The Chosen

'How is Reb Saunders?' he asked quietly.

I told him what Reb Saunders had talked about that afternoon. My father nodded slowly. He was pale and gaunt, and his skin had a yellowish tint to it and was parchment like on his face and hands.

'Reb Saunders wanted to know how God could let something like this happen,' I told him quietly.

My father looked at me, his eyes somber.

'And did God answer him?' he asked. His voice had a strange quality of bitterness to it.

I didn't say anything.

'Did God answer him, Reuven?' my father asked again, that same bitterness in his voice.

'Reb Saunders said it was God's will. We have to accept God's will, he said.'

My father blinked his eyes. 'Reb Saunders said it was God's will: he echoed softly.

I nodded.

'You are satisfied with that answer, Reuven?'

'No.'

He blinked his eyes again, and when he spoke his voice was soft, the bitterness gone. 'I am not satisfied with it, either, Reuven. We ca

I was quiet.

'Six million of our people 'have been slaughtered,' he went on quietly. 'It is inconceivable. It will have meaning only if we give it meaning. We ca

My father recovered slowly, and it was only at the end of May that he was able to return to his teaching.

Two days after I took my final examination, he suffered a heart attack. He was rushed by ambulance to the Brooklyn Memorial Hospital and put into a semi-private room one floor below the eye ward. Manya took care of me during the first nightmarish days of blind panic when my mind collapsed and would not function. Then Reb Saunders called me one night and invited me to live in his house while my father recovered. How could I live alone with only a housekeeper to care for me? he wanted to know. Why should I stay alone in the apartment at night? Who knew, God forbid, what could happen? It was terrible for a boy my age to be left alone. They could put another bed in Da

On the first day of July, I packed a bag and took a cab to Reb Saunders' house. I moved into Da

Chapter 12

From the day I entered Reb Saunders' house to the day I left to go with my father to our cottage near Peekskill where he was to convalesce, I was a warmly accepted member of Da

Da

During the entire month I spent in Reb Saunders' house, the only time I ever saw him talk to Da

Da