The Chosen is a novel written by Chaim Potok. It was first published in 1967. It follows the narrator, Reuven Malter, and his friend Daniel Saunders, as they grow up in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, in the 1940s. A sequel featuring Reuven's young adult years, The Promise, was published in 1969.

In 1944 Brooklyn, fifteen-year-old Reuven Malter prepares to play a baseball game: his own Modern Orthodox school against a team from a Hasidic yeshiva. It becomes apparent that Danny Saunders, the son of Rebbe Reb Saunders, is the only good player on the opposing team. The game becomes a war between the two teams, seemingly symbolic of their differing ideologies. In the last inning, with Reuven's team in the lead, Reuven is put in as a pitcher. When Danny gets up to the plate, he hits a line drive straight at Reuven's head, which breaks his glasses and drives a small piece of glass into his eye. Reuven's team loses, and Reuven is rushed to the hospital.

Danny comes to the hospital to apologize, but Reuven is still livid at Danny and rejects his attempts, which angers Reuven's father, who reminds Reuven it is vital to listen to someone who asks to be heard. When Danny returns the next day, Reuven forgives him and quickly becomes friends.

Reuven learns that Danny possesses a photographic memory, enabling him to study an astonishing amount of Talmud per day, a goal set by his father, yet still leaving him time to pursue other subjects. Danny tells Reuven that he goes to the library to read books on science and literature, and that a man at the library has been recommending books for him to read. Danny knows he is expected to someday take over his father's position as the rebbe for his community, but wishes he did not have to and that he could pursue psychology instead. Reuven learns that his father, a teacher of Talmud, is the man who has been recommending books to Danny at the library; his father would like him to pursue academia rather than the rabbinate.

When Reuven is released from the hospital, his father discusses the history of Hasidic philosophy. He then explains that only once in a generation is a mind like Danny's born, that Danny cannot help his need for knowledge, and that Danny is also a lonely boy who needs a friend.

The next day, Reuven goes to Danny's family synagogue, where he witnesses a discussion between Danny and his father spanning the entire Talmud. After Shabbat has ended, Danny reveals to Reuven that his father only speaks to him when they study Talmud together. The two boys also discover they will attend the same university, much to Reuven's delight. That Sunday, Danny and Reuven meet at the library, where Danny reveals his fascination with the human mind and his desire to study the works of Sigmund Freud, for which he is teaching himself German.

Reuven goes to the Saunders' house again the next week to study Talmud with Danny and his father. When Danny leaves the room to prepare tea, Rebbe Saunders reveals to Reuven that he knows about Danny's visits to the library and wants to know what Danny is reading. He adds that he knows he cannot prevent Danny from pursuing knowledge, but fears his son will lose faith. Reuven immediately tells Danny about the talk, and later, Reuven's father discerns that Reb Saunders used his conversation with Reuven to communicate with Danny indirectly.

The coming year is dominated by the Allied victory in World War II as well as the death of Franklin Roosevelt, which brings grief to the Malters. In addition, news of the Holocaust reaches American soil, which sends all the characters, especially Rabbi Saunders, into a state of depression. During the summer of that year, Reuven's father suffers a heart attack, and Reuven goes to stay in the Saunders' home. At one meal, Reuven mentions that some feel it is time to establish a Jewish state, which sends Rebbe Saunders into a fierce tirade against Zionism. For the ultra-orthodox, a secular Jewish state established without the coming of the Messiah is against God's will.