learn about Hasidism. He learns that there are tzaddiks who were believed to be superhuman links between the people and God. In some sects it was believed that a leader should take upon himself the sufferings of the Jewish people. Such a leader is Reb Saunders. His ways and his teachings are the ways of seventeenth century Hasids and it is this role that Danny is expected to fill when he becomes the tzaddik. In the long initial visits that Reuven pays to Reb Saunder’s congregation to be approved as fit company for Danny, Reuven observes the way Hasidic philosophy permeates his friend’s life. Weeks before the accident which brings the two boys together, Mr. Malter meets Danny in the public library and begins to guide him in his search for knowledge of the world through the “forbidden books” prescribed by his father. Mr. Malter tells Reuven of Danny’s brilliant mind, his insatiable appetite for learning, and the amazing speed with which he digests information. When the Germans surrender and the existence of the concentration camps becomes known for the first time, the two men’s reactions are characteristic. For Mr. Malter, overwhelming grief is followed by a determination to counter the senseless suffering of the millions who died with something meaningful: the creation of the state of Israel. While Reb Saunders suffers, Danny struggles to educate himself in the ideas of Freud and in the problems of contemporary Judaism. He combines the load of schoolwork and the study of Talmud which forms the basis of his relation to his father, with his own attempts to educate himself in his quest for identity. Reuven, too, is seen to spend many hours of his day in study. The novel begins with Danny and Reuven as high school boys and concludes with their graduation from college. Danny has decided to get out of the life that imprisons him; he will take off the clothing and shun the trappings of the Ha...
