My Name is Asher Lev

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The protagonist and narrator of the book. The book traces Asher's development as a person and an artist. He is immensely gifted as an artist and, when younger, not in control of himself. He often seems detached from the world around him and generally spaced out. As he grows older, Asher becomes more in touch with himself and learns to channel his feelings into artwork. He is not a typical rebel in the sense that he does not want to rebel. He is simply drawn very strongly to produce art. As he gets older, he outgrows his teacher and becomes more reflective. My Name Is Asher Lev is a novel by Chaim Potok, an American author and rabbi. The book's protagonist is Asher Lev, a Hasidic Jewish boy in New York City. Asher is a loner with artistic inclinations. His art, however, causes conflicts with his family and other members of his community. The book follows Asher's maturity as both an artist and a Jew. [1] Asher è un bambino speciale. Vive il mondo con gli occhi, sente il mondo attraverso lo sguardo. E la matita si muove fra le sue mani inconsapevolmente, è un istinto primordiale il suo. Disegna e disegnando vive. Si astrae da tutto, non si cura di nulla se non delle sue linee, dei suoi colori, della forma che le sue mani danno al suo sguardo. Nonostante tutto Asher è inglobato nel suo mondo di osservante ebreo chassidico, con un padre che viaggia per il mondo per creare scuole in cui insegnare e far rivivere le tradizioni ebree, e una madre con il cuore spezzato che vive aspettando, prima un marito alla finestra che torni dai suoi viaggi, poi un figlio, e che si trova in mezzo ai due, ai loro contrasti, al loro modo diverso, eppure così carnale e umano di vedere la vita. The other characters in the book were largely there as tools either for Asher's own development or for exploring the gap between Asher's two worlds, art and Judaism.

A key event in his childhood occurs when his mother loses her older brother in a car crash. The brother had been both a mother and father to her. For more than a year the mother goes into an almost-comatose mental and physical state, hardly eating and not talking. His father hires a nanny/maid to take care of his wife and son. Eventually she comes out of it, decides to carry on her brother’s work, and receives the Rebbe’s permission to go to college (one of a few women to do so.) She eventually earns a doctorate and becomes a professor. She recovers but she fears all her life for her husband traveling first all over the US and eventually with long trips to Europe getting Jews out from under Stalin’s persecution in Russia, bringing some to the US, and setting up schools and synagogues for the sect in the US and Europe. But Asher is different, he is driven by a need to create art. He is very religiously observant: keeps kosher, prays three times a day, observes the Sabbath, etc. He wants to be a good Jew and honor his parents, make them proud of him, but he is driven to create art which his father thinks is foolish. I give the book a 4.5 rounded up to 5. There is a bit of repetition in some of the first half. Could we get by with a dozen references to the boy asking his father if he is going to travel again instead of 20? And ditto for not wanting to go to Vienna? And maybe five incidents of him going into a funk painting at school rather than 10 or so? But that’s quibbling a bit. I highly recommend this book and I’m adding it to my favorites. A good companion read to the author’s The Chosen which I also enjoyed. Kabbalah can be considered as a mystical approach to disinfecting language by turning language in on itself, using language to undermine the pretensions of language when it becomes something that it shouldn’t - lies, misrepresentations, distortions, and claims to reality. It is not enough to say the Krias Shema before sleep, the Modeh Ani upon waking, or the dozens of other prayers for every other occasion during the day. Even the language of these prayers must transcend language itself.Although Asher puts his art above every other consideration, he remains, in all other respects, a loyal and observant member of his community. Asher's uncle with whom he lives while his parents are in Europe. A wealthy, kind man, who has no distinct personality. He appreciates his nephew's talent in his manner as a layman. Yudel Krinsky The Rebbe asks Asher's father to relocate to Vienna, which would make it easier to perform his work establishing yeshivas throughout Europe. Asher becomes very upset about this and refuses to move to Vienna, in spite of requests from his parents and teachers alike. Rivkeh ultimately decides to stay in Brooklyn with Asher while Aryeh moves to Vienna alone. What particularly upsets Asher’s family is that among his works are some nudes; then, when the novel climaxes with a big show in New York, there is an even greater horror in store for them and other members of this devout Jewish community: the outstanding paintings in the exhibition are two crucifixes.

Rivkeh appears to live her life entirely for others — even finishing a Ph.D. in Russian history to “complete” her brother’s studies. What do you make of the part she plays in the novel? Asher’s father does not understand art and believes that it comes from the Other Side - where things are false and impure. It couldn’t possibly come from the Master of the Universe. I could understand the frustration that Asher experienced as he tried to talk with his father and make him understand. Asher tells his own story. We are with him when he makes his biggest breakthrough which will conflict him even further in regards to his family. His pinnacle is reached and it is devastating. Emotions burst through where they’ve been kept down for the majority of his life finally expressed through the hurt he brings to his parents and visible as their collective hurts. Ci sono sempre uomini dominanti, più luminosi, più ingombranti. E donne che vivono nell’ombra, nel margine. Ci sono sempre coppie giovanissime che si sposano: quando nasce Asher Lev sua madre ha diciannove anni e suo padre venticinque. Ci sono sempre figli rispettosi e ubbidienti sin da bambini. Potok tells this story beautifully from Asher's limited perspective. When Asher was a child the narrative is simple, as seen from a child's perspective. As Asher grows, so too does the introspective nature of the narrative. Asher becomes more perceptive and aware of his world and his self. As his study of art grows he begins to the see the world in terms of lines, contours, planes, and colors. The artist's eye grows and becomes an integral part of his perception of the world. He recognizes and is forced to comes to grip with the tensions and conflicts in his life. More importantly, though, he also becomes more sympathetic to the struggles his mother and father endured. As he travels Europe he sees all the good his frequently absent father brought to many Jewish communities. As he reflects on his past he realizes the anguish and hardship his Mother endured trying to bridge the gap between himself and his father. He embraces both of their humanities in the creation of his greatest and most dangerous works of art.Such a universe is in one sense impossible to conceive. There are literally no words to describe it. The best we can do it to call it ‘darkness.’ Within this realm of darkness, chaos reigns. Out of it, the darkness seeks to overcome the light, in part by infecting language itself. Stalin, for example, as part of the Sitra Achra kills Jewish writers, both because they are Jewish and because they write, and substitutes Soviet propaganda for divine truth. There are even Jewish Communists who persecute other Jews. Ultimately it is words that killed the writers, the millions of others in Russia, and in the Holocaust - laws, and commands, and secret memoranda, and judicial verdicts, all in the language made unsafe by the Sitra Achra. This book raises many questions: what does it mean to be an artist? What does it mean to be a Jew? Can the two be reconciled? Can someone meet the responsibilities of being an artist and a Jew without betraying the other? To what do we owe ourselves and what do we owe our family and community? These are not easily answered because they are so unique to every person. They are dependent upon a person's proclivities, experiences, and environment. Asher says this of painting: "I paint my feelings. I paint how I see and feel about the world. But I paint a painting, not a story." I absolutely loved that the writing style correlates with a painting style. Asher is non-descriptive about his feelings, only stating his replies to people's questions instead of delving inside his own emotions. Just a painting, the reader is left to interpret those for himself. The story flows through the years smoothly, but it is the writing style that puts it on a higher level. When style can add another layer by making you feel Asher's love of painting, it makes the book beautiful. He has been told that he will be a great painter; so he reflects further: “Then be a great painter, Asher Lev; that will be the only justification for all the pain you will cause. But as a great painter I will cause pain again if I must. Then become a greater painter. But I will cause pain again. . . Master of the Universe, will I live this way all the rest of my life? Yes, came the whisper from the branches of the trees. Now journey with me, my Asher. Paint the anguish of all the world. Let people see the pain. But create your own moulds and your own play of forms for the pain. We must give a balance to the universe.

Yitzchok – Asher's wealthy uncle who supports Asher and his art skills. He is kind and generous, and gives Asher a place to stay while his parents are in Europe. Yitzchok is one of the first to recognize that Asher's ability can make a fortune, and he invests in his work. Asher lived with him for a while. In the middle is Asher's mother, Rivkeh, who in Asher's early childhood was severely traumatized by the death of her brother, who was killed while traveling for the Rebbe. Rivkeh is only able to emerge from her depression when she decides to continue her brother's work and obtains the Rebbe's permission to return to college to study Russian affairs. Throughout the novel she suffers anxiety for her husband's safety during his almost constant traveling, and is frequently seen waiting at the large window of their apartment for her husband or son to return home. Asher's mother begins contemplating a move to Vienna. Asher, however, refuses to go along. Rivkeh finally decides to move to Vienna without him, so that she can be with her husband. Asher meets with the Rebbe to discuss this move and his developing artistic talent. Around this time, Asher learns that he will one day have his own show. Asher moves in with his Uncle Yitzchok. There was a sensation of something tearing wide apart inside me and a steep quivering climb out of myself.From the time Asher Lev is a small child, his entire life and identity is understood in terms of his vibrant, loving Hasidic Jewish community—not only his family life, but his ancestral memory and his expectations for the future. As his gift for drawing and painting becomes apparent, however, his art increasingly comes into conflict with his religious identity and the expectations of his community. Although Asher’s religious beliefs remain strong, and he even finds ways to reconcile his artistic calling with his religious calling, he is eventually asked to leave his Brooklyn synagogue community behind because of the pain some of his paintings have caused. Through Asher’s ultimately failed attempts to maintain harmony between his art and his religious identity, Chaim Potok suggests that, while artistic expression does not inherently threaten one’s personal faith, it can prove to be incompatible with the values of one’s larger religious community; thus, the two are not completely reconcilable.