What are the motifs in The Promise by Chaim Potok?

Bearing the burdens of the father is a recurring idea in the story. The major characters, David Malter, Abraham Gordon and Rav Kalman, all react in their own ways, Kalman by taking a fundamentalist attitude, Malter by abandoning traditional Jewish theology, and Malter by trying to retain Jewish theology but allow historical-critical methods to be used in rabbinical schools.