Potok generally did a good job of translating Hebrew or Yiddish terms within the text, but I admit I sometimes forgot the meaning the next time that word came up. I can understand, in some measure, his dissatisfaction with traditional ritual countered by his belief. It was intriguing to read about a society in which a grad student acts with love/respect/attention toward his father, spends his spare time doing logic problems in his head, has memorized scads of medieval tracts and religious documents and can hold his own in an argument about them. Reuven's challenge is to remain respectful to his Talmud teacher, who is very rigid in his expectations of Jews maintaining their traditions, and to accept the love of his platonic girl friend Rachel for his best friend Danny. It was fairly interesting as I was learning about a culture (Jews in NY in the 1950's-a time when survivors from the concentration camps were trying to restart their lives in America) that I had only gotten glimpses of from my friends. I knew this was going to seem dated, but I picked it up anyway because I'd heard of the author quite a while ago and never got around to reading any of his works.
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