Aryeh Lev Character Analysis in My Name is Asher Lev

Aryeh Lev is Rivkeh’s husband and Asher’s father. He came to Brooklyn from Europe as a teenager, after his father’s murder. He is descended from a long line of scholarly Hasidic Jews who traveled to promote Torah study. After studying political science at the Ladover Rebbe’s request, Aryeh begins traveling himself to help persecuted Jews in other countries. He is especially concerned with the plight of Russian Jews and works to bring them to safety in the United States. Later, he travels to Europe himself to help rebuild devastated Jewish communities. Aryeh has a troubled relationship with Asher because he does not approve of Asher’s passion for art, seeing it as coming from the sitra achra and as distracting Asher from his obligations to his fellow Jews. As Asher grows older, Aryeh becomes particularly concerned about Asher’s incorporation of “goyisch” and Christian elements into his art, and he is distressed that Asher spends more time on drawing and painting than in studying Torah. He is never fully accepts Asher’s choices, although he continues to love his son.

Aryeh Lev Quotes in My Name is Asher Lev

The My Name is Asher Lev quotes below are all either spoken by Aryeh Lev or refer to Aryeh Lev. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“Asher, you have a gift. I do not know if it is a gift from the Ribbono Shel Olom or from the Other Side. If it is from the Other Side, then it is foolishness, dangerous foolishness, for it will take you away from Torah and from your people and lead you to think only of yourself. I want to tell you something. Listen to me, my Asher. About twenty-five years ago, all the yeshivos in Russia were closed by the Communists, and the students were scattered in different places in small groups. The only groups who continued to fight against this destruction of Torah by the enemies of Torah were the Ladover and Breslover Hasidim […] Asher, we have to make passageways to our people in Russia. We have a responsibility to them. […] They cannot make the opening on their side, so we must make it on our side. Do you understand me, Asher?”

Related Characters: Aryeh Lev (speaker), Asher Lev

Page Number and Citation: 109

Explanation and Analysis:

I saw my mythic ancestor again that night, moving in huge strides across the face of the earth, stepping over snow-filled mountains, spanning wide and fertile valleys, journeying, journeying, endlessly journeying. I saw him traverse warm villages and regions of ice and snow. I saw him peer into the windows of secret yeshivos and into the barracks of Siberian camps. […] “And what are you doing with your time, my Asher Lev?” I thought I heard him say […] If You don’t want me to use the gift, why did You give it to me? Or did it come to me from the Other Side? It was horrifying to think my gift may have been given to me by the source of evil and ugliness. How can evil and ugliness make a gift of beauty?

Related Characters: Asher Lev (speaker), Aryeh Lev, Mythic Ancestor, Yudel Krinsky

Page Number and Citation: 119

Explanation and Analysis:

I looked into my Chumash. I stared at the face staring back out at me from the page. I had slanted the eyes somewhat and given the lips beneath the beard a sardonic turn. The Rebbe looked evil; the Rebbe looked threatening; the Rebbe looking out at me from the Chumash seemed about to hurt me. That was the expression he would wear when he decided to hurt me. That was the expression he had worn when he had told my father to go to Vienna. I looked at the framed photograph of the Rebbe on the front wall near the blackboard. The eyes were gray and clear; the face was kind. Only the ordinary dark hat was the same in both pictures. I was frightened at the picture I had drawn. I was especially frightened that I could not remember having drawn it.

Related Characters: Asher Lev (speaker), Aryeh Lev, The Rebbe

Page Number and Citation: 124

Explanation and Analysis:

“What do they all want from me?” I said to my mother.

“They want you to study Torah. A boy your age should be studying Torah.”

I went into my room and stood by the window, staring out at the melting snow. I did not hate studying. I had no strength for it. My drawing needed all my strength. Couldn’t they see that? What did they all want from me?

I came into Yudel Krinsky’s store one day in February.

“You are a scandal,” he said to me in his hoarse voice. “The world knows you are not studying Torah.” He fixed his bulging eyes on me. “Your father journeys through Europe bringing Jews back to Torah, and here his own son refuses to study Torah. Asher, you are a scandal.”

Related Characters: Asher Lev (speaker), Rivkeh Lev (speaker), Yudel Krinsky (speaker), Aryeh Lev

Page Number and Citation: 165

Explanation and Analysis:

I heard her sigh. “I wish I knew what to do,” she said. “I hope the Ribbono Shel Olom will help me not to hurt your father. Look where it’s taken us, Asher. Your painting. It’s taken us to Jesus. And to the way they paint women. Painting is for goyim, Asher. Jews don’t draw and paint.”

“Chagall is a Jew.”

“Religious Jews, Asher. Torah Jews. Such Jews don’t draw and paint. What would the Rebbe say if he knew we were in the museum? God forbid the Rebbe should find out.”

I didn’t know what the Rebbe would say. It frightened me to think that the Rebbe might be angry.

“I wish I knew what to do,” my mother murmured. “I wish your father was home.”

Related Characters: Asher Lev (speaker), Rivkeh Lev (speaker), Aryeh Lev, The Rebbe

Page Number and Citation: 171

Explanation and Analysis:

“Listen to me,” my father said. He was speaking suddenly in Yiddish. “I am killing myself for the Ribbono Shel Olom. I have broken up my family for the Ribbono Shel Olom. I do not see my wife for months because of my work for the Ribbono Shel Olom. I came home for Pesach to be with my family, to be with the Rebbe, to rest. And what do I find? You know what I find. And what do I hear? I hear my son telling me he cannot stop drawing pictures of naked women and that man. Listen to me, Asher. This will stop. You will fight it. Or I will force you to return to Vienna with me after the summer. Better you should stay in Vienna and be a little crazy than you should stay in New York and become a goy.”

“Ribbono Shel Olom,” my mother breathed. “Aryeh, please.”

“We must fight against the Other Side, Rivkeh,” my father shouted in Yiddish. “We must fight against it! Otherwise it will destroy the world.”

Related Characters: Aryeh Lev (speaker), Rivkeh Lev (speaker), Asher Lev, The Rebbe

Page Number and Citation: 177

Explanation and Analysis:

My father carried his burden of pain all through the celebration of my bar mitzvah. People knew of the Rebbe’s decision. No one dared question it. For the Rebbe was the tzaddik and spoke as representative of the Master of the Universe. His seeing was not as the seeing of others; his acts were not as the acts of others. My father’s right to shape my life had been taken from him by the same being who gave his own life meaning—the Rebbe. At the same time, no one knew how to react to the decision, for they could see my father’s pain. I had become alien to him. In some incomprehensible manner, a cosmic error had been made. The line of inheritance had been perverted. A demonic force had thrust itself into centuries of transmitted responsibility. He could not bear its presence. And he no longer knew how to engage it in battle. So he walked in pain and shame all through the Shabbos of my bar mitzvah and all through the following day when relatives and friends sang and danced their joy.

Related Characters: Asher Lev (speaker), Aryeh Lev, The Rebbe, Jacob Kahn

Page Number and Citation: 197

Explanation and Analysis:

On Yom Kippur, I wept when I remembered my father’s weeping over the martyrdom of the ten sages. On Succos, I marched in the synagogue procession with the lulov and esrog my uncle had purchased for me. On Simchas Torah, I danced with a Torah scroll—and there on the edge of the crowd of thousands that always came to watch our joy on that day was Jacob Kahn. I pulled him into the line and we held the Torah together and danced. His small dark skullcap was as awkward on his head as was the grasp of his fingers upon the Torah. But we held it together and we danced.

Related Characters: Asher Lev (speaker), Aryeh Lev, Jacob Kahn, Uncle Yitzchok

Page Number and Citation: 268

Explanation and Analysis:

Trapped between two realms of meaning, she had straddled both realms, quietly feeding and nourishing them both, and herself as well. I could only dimly perceive such an awesome act of will. But I could begin to feel her torment now as she waited by our living-room window for both her husband and her son. What did she think of as she stood by the window? Of the phone call that had informed my father of her brother’s death? Would she wait now in dread all the rest of her life, now for me, now for my father, now for us both—as she had once waited for me to return from a museum, as she had once waited for my father to return in a snowstorm? And I could understand her torment now; I could see her waiting endlessly with the fear that someone she loved would be brought to her dead. I could feel her anguish.

Related Characters: Asher Lev (speaker), Aryeh Lev, Rivkeh Lev, Uncle Yaakov

Related Symbols: Window

Page Number and Citation: 325

Explanation and Analysis:

Asher Lev, Hasid. Asher Lev, painter. I looked at my right hand, the hand with which I painted. There was power in that hand. […] The demonic and the divine were two aspects of the same force. Creation was demonic and divine. Creativity was demonic and divine. Art was demonic and divine. […] I was demonic and divine. Asher Lev, son of Aryeh and Rivkeh Lev, was the child of the Master of the Universe and the Other Side. Asher Lev paints good pictures and hurts people he loves. 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.

Related Characters: Asher Lev (speaker), Aryeh Lev, Rivkeh Lev, Jacob Kahn

Page Number and Citation: 367

Explanation and Analysis:

Aryeh Lev Character Timeline in My Name is Asher Lev

The timeline below shows where the character Aryeh Lev appears in My Name is Asher Lev. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Asher’s father’s family traces back to the 1300s in Europe. His father’s great-great-grandfather had been the manager... (full context)

...for both himself and the nobleman. But in middle age, he began to travel. Asher’s father always told him that his ancestor did this in order to “bring the Master of... (full context)

...taste of thunder in my mouth.” In these dreams, Asher’s mythic ancestor would echo his father’s questions about Asher’s childhood love of drawing. (full context)

...Hasidic family, all of them great scholars. Asher himself, born in 1943 to Rivkeh and Aryeh Lev in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, “was the juncture point of two significant family lines […]... (full context)

In the days before Asher’s mother became ill, his father traveled a lot, meeting with government representatives at the request of the Rebbe. Aryeh had... (full context)

Asher often drew his father praying. Sometimes they would talk about Aryeh’s studies of the holy books. One day, Aryeh... (full context)

Creativity, Self-Expression, and Truth Theme Icon

Once, Aryeh tells Asher, who is almost five, that he shouldn’t spend so much time on drawing.... (full context)

Two days later, Rivkeh is taken to the hospital. Asher remembers the “unearthly” sound of Aryeh singing his father’s melody that Shabbos. Late that night, Asher hears his father singing the... (full context)

After Rivkeh comes home from the hospital, Aryeh stops traveling. A Yiddish-speaking widow named Mrs. Rackover starts coming to the apartment to clean... (full context)

...Asher and that the Torah forbids her to mourn in this way. Rivkeh says nothing. Aryeh begins taking Asher to work with him during the day. Aryeh works at the Ladover... (full context)

Asher isn’t sure what his father’s telephone calls are about. Aryeh sometimes speaks in English, Yiddish, Hebrew, or French. At the... (full context)

Late one afternoon, Aryeh takes a phone call. His face becomes rigid with anger, and his voice is filled... (full context)

The next day, there are more tense phone calls in Russian. Aryeh paces around his office, restless. Asher shows Aryeh a drawing he’s made of him talking... (full context)

...fists on the table. Someone puts him to bed. When he wakes up later, his father is standing there. Asher sleepily tells Aryeh, “My drawings don’t help […] It’s not a... (full context)

Aryeh’s brother, Asher’s Uncle Yitzchok, comes to visit. He owns a successful jewelry and watch-repair store... (full context)

...ashes from her old cigarettes to get the contours just right. Later, he notices his father watching him with “fascination and perplexity,” looking “angry and confused and dejected” at the same... (full context)

That night, Aryeh tells Asher that he wishes he wouldn’t spend all his time drawing. He asks Asher... (full context)

One Sunday morning, Asher accompanies his father to the grocery store. He meets a nervous-looking man with a strange cap and a... (full context)

After they leave the store, Aryeh explains to Asher that he helped Yudel come to America from Russia. His strange hat... (full context)

...Rivkeh joins the family for supper. She asks Asher about his drawings. Then, she asks Aryeh, “What’s new in the world?” She tells him, “It is a victory for the sitra... (full context)

The next day, Rivkeh sleeps all day. That night, she finds Asher and Aryeh in the living room and explains to them that she wants to finish Yaakov’s work.... (full context)

...start college. In September, Asher enters the Ladover yeshiva, his mother enters Brooklyn College, and Aryeh begins traveling for the Rebbe once again. Asher quits drawing. (full context)

...starts school at the Ladover yeshiva. He is treated with special respect because of his father’s status as an emissary of the Rebbe and his mother’s illness, as well as the... (full context)

...claims that he hates it—“it’s from the sitra achra. Like Stalin.” Rivkeh says nothing else. Aryeh, meanwhile, assumes that Asher’s obsession with drawing has faded away, like other “ills of my... (full context)

...summers, the family lives in a private Hasidic bungalow colony in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. Aryeh comes up during the weekends. Mostly, Rivkeh seems happy during these years, although occasionally the... (full context)

Now that Aryeh has resumed his travels for the Rebbe, “he glowed with new life.” He helps establish... (full context)

One weekend in the summer of 1952, Aryeh arrives at the bungalow community, looking as though he’s in pain. He tells Rivkeh, “They... (full context)

Throughout the weekend, Asher hears his parents talking. Aryeh “cannot reconcile” himself and feels that his father’s work is “incomplete.” He says that there... (full context)

...could survive 11 years in such snow, the way Yudel Krinsky did. The next day, Aryeh goes on a journey to Boston. That night, Asher finds his mother in the living... (full context)

After Aryeh returns from Boston, they soon hear that six Jewish doctors were arrested on the charge... (full context)

...Yudel for a notebook and pencil, which Yudel cheerfully sells to “the son of Reb Aryeh Lev.” Asher asks Yudel about the Russian doctors and about Siberia. Yudel tells Asher that... (full context)

The next day, Aryeh tells Asher that the mashpia has given him a disappointing report: he says Asher is... (full context)

...and that she doesn’t want Asher to be afraid of her. Then they talk about Aryeh’s role in trying to help the Jews in Russia. While Rivkeh doesn’t like Aryeh to... (full context)

One Shabbos, as Asher and Aryeh walk to synagogue together, they talk about the Jews in Russia and Aryeh’s travel. In... (full context)

After the service, Aryeh goes to bed with a fever. Rivkeh calls the doctor, even though Aryeh insists it’s... (full context)

...window and asking Yaakov to be an interceder for her with the Ribbono Shel Olom. Aryeh returns home, exhausted and snow-covered, two hours later. (full context)

In March, Aryeh receives a phone call: Stalin is dying of a stroke. Later that week, Stalin dies.... (full context)

The following Shabbos, while Aryeh is attending the Rebbe’s afternoon talk, Rivkeh has a talk with Asher. She tells Asher... (full context)

...his mother about Yudel Krinsky’s visit. Rivkeh says that Yudel was never there. On Monday, Aryeh comes home and informs them that the Rebbe is sending them to Vienna in October. (full context)

...way of Vienna. He says, again, that Vienna hates Jews. That night, Asher asks his father why the Rebbe chose him to go to Vienna. Aryeh explains that they’re going to... (full context)

After synagogue that week, Uncle Yitzchok tells Asher it’s an honor for his father to go to Vienna and travel for the sake of Torah, much as their own... (full context)

During the Shabbos meal, Asher asks his father questions about Vienna—where he will study, what languages are spoken there. Later, he tells his... (full context)

...Stalin’s corpse over and over again, in many different ways: hollow, bloated, distorted, disfigured. When Aryeh sees the piles of drawings, he says, “You can’t study Chumash, but this you have... (full context)

That night, Aryeh tells Asher he needs to stop “this foolishness.” At bedtime, Rivkeh tells Asher that he’s... (full context)

Aryeh pauses in his Shabbos hymns to praise Asher’s drawing of Rivkeh. Then he says that... (full context)

Aryeh goes on to explain that it’s up to people to take the first step toward... (full context)

The next day, Aryeh observes that Asher seems unhappy. He asks if it’s because Aryeh travels so much. He... (full context)

At bedtime, Rivkeh asks if Asher understands what his father told him—“Do you understand what it means to leave a great work incomplete?” She explains... (full context)

...the face the Rebbe had worn “when he decided to hurt me”—when he told Asher’s father to go to Vienna. Asher looks at the photograph of the Rebbe on the classroom... (full context)

The next morning at breakfast, Aryeh is upset about Asher’s drawing and how it looks for his son to be behaving... (full context)

...is truly from the Ribbono Shel Olom, then why is it less important than his father’s work? (full context)

...him she had just called the police. Rivkeh has gone to bed, sick with fear. Aryeh is on a trip to Washington. Asher doesn’t respond; he’s thinking about the fact that,... (full context)

The next morning, Aryeh is home, looking tired. He tells Asher he must never do that again. He must... (full context)

...Rackover and his mother say nothing to him about it. When Asher knows that his father will be home from traveling, he comes straight home. One day it looks as though... (full context)

...East River on approach to LaGuardia. Even after the flight number is announced—and it’s not Aryeh’s flight—Rivkeh’s eyes look “dead.” Asher begins to understand the toll his father’s journeys take on... (full context)

That night, Asher asks Rivkeh why she lets Aryeh travel so much. She doesn’t understand: “It’s your father’s life, Asher. How can I ask... (full context)

...sees the Rebbe looking at him under the fringe of his tallis. After the service, Aryeh is silent. That night, while his parents are at Uncle Yitzchok’s, Asher takes out the... (full context)

That summer in the Berkshires, Rivkeh explains to Asher the choices the Rebbe has given Aryeh: Aryeh can stay in America, he can go to Europe with Rivkeh and leave Asher... (full context)

But Asher begins to understand the situation when Aryeh leaves for Vienna in October. Aryeh tells Asher, “Only be well. Everything will be all... (full context)

That fall and winter, Asher misses his father. They receive letters from all over Europe. Sometimes Asher lies awake and pictures his father... (full context)

Missing Aryeh, Asher finally begins to draw him—reading the newspaper, sitting on the parkway, walking with Rivkeh—“in... (full context)

The same week that Aryeh left for Vienna, Rivkeh bought a small table and placed it in the living room... (full context)

...night, Rivkeh comes into Asher’s room as he’s working on a painting of Yudel Krinsky. Aryeh has written, asking about Asher’s schooling. She asks Asher what she should tell him. His... (full context)

...will grow up—he is 11 years old. He explains that Asher does no honor to Aryeh with this behavior. The mashpia and Uncle Yitzchok also speak to Asher. Asher asks his... (full context)

...Asher goes to visit Yudel Krinsky, Yudel tells him that he is a “scandal”: “Your father journeys through Europe bringing Jews back to Torah, and here his own son refuses to... (full context)

...about the museum. Rivkeh says that she hopes God will help her not to hurt Aryeh. Asher’s painting has “taken us to Jesus. And to the way [non-Jews] paint women. Painting... (full context)

In the middle of April, Aryeh returns home. He looks “weary and gaunt.” He doesn’t greet Asher. He knows everything that’s... (full context)

Asher’s drawings “had touched something fundamental to [Aryeh’s] being.” He keeps referring to “that man,” refusing to say Jesus’s name. He asks Asher... (full context)

Later, when Aryeh is at a meeting with the Rebbe, Asher asks Rivkeh why Papa yells at her.... (full context)

...breakfast, Asher unthinkingly uses his fork as a drawing instrument. He’s suddenly aware that his father is squeezing his wrist. Aryeh squeezes so hard that Asher starts to cry. Aryeh is... (full context)

If Asher’s will makes him want to draw, Aryeh tells him, then it comes from the Other Side, and he must fight it. If... (full context)

By the next Shabbos, Aryeh is gentle and apologetic. Before synagogue the next morning, Rivkeh looks radiant. But Aryeh walks... (full context)

...intermediate days of Passover, Rivkeh tells Asher that he shouldn’t be frightened when she and Aryeh fight. People who love each other sometimes fight, and Aryeh yells because he’s frightened. He... (full context)

...he knows he can’t. Later, he asks his mother why they fought. Rivkeh explains that Aryeh wanted her to promise she wouldn’t let Asher go to the museum. She told Aryeh... (full context)

...menacing darkness” that fills the formerly beloved festival. He notices how gray and burdened his father looks. He knows that Aryeh has his own dream for which he needed “all his... (full context)

Asher chooses the two subjects Aryeh cares about most—Talmud and Bible—and begins to study them. He draws a bit less than... (full context)

In June, weeks pass without a letter from Aryeh. By the end of that month, Rivkeh is sick with worry. Asher finds her chanting... (full context)

...Berkshires. Asher paints, draws, and studies Talmud and Bible. His mother seems happy. When his father returns from Vienna in the fall, his eyes “glittered with achievement.” Yeshivos are opening in... (full context)

The following summer, Rivkeh sails to Europe to join Aryeh. She is working on her doctorate, and she misses Aryeh. That summer Asher lives with... (full context)

...introduces himself, the boy’s eyes narrow. He says that everyone knows the son of Reb Aryeh Lev. When Asher asks if his father helped the boy’s family escape Russia, the boy... (full context)

...of the material, but he enjoys the time spent with the mashpia. Before Asher’s meeting, Aryeh is “tense and apprehensive,” and he tells Asher, “Remember with whom you will be speaking.”... (full context)

Kahn sighs. He tells Asher that they’re all crazy. Asher’s father will become his enemy. But the Rebbe is clever. He tells Asher that he doesn’t... (full context)

When Asher gets home and tells his parents what happened, Aryeh is pained. Rivkeh “wavered apprehensively between my father’s pain and my dazed joy.” Aryeh bitterly... (full context)

Aryeh is pained all through Asher’s bar mitzvah celebration. But neither he nor anyone else dares... (full context)

...Bible passage and the paintings have to do with one another. He thinks of his father and the mashpia. (full context)

...at an emergency meeting with the Rebbe. When she gets home, she tells Asher that Aryeh won’t be home for Pesach and that nobody knows where he is. Asher is sure... (full context)

A week after Passover, they get word from Aryeh, who is safely in Vienna. Later, that summer, Rivkeh travels to Europe to be with... (full context)

Aryeh returns to the United States in the fall. He is gaunt, gray, and limping. When... (full context)

Later that fall, Rivkeh tells Asher that Aryeh needs her. She asks if Asher could move in with Uncle Yitzchok next year so... (full context)

That fall and winter, Rivkeh misses Aryeh and is lonely when Asher spends his evenings studying art reproductions in the library. She... (full context)

...that this summer, she will be moving to Europe for a year to be with Aryeh. She becomes angry when Asher pleads with her to stay. When Asher talks to Kahn... (full context)

...Asher prays fervently in the synagogue. He weeps on Yom Kippur when he remembers his father’s own weeping on the holy days. On Simchas Torah, he dances with a Torah scroll... (full context)

When Asher’s parents return at the end of March, Aryeh looks much healthier, strengthened by Rivkeh’s presence. However, he says little to Asher; there is... (full context)

...parents return to Europe, Jacob tells Asher that he, Jacob, has made an enemy of Aryeh. Aryeh is convinced that Asher is wasting his life, but Jacob says that nothing can... (full context)

...want to hurt anyone. He simply wants to paint. He wants to paint much as Aryeh wants to travel for the Rebbe, for the sake of “a truth I did not... (full context)

...living with his uncle’s large, noisy family, and he doesn’t want to live with his father. Finally, he relents. However, the coming months are filled with brooding for Asher. As he... (full context)

The following spring, Asher has another successful show. His father finishes his work abroad and is reassigned to work in the Ladover building. His parents... (full context)

...shared experience in which I was nonexistent.” They have private jokes and a “knowing intimacy.” Aryeh displays a reviewed vigor, and his success is respected by the Ladover community. Even Rivkeh... (full context)

Now that Aryeh has achieved so much, he is able to be “indifferent” and unthreatened by Asher’s art.... (full context)

Aryeh tries to talk with Asher about his painting. Asher explains that he doesn’t paint stories;... (full context)

...that Asher has no idea what it’s like “to be standing between you and your father.” (full context)

...returns to New York without his sidecurls, but still with his beard and ritual fringes. Aryeh seems relieved. Later, as they walk to the subway together, Rivkeh asks Asher why he... (full context)

...naked woman and a nude. A nude is an artist’s “personal vision” of a body. Aryeh maintains that displaying such things in public is still offensive. Why does Asher have to... (full context)

A few days later, Aryeh questions Asher about some of the artistic concepts mentioned in the reviews of Asher’s last... (full context)

Aryeh begins traveling for the Rebbe again. Rivkeh tells Asher that she thought she’d grown used... (full context)

...man in Rome, the man offers to give Asher a tour of the yeshiva his father built there. On his last day in the city, Asher calls him. As they drive... (full context)

...yeshiva whenever he likes. At dinner, Asher is repeatedly introduced as the son of Reb Aryeh Lev. Avraham asks Asher where he learned his French. When Asher tells him, Avraham smiles... (full context)

Asher also thinks about his reclusive grandfather. Had the mythic ancestor’s wanderings been passed down to him? Asher paints him, too—his studies,... (full context)

...had encouraged Asher’s drawing, kept herself alive by resuming her brother Yaakov’s work, and kept Aryeh alive by allowing him to resume his own journeys. He thinks about his mother’s endless... (full context)

...the cords of the blind and her legs tied to the vertical. He draws his father on the right, dressed for travel. He draws himself on the left, outfitted for painting.... (full context)

...through the window. She embraces him, weeping. She tells him about the work she and Aryeh are doing on campuses across the country. Campuses are filled with “chaos” and “nihilism,” she... (full context)

...exhibition. He tells her that there are no nudes in the paintings, so yes, his father can come. Rivkeh gives him a strange look. She keeps talking, but Asher has a... (full context)

The next morning, Rivkeh tells Asher that they know the Paris girl’s family and that Aryeh will give Asher his blessing. Asher does not say much; Rivkeh’s eyes are troubled. They... (full context)

Eventually, they come to the crucifixion paintings. Asher sees his father staring in puzzlement at the part he can see over the crowd. Silence descends on... (full context)

...explanation. She accepts his words, but she can never understand them or explain them to Aryeh, she tells him—the crucifixion, after all, was in a way responsible for Aryeh’s father’s murder. (full context)

...leave. When it’s time to go, his parents say goodbye at the door, and even Aryeh’s eyes look moist. Rivkeh tells him, “Have a safe journey, my Asher.” Asher goes outside... (full context)