was Aryeh Lev's calling. Lev, a Chasidic Rabbi, came from a long and distinguished line of Rabbis, as author, the late Chaim Potok tells us. Lev married into another distinguished family that had generations of Rabbis. It was in this union that Aryeh wished his young son, Asher would continue the tradition and "not forget his people."

What becomes abundantly clear is that Lev has no rapport with his son and very little with Rivka. It seems as if the brunt of his work has always been geared toward the male adult mind. Rivka on the other, at this point, is somewhat of a sycophant. She is clearly defined by the male relationships in her life. She is Aryeh Lev's wife, she's Asher's mother. She is the daughter of a famous rabbi. When her brother dies, Rivka, descends into a stupor which many thought may lead to her death.

Interestingly, in the absence of her husband (traveling commitment, death of her brother and Asher being at school) this traditional model of femininity discovers that she has interest that she has time to pursue. She ultimately decides to go to school. First earning a bachelor's, master's and a doctorate in political science and history.

This plays an instrumental part in Asher's upbringing. With Aryeh in Europe for weeks and months on in, Asher is without a father-figure. Rivkah used to answer Asher's childhood inquisitiveness by repeating Aryeh's thoughts on the matter. However, as she becomes more independent, more liberated, more educated--more daring--she indulges Asher in his artistic pursuits, now as a young adult.

Along the way, people on the periphery of Asher's life, Yudel Krinsky (an art supply store owner) and Rebbe of his day school and a distant, but gregarious Uncle Yitschok all placate Asher's budding ambitions. The Rebbe even goes as far to recommend him to a noted Jewish artist, Jacob Kahn for instructions. It proved to be the defining relationship of Asher's life.

Asher Lev becomes an artist out of the absence of compassionate and reasonable dialogue. Asher sees the world and speaks to and against his world with art. When Asher runs out words (themes) to express his anguish, he uses the language (symbols) of the Goyim. The result is one of the most memorable and thoroughly provocative reading moments I've ever had.

The first part could have been reduced by at least 75 pages, but boy do I love this book. 4 1/2 stars.

A Must Read.......2006-08-10

I first read this book 30 years ago, when I was in my early twenties, and have always counted it as one of my all-time favorties. I've read and re-read it countless times, and learn something knew about human nature every time I pick it up. I highly recommend it, along with The Chosen, and any other Chaim Potok literature you can get your hands on.

Average customer rating:

a worthy sequel
Not art for art's sake
This is one of the most important books in my life.
Don't Judge It By It's Cover
"My Name" exceeds "The Gift"

The Gift Of Asher Lev
Chaim Potok
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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My Name Is Asher Lev
Davita's Harp
The Promise
The Chosen
I Am the Clay

ASIN: 0394572122
Release Date: 1990-04-21

Book Description

"Rivals anything Chaim Potok has ever produced. It is a book written with passion about passion. You're not likely to read anything better this year."
THE DETROIT NEWS
Twenty years have passed for Asher Lev. He is a world-renowned artist living in France, still uncertain of his artistic direction. When his beloved uncle dies suddenly, Asher and his family rush back to Brooklyn--and into a world that Asher thought he had left behind forever....

Customer Reviews:

a worthy sequel.......2007-01-09

Chaim Potok is my favorite author and My Name is Asher Lev is my favorite book. With that said, The Gift of Asher Lev was an excellent follow-up. Potok managed to say new things and address new issues that Lev encountered in a different stage of his life.

It's good. Read it.

Not art for art's sake.......2006-08-04

Asher Lev drew outcasts. The people were angered. He had grown up in a Brooklyn apartment. His father worked for the Rebbe. Now, a middle aged man with two children, he lives in the South of France. He and his wife and children travel to Brooklyn because his uncle has died. His uncle had supported his art. He did two crucifixions, paired, and the community was enraged. He arranged to attend a yeshiva in Paris where things would be calm. Asher read in a book that children threw stones at Cezanne when he was an old man.

The Hasidim refer to God as the Master of the Universe. The group is called the Ladover community. The last time Asher Lev stayed with his parents there had been death threats. His uncle's watch and jewelry stores supported the Ladover communities. Asher's mother teaches Russian history and political theory at NYU. In the matter of painting pictures Asher Lev disagrees with the Ladover community. In other respects he is a Ladover Hasid.

Asher's Uncle Yitzchok leaves a substantial art collection. He put money and energy into the collection. His uncle had said to Asher Lev that he would be another Picasso. Asher's parents want him to lengthen his stay with them. He feels he is being sucked into the sect's and his family's disapproval of his pursuits.

A friend believes the Ladover success as a fundamentalist movement on America's secular soil makes it newsworthy. It is both traditional and contemporary, but what about Asher Lev? How does Asher fit in to the scheme of things? Jacob Kahn, Asher Lev's teacher, told him that redemption is death to art.

The Rebbe requests that Asher Lev and his family remain longer in Crown Heights. Everyone but Asher is pleased to extend the visit. Asher wants to be back at Saint-Paul. In the Holocaust Asher's wife, Devorah, lost her entire family. Devorah spent two years in the dark in an apartment in Paris. She is enjoying becoming acquainted with Asher's family. Asher has been designated trustee of his uncle's art collection pursuant to the wishes of his uncle and notwithstanding the uncomfortable feelings of his cousins and the widow. Any profit realized from the collection is to be given to the Ladover community.

Asher returns to Paris, leaving the children and Devorah in Crown Heights. He has been working under a series of shocks, the deaths of his teacher and uncle, and the savaging by critics of his latest exhibition. In the end her realizes what the crucial dilemma is. Asher Lev agrees to give his family over, particularly his son, to community interests. It seems that his father, as the chief assistant to the Rebbe, is in a position to succeed the Rebbe, but only if he, in turn, has a suitable successor, Avrumel, the son of Asher Lev. The arrangement of living in France is to become a solitary existence permanently on the part of Asher Lev.

This is one of the most important books in my life........2006-02-23

I take my spiritual life seriously -- and so does Asher Lev. I am certainly not any kind of artistic genious, but Lev and I really fell into sinc.

In fact, I have read this story so many times that I have been through three paperback copies. And it has never disappointed me.

Potok took me so deeply into Lev's character that I was him. I felt his pain and his struggle. I understood his feeling of being torn apart by two worlds that should and could have fit together.

This book also provides the deepest insights into Hasidism that I, a lapsed Episcopalian, have ever read. I have a deep respect for that tradition because of Potok and Asher Lev.

Sacrifice is always a central storyline and in "The Gift of Asher Lev" not only is a sacrifice required but the sacrifice is wrapped in mystery and enigma.

Delightful read!

Don't Judge It By It's Cover.......2005-06-07

In my review of Chaim Potok's My Name is Asher Lev, I admitted that I was reluctant to read the sequel out of fear that it could not be as satisfying. My fear was unfounded. The Gift of Asher Lev is a wonderful novel and those who enjoyed My Name is Asher Lev will be happy to find Asher twenty years later with a wife and two children living, if not happily, at least contentedly in southern France. That is until page 6. Coming off a successful but poorly reviewed art show in Paris, Asher learns that his uncle has died and takes his family with him back to Brooklyn for the first time.

Unlike the first Asher Lev novel, where Asher was shunned by the leaders of his Hasidic Jewish community because of his controversial painting, the tension in The Gift of Asher Lev revolves around the Ladovers wanting him - or part of him - back. Asher's parents get to know his wife and children, and everyone except our hero is happy with this arrangement. Asher, however, has trouble exorcising his old demons: he fears another anonymous death threat, he can't find the inspiration to paint, and he just doesn't feel comfortable in Brooklyn anymore. Asher's father still does not understand him or his art, but anger and frustration have subsided to a sort of resigned sadness.

The Gift of Asher Lev introduces the importance of riddles in Hasidism, which seems as much a suspense-building technique by Potok as a true Jewish tradition. Frustratingly, Potok does not give answers to some of the riddles the characters evoke. But the biggest riddle of all - the heart of the story - is rather clear early on, making the book more readable rather than less suspenseful. Though he puts them off throughout most of the novel, Asher ultimately has some important choices to make. He makes them in the final ten pages of the book, keeping the reader engaged to the very last page.

Now, about that cover: it's awful. It looks like the cover to some sci-fi/romance fusion novel. It's got a picture of a blue-eyed man with his blow-dried hair, resembling Harrison Ford in Return of the Jedi but looking nothing like any of the characters in The Gift of Asher Lev (Asher is still a Hasidic Jew, after all). It's got smaller pictures of a pudgy young boy and an old, white-bearded man who I guess are Asher's son and father. Are they trying to turn readers off? If there's ever a time that the old adage fits, this may be it. If you can get past the cover, you are in for a rewarding read.

"My Name" exceeds "The Gift".......2004-02-18

"The Gift of Asher Lev" is a sequel to "My Name Is Asher Lev". If you are planning on reading either book, then I would recommend reading them IN ORDER. I have read a few reviews that suggested some confusion in the second book, but they had not read the first. Although there is still some confusing parts about the intracasies of the Hasidic Jewish religion, most of the base for the second book is laid down in the first. If you have read, or are reading "The Gift of Asher Lev" without reading "My Name is Asher Lev" first, you will most likely have some confusion at various parts. Just for clarification, the reference to Chagall in the second book is not a CHARACTER in the first, but actually the Jewish artist, Mark Chagall, whom many compare to Asher. I recommend reading these novels as they are well-written works, but my opinion is that the second book is not as enjoyable as the first. It seems the entire time that Asher is depressed. The ending was especially a downer for me after being built up by the wonderful ending of the first book. The end of "The Gift of Asher Lev" is uneventful and without resolution.

Average customer rating:

Mature and very well done
Excellent Reading and Sequal
One of the Best
Powerful and Moving
What Came Next After The Chosen

The Promise
Chaim Potok
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Chosen
My Name Is Asher Lev
The Gift of Asher Lev
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In the Beginning

ASIN: 1400095417
Release Date: 2005-11-08

Book Description

Reuven Malter lives in Brooklyn, he’s in love, and he’s studying to be a rabbi. He also keeps challenging the strict interpretations of his teachers, and if he keeps it up, his dream of becoming a rabbi may die.

One day, worried about a disturbed, unhappy boy named Michael, Reuven takes him sailing and cloud-watching. Reuven also introduces him to an old friend, Danny Saunders–now a psychologist with a growing reputation. Reconnected by their shared concern for Michael, Reuven and Danny each learns what it is to take on life–whether sacred truths or a troubled child–according to his own lights, not just established authority.

In a passionate, energetic narrative, The Promise brilliantly dramatizes what it is to master and use knowledge to make one’s own way in the world

Customer Reviews:

Mature and very well done.......2006-11-05

Very good mature sequell to Choosen. Chaim Potok at his best

Excellent Reading and Sequal.......2006-08-07

This book, as well as "The Chosen", which was almost like an intro to it, were two of the best books I have ever read. While I found one of Potok's other books, "My Name is Asher Lev" thought provoking, yet quite disturbing, "The Promise" was still thought provoking, yet deeper, more complex, and not so disturbing. So for everyone who has read "The Chosen" and enjoyed it, they are bound to enjoy this book, which picks up with Reuvan Malter still in school studying to be a rabbi and his best friend Danny Saunders, almost a psychologist now who is about to embark on a very difficult case. Enjoy!

One of the Best.......2006-06-10

Some books are emotionally affecting despite not being well-written. Others are well-written without being emotionally affecting. The best books are both, and The Promise is one of those.

The story continues where Potok's masterpiece The Chosen left off. Reuven is in graduate school and Danny is becoming a respected psychiatrist. The conflict has moved from Hasidism vs. modern orthodoxy to tradition vs. modern scholarship. This is Reuven's fight. Danny's fight is for the mind of a troubled child he is treating.

While Danny's and Reuven's stories at first seem divergent, they ultimately connect, with moving and affecting results.

Danny is able to use his own journey toward peace with his father as a way to understand the parent-related pain his patient, Michael, is experiencing. In many ways, Michael's story in The Promise mirrors Danny's story in The Chosen. In both cases, Reuven's intelligence and kindness serve as the bridge that finally leads to healing. At the same time, Reuven himself is forced to make choices about his own attitude toward Judaism and his father's life's work.

The Promise is the kind of book that stays in the mind a long time after it is finished. It has much to say about love, faith, and what it means to be a real human being.

Very few books are wise. This is one of them.

Powerful and Moving.......2006-05-18

Written in the late 60's, The Promise is a literary masterpiece; fueled by an acute sense of humanity. Chaim Potok's stream-of-conscious prose and life-like characters make for a wonderful reading experience. The story picks up several years after The Chosen ended,(which The Promise is the sequel to, although it can stand alone) and is narrated by Reuven Malter, a student in Hirsch Seminary, a Orthodox Jewish school.

The story is best described as a year inside the life of a young Jewish man's life in Brooklyn-full of his happiness's, agonies, loves, and depressions-but that is not to say that it has no climax, that would be like saying there are never climaxes in real life-because what is a baby born, a rise from black despair into comfort and joy?

One day, worried by a young a disturbed, unhappy boy named Michael. Reuven takes him sailing on the lake next to their summer cottages, and introduces him to an old friend named Danny Saunders-a psychologist rapidly excelling in his field. In passionate prose, The Promise brilliantly shows what it is to take on the world, to not conform to established authority as Reuven challenges the interpretation of his strictest teacher, endangering his chance to one day become a rabbi. It shows the stressful burden taking great risks are when you are dealing with a human soul, as Danny realizes he must do in order to cure Michael, who repeatedly resists therapy.

The story that follows is one of the most gripping, powerful I've ever read. You could not do wrong to read this book.

What Came Next After The Chosen.......2005-10-22

Reuven and Danny have aged several years since the closing of Potok's novel The Chosen. Each has moved on into life and each faces challenges in their individual quests to succeed at their selected fields of endeavor. Reuven is in training to become an Orthodox rabbi, but his slightly modern ideas clash with those of an inflexibly traditional instructor, a man some see as sadistic, and whose past has featured an incredible odyssey of escape from Nazi Germany thru the Soviet Union and finally to China and America. The man, surely a genius but scarred by life and hard to the core, sees the only path to preserving Judaism after the Holocaust is to permit no alterations whatsoever to its practice, and he feels Reuven to be a threat to his ideals.

Danny on the other hand, the brilliant young Talmudic scholar who abdicated from his birthright of succeeding his father as leader of an entire Chasidic community, has risen far in the practice of psychiatry, and he seeks to cure a disturbed young man by employing a risky, perhaps cruel technique once used on him by his own father, the "therapy of silence" whereby the patient is cared for but not spoken to or acknowledged in any way at any time by anyone. He hopes this isolation will bring the young man out of his catatonic state by forcing him to reach out for the help available in the outer world.

The Promise is every bit an equal to The Chosen, but the setting is more modern and less about conflicts within Judaism as it is simply about the lives of the Jewish characters we met in the earlier novel. Some of the new characters here are as good as those of the previous novel, and the ultimate sense of reconciliation and triumph at the conclusion of The Promise is nothing less than a cause for triumphant celebration for those of us who have traced the journeys of Danny and Reuven to break free in their lives.

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Tradition and Reason
How, then, do we choose our point of faith?
Must read for the thinking person
My own personal reading may not be the right one
Very open-minded

As a Driven Leaf
Milton Steinberg
Manufacturer: Behrman House Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0874411033

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The magnificent work of modern fiction that brings the age of the Talmud to life. The characters include the well-known historical figures: Akiba, Yohanan, Joshua, Eleazar, Beruriah, and Elisha ben Abuyah, whose struggle to live in two worlds destroyed his chance to live in either. Foreword by Chaim Potok

Book Description

"As A Driven Leaf" is a novel in which fictional and historical characters comfortably coexist. It is a gripping tale of the renegade Talmudic sage, Elisha ben Abuyah, caught in a personal struggle between his own faith and the compelling culture of Rome, circa 70 CE.

The genius of Milton Steinberg's great work is that it illuminates the political and intellectual conflicts of Rabbinic times in a way that shows their relevance to Jewish faith, nationhood and personal development in every era, including our own.

Customer Reviews:

Tradition and Reason.......2007-04-09

As A Driven Leaf is loosely based on tale that appears in several places in classical rabbinic literature. In the classical texts, there are four people that enter paradise, only one of which enters returns in tact.

This book is Rabbi Steinberg's version. In it, the main protagonist is confronted between by the tensions between the dogmatic claims of his religious tradition, his own rigorous logic, and his witnessing of tragedies that seem to be at odds with the just, all-powerful God of Judaism.

The setting is the ancient Near East, primarily the Land of Israel and Damascus, and while the characters and the history roughly align themselves properly, the concerns of the book are not simply ancient, but modern as well. Rabbi Steinberg uses the period and the characters to explore issues of faith, tragedy, reason, and philosophy that are relevant in the modern era.

The book does not come across as forcing explanations for there own sake. That is, the narrative does seem to exist merely to provide a setting for the impartations of facts and arguments, but rather it is an excellent literary creation in its own right. The issues raised are powerful issues because the characters seem so real, and their struggles are at least in part universal struggles of humanity.

Like Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, this book is aimed at those who have some background both in the religious traditions of Judaism as well as having broader philosophical tendencies.

How, then, do we choose our point of faith?.......2006-03-08

This book makes a fascinating case study for what Jean Gebser described in "The Ever-Present Origin" as the disruption of the mythic circle by directed thought. And just as Gebser emphasizes that the mental consciousness structure cannot replace the mythical, but only layer upon it, Elisha never solves the problem of embracing one and rejecting the other. The protagonist's final conclusion surprised and delighted me (tragic as the ending was) but raises one huge burning question, even bigger than the one driving this book -- and leaves it hanging. I yearned for a sequel. But maybe we each have to answer that final question for ourselves. Would love to discuss. wynalter@earthlink.net

Must read for the thinking person.......2005-11-04

As others have said -- this is a must read, it is brilliant and magnificent. It is a 2000 year old story that rings true in every generation. And here's why:

Have you ever wondered -- What is faith? how do you know the truth of what you believe in? what if you have doubts? how do you find the truth? and at what costs. These are some of the spiraling questions you will deal with when reading about Elisha.

You fall in love with Elisha, and understand his quest. You sympathize with his love of his friends. And then the book tightens its grip on your heart. Just as these questions of Truth are hard, life too is hard. And Elisha makes decisions that you can't understand. They hurt. And he struggles with this part of himself too. Is he motivated by logic or by love? Where is his loyalty? What does it mean to be part of a people or an empire? Is there good in the heart of men? in the core of a government?

The author paints a wonderful landscape, highly colorful and accurate in most cases, and modified only to be accessible to the modern thinker.

In the authentically Jewish writing style -- the heroes are flawed, the villains are fully understood, and everyone suffers. So you leave the book with an emotional charge. You are both sad and enthused. And better for reading the book. At least more humble.

My own personal reading may not be the right one.......2004-11-07

I had heard and read much about this work when I enthusiastically began to read it. It in the beginning swept me up, and I felt myself going through a true reading and intellectual adventure. Elisha Ben Abuya (Acher) the one who entered the Pardess of Jewish Mystical learning and came out a heretic, seemed at first a heroic and tragic figure of great intellectual courage. But as I read on, and the number of his involvements and adventures increased and as I began to wait for counter- arguments to his lack of faith, I began to lose patience .And in time I also began to lose sympathy . And this because I had the sense that Elisha Ben Abuya ' lost it' in a deeper sense than losing his ' faith' I had the sense he lost something even more fundamental in Judaism his goodness and kindness to other human beings. In other words the harassed and persecuted intellectually Elisha ben Abuya should it seems to me have found a way to ' care more for those he hurt and damaged in his own community and people' In this sense as I read he turned in my mind and heart more and more from being a hero to being a betrayer.
And in time I lost patience with him .And instead of the book connecting me more strongly with the Jewish Tradition as I had hoped it left me with the sadness of abandonment.
My own personal reading may not be the right one, but as great as was the hope in beginning the work so the disappointment in reading to its end.

Very open-minded .......2004-10-06

As a Driven Leaf is not a good example of how to write fluid prose and dialogue, but it is a good example of how an interesting story can overcome some stylistic limitations.

Written by Jewish Milton Steinberg in 1939, As a Driven Leaf is surprisingly open-minded. I emphathized with the main character, Elisa Ben Abuyah, because he (like myself) was raised to be a Jew and ended up going on a search for truth that he could not find in religion. I was expecting that this would be a piece of propaganda, that Elisha would discover by the end of the book the way of the Lord, yada yada yada, and would go back to the Jews and be welcomed with open-arms and live happily ever after. Suffice to say that did not happen.

The characters, beyond Elisha, are not developed terribly well and the dialogue is often perfucntory and merely serving to announce a character's feelings or advance the plot, but this is still a commendable book. The ending is very good and in keeping with the spirit and tone of the novel (although based upon historical characters and times this is a piece of fiction), the historical setting is vividly depicted, and as mentioned, the book is very open-minded and worthy of a read. 8/10

Average customer rating:

THIS BOOK STINKS
Where do you turn?
Ehh...
Proletarian means the lowest and poorest
A great read

Davita's Harp
Chaim Potok
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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In the Beginning

ASIN: 0394542908
Release Date: 1985-02-12

Book Description

For Davita Chandal, growing up in the New York of the 1930s and '40s is an experience of joy and sadness. Her loving parents, both fervent radicals, fill her with the fiercely bright hope of a new and better world. But as the deprivations of war and depression take a ruthless toll, Davita unexpectedly turns to the Jewish faith that her mother had long ago abandoned, finding there both a solace for her questioning inner pain and a test of her budding spirit of independence.

Customer Reviews:

THIS BOOK STINKS.......2007-02-05

this book stunk. there was absolutley no plot and it just bores you with page after page of description.

Where do you turn?.......2006-06-08

This is a fabulous novel. The story is a bit long to summarize and I would refer you to the other reviews on this page. I wanted to add a brief thought or two. Davita's parents are of mixed heretage: her mother an orthodox jew from Poland and father a Mayflower decendent. Both have experienced deep personal trauma that has affected their lives and how they decide to deal with the problems of the world around them. Davita's mother survived genoside and rape in a pogrom and her father witnessed a murder during a logging strike in Washington State. Both abandon their backgrounds and look to socialism as the answer to their personal hurts and the world's injustices. Stragely, Davita as a young girl embraces her orthodox background and finds dep solice in it after her father is killed covering the Spanish revolution. She doggedly and unconventionally says Kaddish daily for her father.

Davita's faith ultimately saves her mother as the latter becomes isolated and dissolutioned with the socialism of Stalin. Davita becomes a star student at the Yesheva where she enrolls (and meets Reuben Malter the protagonist of the CHosen and The Promise). Davita seeks from orthodoxy what the men are granted and is denied equal standing both intellectually and religiously. She has blossomed so much that she outgrows the confines of the tradition she loves.

The novel ends with Davita on the margins, entering her teens and facing an important decision of what path this pios and brilliant loving child will take.

We are left wondering about Davita's future that is taken up in a later novel "Old Men at Midnight" where she appears in three stories at different times in her adult life as a foil against which three other main characters are developed. We learn later that she embrasses acadamia.

Upton Sinclair ends his famous novel "The Jungle" (written in the early 1900's) with a cry that socialism is the answer. We see in Davita's harp what Sinclair will ultimately descover for himself decades later that socialism is a dead end and barren as far as meeting basic human spiritual needs.

Potok's powerful novels and his fictional Brooklyn society are the conflicts between the old world traditions and a rapidly changing America. He is a master story teller, writes beautiful prose, writes with sufficient patience and depth that the cultural material is understandable and accessable to all who read his works. His themes are timeless and universal. One day he will be looked upon as an underappreciated great American novelist. Don't miss a single piece of his writing.

Ehh..........2006-03-27

I have read several of Chaim Potok's books. If your are looking to read something of his, I highly reccommend The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev. This one had some good parts, but several parts that really bothered me. I'd rather not reveal the touching parts (that would spoil part of the book), but the few in there were quite poignant. However, the writing was a little flat, and the author didn't seem to know how to depict people like Christians or Communists properly. It also annoyed me that he threw Reuven Malter (main character from The Chosen) in there at the end (he could have easily come up with a new character!). The ending, to me, seemed a little disappointing in general.
Overall, it was worthwhile, it kept you interested. But it was certainly not a classic like some of his others.

Proletarian means the lowest and poorest.......2006-02-20

Davita had connections to Prince Edward's Island and Maine, but mostly to the many neighborhoods of New York City in which she had lived as a child. There was a harp on the door. Her mother was a social worker and her father was a journalist. They were committed movement people.

While the apartments changed, friends of Davita's parents remained the same. When her mother ws ill following the death of her baby brother, Davita met her Aunt Sarah. She stayed for four weeks. Davita's first name was Ilana. She was called Ilana by her mother.

Jakob Daw, a writer from Austria, was to visit in order to give lectures on Spain. Classmates of Ilana Davita did not agree with her views of Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler. The family rented a cottage in Brooklyn at Sea Gate. Sea Gate was fenced and protected. It was a small world of sand and sea. David Dinn, a boy in an adjacent cottage, was trying to get over the death of his mother. He and his uncle were observant Jews.

Ilana's father was sent to Spain. He died when Guernica was bombed. Ilana Davita shocked the Orthodox Jewish congregation by insisting upon saying Kaddish for her father. Notwithstanidng the fact that this created a political problem for her mother, (religion was considered the opiate of the masses by the comrades), Ilana attended a yeshiva.

The mother remarried. The second husband was the father of David Dinn. When Jakob Daw died Ilana Davita's mother said Kaddish for him. In order to do so she had to climb into a sort of a cage to maintain the necessary separation of male and female worshippers. This disturbed Davita.

The book's manner is understated and realistic. It is suitable for the subject matter of great events and important ideas.

A great read .......2005-08-02

This is an outstanding book because the characters and situation are so realistic. It is also the only book that I have encountered so far that explores what it is like growing up with Jewish/Christian non-religious parents. Potok deals with the tension of Davidita's search for spirituality very sensitively without condemning either faith.

The book also sensitively portrays dream of a better society through human effort and the reality of political fallibility.

Average customer rating:

excellent reading!
FROM BOLSHEVIK TO "REFUSEDNIK" IN TWO GENERATIONS
History of a Jewish Family in Russia
Brought History to Life
"A tedious season they await, who hear November at the gate"

The Gates of November
Chaim Potok , Leonid Slepak , Vladimir Slepak , Alexander Slepak , and Maria Slepak
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Wanderings

ASIN: 044991240X
Release Date: 1997-09-08

Amazon.com

Potok, well known for his novels of Jewish family life such as The Chosen, turns to nonfiction in The Gates of November, a wrenching family chronicle with a riveting historical undercurrent. The story of the family patriarch, Solomon Slepak, spans most of the book: ignoring his mother's wish that he become a rabbi, Slepak emigrated at 13 to America, became a Marxist in New York, returned to fight in the Russian Revolution, and rose to prominence within the Communist Party. But while Solomon remained a convinced Bolshevik, his son Volodya rejected socialism when anti-Semitism emerged during Stalin's era. Disowned by his father, Volodya was later exiled to Siberia as a dissident. The story of the Slepaks is simultaneously the story of Soviet Jewry and the rise and fall of the Soviet Union.

Book Description

"REMARKABLE . . . A WONDERFUL STORY."
--The Boston Globe

The father is a high-ranking Communist officer, a Jew who survived Stalin's purges. The son is a "refusenik," who risked his life and happiness to protest everything his father held dear. Now, Chaim Potok, beloved author of the award-winning novels The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev, unfolds the gripping true story of a father, a son, and a conflict that spans Soviet history. Drawing on taped interviews and his harrowing visits to Russia, Potok traces the public and privates lives of the Slepak family: Their passions and ideologies, their struggles to reconcile their identities as Russians and as Jews, their willingness to fight--and die--for diametrically opposed political beliefs.

"[A] vivid account . . . [Potok] brings a novelist's passion and eye for detail to a gripping story that possesses many of the elements of fiction--except that it's all too true."
--San Francisco Chronicle

Customer Reviews:

excellent reading!.......2007-05-12

the gates of novemeber was one of the best documentaries i have ever read. chiam potok chronicles the life of multiple generations of soviet jews who suffered under a few different soviet leaders. it is a very moving story and the character depth and descriptions make it feel as if you are on the journey with them. highly recommeded.

FROM BOLSHEVIK TO "REFUSEDNIK" IN TWO GENERATIONS.......2004-01-05

The paterfamilias of the Slepak family is "The Old Bolshevik," Solomon. He comes on the scene in the very early years of the Russian Revolution as an avid revolutionary. Even though he is Jewish, and Jews are looked on as part of the "internationalist" enemies, he rises high in the Communist hierarchy and somehow manages to survive all of the Stalinist purges. No one knows quite why, but he is, arguably, the highest ranking of the original revolutionaries except, of course, Stalin, himself, to do so. No matter what horrors are the responsibility of Stalin or his successors, Solomon always believes that they are necessary aspects of "The Revolution." Even when he and his family suffer from these excesses, he retains his faith in his leaders and their actions. In fact, when Stalin is denounced after his death, Solomon's attitude is that Stalin did what was necesary during his time, and the later leaders are now doing what must be done now. Like so many zealots, even those of the present time, he believes that whatever is done in the name of the cause is right.

For purposes of this family history, this belief comes to a head when he, for all purposes, disowns his son, Volodya, for wanting to emigrate out of the U.S.S.R. to Israel.

The government, using as an excuse that Volodya has worked in a field where he "knows secrets," refuses him permission to leave. Volodya and his wife, Masha, become activists, working on behalf of those Jews refused permission to emigrate. Because of these activities, Volodya loses one job after another, is exiled to an unliveable part of Siberia for five years, and is frequently imprisoned. All of this does serious damage to his health, but he perseveres. By these actions, he gains international fame and is partially responsible for thousands of other Jews being allowed to exit, even though he is still denied an exit visa.

Potok's book vividly describes the horrors of these years, and serves as both a family chronicle and a history of the Jewish people in Russia, ranging from the horrors suffered under the Tsars, to the further horrors suffered under the followers of Lenin.

In many ways this book is a history of the abuses that accompany absolute power and those that go along with rule by zealots of any persuasion.

As an aside, _THE GATES OF NOVEMBER_ does end on a high note. Volodya and Masha are finally allowed to leave, and do live out their lives in freedom.

History of a Jewish Family in Russia.......2002-09-07

Iým a great fan of Chaim Potok (who passed away recently, in case you didnýt hear). Heýs a brilliant novelist who was educated to be a rabbi, but never had a congregation. He apparently was approached some time in the 80ýs to write this story, and finally managed to complete it a few years ago. Itýs a theme that Potok returned to repeatedly in his fiction: fathers and sons, conflict in families, trying to make things right and do the right thing.

In this instance, the author met the second generation of the Slepak family. The first generation was an old Bolshevik who commanded a division of the Red Army in the Far East during the Russian Civil War, and often met Stalin for press briefings in the 30ýs. By then he spoke 11 languages, 8 of them fluently, and so translated newspapers and magazines for Stalin. He was almost purged in the late thirties, wound up retiring early in the mid 40ýs, and lived to be an old man. He was also Jewish, though completely assimilated and non-religious. He had a family, including a son who turned out very different from the father.

The son became a refusenik in the seventies, trying to leave the country when it became apparent that anti-Semitism reared its ugly head in the period after WW2. He was one of the leaders of the group, and was quite prominent. He and his wife were able, finally, to move to Israel. The father was alive for the early part of the refusenik movement, and was mystified that his son wanted to go to Israel.

All in all this is an interesting book. I do think that his prose works better in fiction than it does in non-fiction. That being said, this is still a very good book.

Brought History to Life.......2002-03-06

I studied the Russian Revolution and its aftermath in history class recently, and was honestly pretty bored.

Knowing that the Russian Revolution played a large role in the plot of this book, I was a little cautious as I began reading. However, as I delved further into it, I realized that not only was it quite interesting, I was learning a lot of history. This book kept my attention throughout and brought what I previously thought was dry, to life.

I highly recommend you read this book.

"A tedious season they await, who hear November at the gate".......2001-04-21

Chaim Potok, well known for his novels ("The Chosen," "My Name is Asher Lev," amongst others), has frequently dealt with the theme of father/son conflict, of generation and cultural gaps. In "The Gates of November," he uses the same theme, but Potok now turns to a non-fiction account, an epic work with two cores: 20th century history of the Soviet Union and a personal drama. It is a family tale in which Potok (himself active in the movement for Soviet Jewry) documents the plight of the Jews in the Soviet Union.

The book is divided in two sections. The first one describes the life of Solomon Slepak, a Jewish renegade who emigrates to the U.S.A., discovers Marxism, returns to the Soviet Union, becomes an ardent, ruthless Bolshevik and rises to prominence within the Communist Party. The second part narrates the life of Volodya (Solomon's son). As a product of a different historical context and perspective, Volodya rejects socialism, revives his Jewish identity (mainly as a result of the prevailing anti-Semitism), attempts to emigrate to Israel and becomes an international famous "refusenik" (Jewish activist who was denied exit visa from the Soviet Union to Israel).

The author developes the family account based on taped interviews with Volodya, his wife, two sons, and other family members and friends. Because of lack of first hand accounts from Solomon, the narrative for the first part of the book lacks interest and factual proves. For example, it is beyond understanding how Solomom Slepak was able to survive through the purges against the Jews, especially considering that he ran high in the communist organization.

In this amalgamation of a non-fiction narrative and a family drama, the literary strenght of "The Gates of November" was negatively affected. Had the author used a first person narrative, in a traditional historical novel, the book would certainly have a deeper emotional impact. None of this, however, obliterates its historical value.

Wanderings: Chaim Potok's History of the Jews
Average customer rating:

Comprehensive historic account

Great Book

The Narrative wanders also

the KEY that unravels much of world history, i.e., the perennial conflict between FAITH & REASON

An Epic Work

Wanderings: Chaim Potok's History of the Jews
Chaim Potok
Manufacturer: Fawcett
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0449242706
Release Date: 1982-03-12

Book Description

A fascinating history of the Jews, told by a master novelist, here is Chaim Potok's fascinating, moving four thousand-year history. Recreating great historical events, exporing Jewish life in its infinite variety and in many eras and places, here is a unique work by a singular Jewish voice.

Customer Reviews:

Comprehensive historic account.......2007-03-05

In this work, Potok outlines the narrative of Jewish history against the canvas of world history. The Jewish people have influenced and been influenced by the world in equal measure.
Book One outlines the struggle of the Hebrew Nation, against the backdrop of ancient paganism. He discusses the Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia, before introducing Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrew Nation, who migrated from Ur in southern Mesopotamia, to Canaan, as recorded in the Biblical narrative.
Each chapter explains the history of the dominant civilization of the time, in which the struggles and contributions of the Nation of Israel took place, before describing the role played by the Jews and their specific history. There are chapters on the struggles of the Jews under the Mesopotamian , Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Roman and Islamic Empires, and the long exile of a large portion of the Jewish people in Christian Europe.
There is other ancient documentation, as sources for the ancient history of Israel, describing how the word 'Hapiru' was first used in Egyptian records during the reign of Amenhotep II, who ruled Egypt from about 1440 to 1415 BCE.
Much of this epic account deals with the unique contribution of the Jewish people to world civilization. Hence we discover that the Biblical recognition of a slave as an individual with rights, though he still lacks the status of a free man, has no parallel in the laws of Mesopotamia or any other ancient civilization, and was indeed a Judaic initiative.
Egyptian accounts record the presence of the Israelites in Canaan, around the year 1220 BCE.
The town of Shechem (now called Nablus by the Arabs) is nowhere claimed to have been conquered by the Israelites under Joshuah, and was most likely a Hebrew enclave all through the centuries of the enslavement in Egypt.

One's attitude to the Jews and Israel is a very good litmus test for the character of people, entities and nations.
In some instances, their general actions have preceded their actions against the Jews, and in other instances what has begun with the Jews has not ended with them.
A foretaste of the cultural genoicide of the Moslem Arabs, against the cultures of lands they invaded, was the burning of the ancient libararies of Alexandria, Egypt by Arab Moslem invaders in 647 CE, described by the author.
The Land of Israel retained a Jewish majority long after the destruction of the Second Temple, by the Romans in 70 CE, and probabely until the Arab invasion of the Land of Israel in 634 CE. Like all the lands that came under the Arab Moslem domination, attempts were made by the Arab Moslem invaders to eradicate all presence of the indigenous cultures.
Hence on the site of the Temple Mount of Jerusalem, the holiest site in Judaism, the Moslems erected the Dome of the Golden Rock, in 691 CE.
The author explains the roots of Christian and Islamic anti-semitism, and the massacres that took place against Jews, during the crusades, across Europe through the ages, the horrific genocide of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe, by the marauding Cossacks of Bogdan Chmielnicki, in 1648 and the Kishinev massacre of Jews in 1905.
The Chmielnicki massacre is recounted by a letter written during that period about the capture of some Jewish towns by the Cossacks: "They slaughtered eight hundred noblemen, together with their wives and children as well as seven hundred Jews, also with their wives and children. Some were cut into pieces, others were ordered to dig graves into which Jewish women and children were thrown and buried alive. Jews were given rifles and ordered to kill each other."
The author also discusses the numerous repeated blood libels and accusation of host desecration: "Mystery plays depicted the Jews as Christ killers, demonic allies of Satan, and blood-sucking moneylenders".-libels being repeated under new guises in the early 21st century, in the climate of the new anti-semitism-vicious anti-Israel hate and hysteria.

The book details the life of Jews in exile in mediaeval Spain, Italy, Germany and Eastern Europe. We learn about great Jewish thinkers and writers like Judah HaLevi, Abraham Ibn Ezra, Ben of Tudela, and the great religious influences of such luminaries as the Baal Shem Tov the Vilna Gaon, and Moses Mendehlson.
The final chapter deals with the blight of Secularism on the Jewish people. The author aptly describes secular humanism (or modern paganism) as thus:"
It is probabely the most creative, the most liberated, the wealthiest, most dehumanizing and most murdeous civilization in the history of our species. Among those who suffered the most from it's excesses is the Jew. Ironically Jews helped to mould this civilization"
Most secular humanists today display the most breathtaking hypocrisy on issues such as human rights, especially under it's offshoot-the cult of political correctness.
Under the enlightenment a new form of anti-semitism came into being, shaped by the likes of Voltaire and Karl Marx-the mother of the new anti-semitism of today, prevalent at university campuses , media houses and leftist NGOs.
Finally the author writes about the founders of modern Zionism the return of Jews to the Land of Israel, and the struggle for the rebirth of a Jewish State.
It is inpiring to read of Herzl's journey to the Land of Israel in 1898: "Beneath the hot Medittaranean sun he was greeted by Jews who established the new settlements in the land. He saw tanned Jewish children, and men at ease on galloping horses. He saw groves of trees and new houses and grass on sand dunes..."
Potok deals too briefly with the subjects of the Holocaust and the rebirth of the Jewish Nation, with the refoundation of the State of Israel.
But he succeeds in putting across how Israel is a warmth for Jews, everywhere , how we fear for her, tremble when her people are hurt and support her.
The world lost a third of it's Jewish population during the Holocaust, and now almost half of world Jewry live in Israel (including hundreds of thousands of the descendants of holocaust survivors). The survival of Israel is the survival of the Jewish people.

Great Book.......2006-12-31

I really enjoyed this book. Chaim really hits the nail right on the head. So elloquent and educated, a great story teller.

The Narrative wanders also.......2006-11-02

This is one of two historical works written by the great Jewish novelist Chaim Potok. While Potok's novels are wonderful, his writing style oddly doesn't lead itself to the writing of history. This book is perhaps the lesser of the two non-fiction works he wrote: the text meanders all over the place, spending 15-20 pages on digressions that have nothing to do with the main story that he's relating. At times, it's very tedious.

Potok's main point seems to be his pride in the Jews for maintaining their faith, and to a lesser extent their culture, through all of their tribulations. I salute him for that: Judaism, after all, really has been through the wringer, and for the most part Jews are a peaceful people who only want to be left alone. I'm afraid that this didn't make up for enough of the rest of the book for me, so that it loses two stars. I only regard it well provisionally: it took me much longer to read than I think it should have.

I would only recommend this book to those interested in the subject, and warn them about the prose and style and other oddities of the narrative.

the KEY that unravels much of world history, i.e., the perennial conflict between FAITH & REASON.......2006-04-30

WANDERINGS (a history of the Jews) by Chaim Potok

It was Mark Twain's quotes, that acquainted me with the stunning fact that Jews constitute only a tiny percentage of the world's population, yet they constitute by far the majority of the world's genius. What was clear to me at the time, was that Jews celebrated FAMILY, of which I had none when growing up in a public institution. I wanted that very badly.

Other elements of Judaism stand out to me:

1. At the core of Judaism is the idea of GOD.

2. Jews do not "teach" HATE

Potok's clarification of the perennial conflict between FAITH & REASON, made sense of all the ideological conflicts in world history. [The Alcoholics Anonymous "BIG BOOK" contains this clarification also, which I think is cute.] Potok shows how the two great cultures of civilized history, the Greek & the Hebrew, have evolved in the context of what some philosophers have termed "The Great Dichotomy" or "The Eternal Duad". The Greeks perfected REASON, which eventually codifies in the body of knowledge known to us as SCIENCE. The Jews perfected FAITH, which eventually codifies in the general idea of religion and metaphysics.

Whereas in fact there are grey areas where Greek & Hebrew culture create a philosophical common ground [both cultures embraced the idea of "soul"] ....the ideological divisions come down to us even today, such that the conflict between FAITH & REASON manifests in two common conflicts, which are now recognized by everyone.

(1)
The conflict concerning ABORTION, which articulates a conflict between Science and Religion

(2)
The conflict concerning Evolutionary Theory and it's teaching in public schools, which also articulates a conflict between Science and Religion

When our foggy minds clear, and we understand this, we finally come to know what Solomon meant when he says, in Ecclesiastes, that "...there is nothing new under the sun". There are no NEW ideas in conflict in our world, but OLD ideas dressed up and offered again and again in perennial conflict.

Whereas there will always be those who, in their wisdom, HARMONIZE the distinct spheres of SCIENCE & FAITH, there will always be those who see the world in extremes of a BLACK and WHITE dichotomy. It does us no earthly good, to deny that some of humanity cannot resolve or balance the two KEY elements of our nature, the physical & spiritual, and who always seem to offer up an ALL or NOTHING model for human understanding.

I would venture to say that the Jews were the people who first stopped running from reality, merely because of persecution. All nations have suffered invasion and conquest, but the Jews have endured it better than anybody.

We, in our personal lives, must learn to stop running from reality also. There comes a time when individuals, like nations, must hold themselves accountable for what they say, and what they do.

I went on to read Potok's novels:

"My Name is Asher Lev" and "The Chosen"

Both of which I can recommend as well.

An Epic Work.......2005-12-08

Potok's History of the Jews is a powerful work that inspires, intrigues and challenges. He writes with graceful prose, has excellent research (footnotes would have helped but would have bogged down his natural style), offers sharp opinions, but keeps to his central theme. Catholic/Christian readers might object to its brutal description of countless persecutions without sufficient inclusion of Christian devotion and charity. The sections on Jesus and Paul are mostly good, but more could have been written about the Christian Gospels, especially John. Still, this is a history of the Jews, not the Christians. I learned a lot from this book, especially about the time periods after the common era. The book also does an excellent job in summarizing the stories given in scripture. Some of these stories are Potok's opinions, but most are reasonable interpretations. This is an excellent read.

Average customer rating:

Own This Book Along With A Visit To The Museum
A haunting and powerful summary of the museum, itself

Holocaust Museum In Washington
Jeshajahu Weinberg , and Rina Elieli
Manufacturer: Rizzoli International Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Preserving Memory
Tell Them We Remember: The Story of the Holocaust

ASIN: 084781906X
Release Date: 1995-09-15

Book Description

This is the inside story of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., told by the very people who developed the museum as a place for learning, communicating, and remembering. This book conveys the dedication to truth and scholarship that is the foundation of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, and details the museum's role in presenting evidence of lives and events that must never be forgotten.

When the museum opened in April 1993, Holocaust survivors saw their dream come true--their story could be told to the world. Since it opened, the museum has had to contend with unprecedented attendance records, as 5000 visitors a day continue to wait in line to see the exhibitions and experiences the architecture of this remarkable place.

This is a story of a monumental achievement--from the planning and construction of the museum, theater, conference center, and library; to the design and selection of exhibits; to the participation of the first visitors. It tells of the 'visitor as victim' approach to exhibitions, of the effort to educate children, and the commitment to historical truth in the narrative representation of the Holocaust.

As a remembrance for visitors to the museum and an introduction for those who have yet to visit, this beautifully illustrated book gives the reader an intimate tour of the exhibitions, and an understanding of the need for this place in our society. There, we remind ourselves of that which has been, in order to assure ourselves a future that accepts the diversity of humankind.

Customer Reviews:

Own This Book Along With A Visit To The Museum.......2005-04-13

This book tells the story of the founding and exhibits of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. This book does not replace visits to the Museum. It is an excellent reference book to have in combination with visits to the Museum. The Holocaust Museum is one of the finest Museums in Washington, DC.

The history told at the Museum is powerful in so many ways. My hope is that humanity can learn from history not to keep repeating the many horrific mistakes that were made during the period of Hitler and Stalin. We must always remember that most of the terrible crimes during this period were sanctioned, promoted and authorized by National Governments. The Governments of nations can and do become evil, corrupt and murderous. We the people of the world must be forever vigilant against vesting too much power in the hands of too few people. Concentrated power almost always becomes corrupt.

We must learn from history how to prevent the concentrations of power in too few people. These concentrations of power can sooner or later lead to evil. Even power that is initially built on good intentions will good bad eventually. That is the nature of the human condition that we must fear that charismatic leaders will concentrate power in ways that are unhealthy and deadly. We should find ways to avoid electing charismatic leaders as these types of leaders are just too dangerous. The Holocaust happened just seconds ago in terms of the lifespan of our planet, and something like it will happen again unless we learn the lessons taught to us by history.

A haunting and powerful summary of the museum, itself.......1998-11-07

Having recently visited The Holocaust Museum, I felt compelled to own this book as a tangible memory. The book captures the essence of the holocaust experience with outstanding images and words, often understated, that continue to evoke the emotions felt in the museum.

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