It’s the birthday of American Conservative rabbi and author Chaim Potok (Herman Harold Potok), whose novels introduced American society to the world of Orthodox Jews and to the struggles his characters experienced between their faith communities and the pull to the secular world. Born in 1929 to Polish immigrants, Potok was raised Hasidic but was ordained a Conservative rabbi upon graduating from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1954 with a master’s degree in Hebrew literature. To unpack that: Hasidism is a stricter subset of Orthodox Judaism; becoming a Conservative, which is less conservative than Orthodox, was a serious break with his community almost tantamount to becoming a gentile. Said Potok in 1981, “I had to rebuild my world literally from zero.”

Potok was an army chaplain in Korea from 1955 to 1957, then taught at the University of Judaism for a couple years, married Adena Sara Mosevitzsky in 1958, and got a PhD in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965. At this point he became editor of the Jewish Publication Society. His first novel, The Chosen (1967, Simon and Schuster) was a huge bestseller and portrayed the friendship of two teenage boys, one an observant Jew and one the Hasidic son of a dynastic rabbi. This boy secretly reads Freud and struggles with the forbidden desire to become a psychologist. (Boys, am I right? Always wanting to sneak off and practice psychology.) Potok had not expected the novel to be a success, saying in 1992, “I thought 500 people might be interested in reading this story about two Jewish kids.”

Potok explored further the tensions between faith and secularity in his novels The Promise (1969, sequel to The Chosen), My Name Is Asher Lev (1972), In the Beginning (1975), Davita’s Harp (1985), and others. In My Name Is Asher Lev, the main character is a Hasidic boy who is also a brilliant artist in the making—reflecting Potok’s original desire to become an artist, which his parents discouraged even more than his study of literature. Asher Lev never wants to break with his community or his parents but his paintings, one of which employs crucifixion imagery, are considered blasphemous.

Potok died on July 23, 2002, survived by his wife, three children, and two grandchildren.

Fun fact: as a teenager, Potok would sneak off to the public library and read secular books. Two of the first he read were Brideshead Revisited and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. (My apologies to Joyce fans: I’ve read the latter and didn’t hugely love it, and I’m kind of impressed it didn’t drive Potok away.) Libraries are dangerous, people. Keep your young boys out of the library or they might grow up to be famous authors.

Enjoy all of the quotidian delights peculiar to Saturdays and stay scrupulously honest to the data.