Communication, Friendship, and Trust
...schooling. Danny would read “two blatt” (68) of Talmud a day, that was four pages, which was a lot considering that Reuven was delighted if he was to read one page. Danny had a brilliant mind and loved to read. Danny loved to read books by Darwin and especially Freud, but also had another love for baseball. An agreement with his father let him do whatever he wanted after he had studied his quota of Talmud every day. He wanted to play baseball, but didn’t know if he wanted to ask his father for permission, and lied just enough to get a team started. “That’s the only way we could have a team. I sort of convinced my father you were the best team around and that we had a duty to beat you apikorsim at what you were best at.”(71). He barely had enough strength to ask his father if he could start a baseball team. To me you shouldn’t have to be scared to ask your own father for permission to do something you enjoy. To do something where you could very well find your best friend you have been looking for, even though you started out as worst enemies. Even with the silence enforced by his father, except on Shabbat afternoons when they would discuss Talmud, Danny was still a good child. He listened to his father when he actually did have something to say to him and followed what he was told. He was told not to associate with any Zionist person, especially Reuven. Not to be able to associate with someone just because of what their father believes in is wrong. Reuven’s father talked so passionately and strongly for a rebuilding of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and that was something that Reb Saunders was strongly against. Reb Saunders believed that the Jewish people needed to wait for the Messiah and not rebuild a homeland until his return. For two years Danny and Reuven would not speak, but friendship would out last the hate brought by his father and their friendship would return. Reuven and his father had a very good relationship. They could speak to one another and understand each other with topics about anything, especially about what was going on during that time, World War 2. It was a very upsetting topic for families that believe in the Jewish faith. Hitler was doing things that no family would ever imagine could be done to the Jewish people. Whenever something distraught would happen David Malter would sit down his son and try to explain what was going on and how they need to pray for the families and people that this is happening to. Silence was never a factor in the Malter household. David Malter was always there to help out his son with any problems that Reuven might have had. When Danny started to see Reuven in the hospital, Reuven couldn’t forgive him for what he had done. David spoke with his son and gave him advice about friendship and what friends are. “A Greek philosopher said that two people who are true friends are like two bodies with one soul.”(74). Just having some type of communication, and advice for your son is good. Reuven hated silence. He hated the fact that Danny and his father never spoke to one another on a regular basis. “Silence was ugly, it was black, it leered, it was cancerous, it was death.”(221). Reuven had a lot of hatred for silence, especially when Reb Saunders forced it upon his son not to speak to Reuven for those two years. Reuven’s hate for Danny’s father grew and grew during the period when they did not speak. “I never knew myself capable of the kind of hatred I felt toward Reb Saunders all through that semester. It became, finally, a blind, raging fury, and I would find myself trembling with it.” I found it very good when Reb Saunders’s finally realized that Danny did not want to become a rabbi, that his son had other ambitions in life. What I don’t like is how Reb Saunders handled the situation. He spoke through Reuven to talk to his own son, something that I would never do with an issue of that importance. To never even look at his son while explaining to Reuven that he does not wish for Danny to take his position. Something that could crush the dynasty, as D...