Rivkeh Lev Character Analysis in My Name is Asher Lev

Rivkeh is Aryeh’s wife and Asher’s mother. As a young woman, Rivkeh is like a light-hearted older sister to Asher, but after her older brother Yaakov dies suddenly, she suffers a psychological and emotional crisis. She begins to heal by pursuing her brother’s incomplete work of studying Russian affairs, eventually assisting Aryeh in his work among Ladover communities in Europe. She finds a measure of joy and fulfillment after achieving her doctorate and joining her husband abroad. However, because of the trauma of Yaakov’s death, she suffers great fear and anxiety whenever either Aryeh or Asher is away from her. She is more accepting of Asher’s art than Aryeh is, but she struggles to mediate between Asher’s aspirations as an artist and Aryeh’s anger and grief over his son’s path. In adulthood, Asher begins to appreciate his mother’s sufferings more deeply, but his controversial efforts to express them through the Brooklyn Crucifixion paintings only cause Rivkeh greater pain.

Rivkeh Lev Quotes in My Name is Asher Lev

The My Name is Asher Lev quotes below are all either spoken by Rivkeh Lev or refer to Rivkeh 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, are you drawing pretty things? Are you drawing sweet, pretty things?”

I was not drawing pretty things. I was drawing twisted shapes, swirling forms, in blacks and reds and grays. I did not respond.

“Asher, are you drawing birds and flowers and pretty things?”

“I can draw you birds and flowers, Mama.”

“You should draw pretty things, Asher.”

“Shall I draw you a bird, Mama?”

“You should make the world pretty, Asher. Make it sweet and pretty. It’s nice to live in a pretty world.”

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

Page Number and Citation: 17

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:

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:

Rivkeh Lev Character Timeline in My Name is Asher Lev

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

...did this in order to “bring the Master of the Universe into the world.” His mother told him it was so that his ancestor could “find people in need and […]... (full context)

Asher’s mother is descended from a different Eastern European Hasidic family, all of them great scholars. Asher... (full context)

Creativity, Self-Expression, and Truth Theme Icon

When Asher was growing up, his mother had seemed more like an older sister; she was just 19 when he was born.... (full context)

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

Asher vaguely remembers the January week that his mother was taken to the hospital; he was six. There had been a phone call, and... (full context)

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

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

One day, Rivkeh shows a flicker of recognition and asks Asher if he is drawing “sweet, pretty things.”... (full context)

About two weeks after Rivkeh’s return home, Asher finds her lying in bed, looking “shrunken” and “sallow.” He’s come to... (full context)

At one point, Rivkeh’s sister, Leah, comes to visit and tells her she is neglecting Asher and that the... (full context)

...told him that people in Russia are harming Jews. That night, Aryeh tries to get Rivkeh to eat supper with them, but she refuses. Later, Asher is awakened by the sound... (full context)

...Aryeh looks at the drawing but doesn’t say anything. At supper that night, Asher tells Rivkeh about the drawing. When Rivkeh asks if it was a pretty drawing, Asher replies, “No,... (full context)

Rivkeh’s eyes narrow, and she whispers to Asher that he “should make the world pretty.” Asher... (full context)

Asher keeps asking his mother when she’s going to get well. The next thing he knows, he feels “something tearing... (full context)

...several children. He invites the family to his house for Passover, but Aryeh explains that Rivkeh can’t leave the house. Asher’s uncle tells Aryeh he should talk to the Rebbe. Aryeh... (full context)

As spring progresses, Asher sometimes spends whole days sitting in the living room with his mother and watching the sunlight change as it moves across the room. One day, Asher struggles... (full context)

That night, Rivkeh joins the family for supper. She asks Asher about his drawings. Then, she asks Aryeh,... (full context)

The next day, Rivkeh sleeps all day. That night, she finds Asher and Aryeh in the living room and... (full context)

Asher vividly remembers lying awake that night, feeling connected to his mother’s pain and hearing her angry words as if they were “demonic words, from the sitra... (full context)

The Rebbe gives his permission for Rivkeh to start college. In September, Asher enters the Ladover yeshiva, his mother enters Brooklyn College,... (full context)

...special respect because of his father’s status as an emissary of the Rebbe and his mother’s illness, as well as the fact that Rivkeh is one of the few Ladover women... (full context)

During these years, Asher’s “gift lay buried.” When his mother asks him why he’s stopped drawing, Asher claims that he hates it—“it’s from the sitra... (full context)

...Hasidic bungalow colony in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. Aryeh comes up during the weekends. Mostly, Rivkeh seems happy during these years, although occasionally the “dead look” will return to her eyes.... (full context)

...1952, Aryeh arrives at the bungalow community, looking as though he’s in pain. He tells Rivkeh, “They shot the writers.” He says it’s the work of the sitra achra. “I shouldn’t... (full context)

...that there is so much work to be done in Europe. Later, Asher asks his mother about what happened. She explains that Stalin ordered Jewish writers to be shot. Asher asks... (full context)

One snowy Shabbos afternoon, Asher and his mother sit in the living room and talk. Asher asks if Siberia has this much snow,... (full context)

...use this to “start a blood bath.” He goes to a meeting with the Rebbe. Rivkeh fears that this means Aryeh will begin traveling more often. (full context)

Later that week, Rivkeh asks Asher why he didn’t tell her that he’s been visiting Yudel Krinsky’s store. Asher... (full context)

After the service, Aryeh goes to bed with a fever. Rivkeh calls the doctor, even though Aryeh insists it’s “foolishness.” The doctor comes and prescribes antibiotics... (full context)

...would, or they might even shoot him. At home, they eat a celebratory dinner because Rivkeh did well on her Russian history test. But as it starts to snow heavily, Rivkeh... (full context)

...Asher a long time to walk home. When he reaches his street, he sees his mother at the window. When she meets him at the door, she screams at him. She... (full context)

The next morning, Rivkeh tells Asher that he must remember to return home at a reasonable time, and he... (full context)

...store after school, Yudel says that “There are many Stalins in Russia.” But that night, Rivkeh says that while Yudel has a point, Stalin’s death does make a difference for Jews. (full context)

The following Shabbos, while Aryeh is attending the Rebbe’s afternoon talk, Rivkeh has a talk with Asher. She tells Asher that they might move to Vienna. There... (full context)

...Olom will change the Rebbe’s mind. On Shabbos, after Asher is well, he asks his mother about Yudel Krinsky’s visit. Rivkeh says that Yudel was never there. On Monday, Aryeh comes... (full context)

...questions about Vienna—where he will study, what languages are spoken there. Later, he tells his mother he is afraid. He doesn’t want to fly, and he can’t speak German. Later, Rivkeh... (full context)

...afraid to walk to school by himself. “It’s not a pretty world, Mama,” he tells Rivkeh. (full context)

...charcoal, bought at Yudel Krinsky’s store, to add depth to the portrait of Stalin. His mother comes in and admires the drawing, though she agrees with Asher that “it isn’t pretty.”... (full context)

That night, Aryeh tells Asher he needs to stop “this foolishness.” At bedtime, Rivkeh tells Asher that he’s hurting his father by behaving this way. Asher tells her, “I... (full context)

The following week, Asher works on a portrait of his mother. Rivkeh asks Asher why he draws: “What does it mean to you, my Asher? […]... (full context)

Aryeh pauses in his Shabbos hymns to praise Asher’s drawing of Rivkeh. Then he says that Asher has a gift. It might be from God, or it... (full context)

At bedtime, Asher tells his mother that he, too, is “a Jewish life” who’s precious in God’s eyes, and doesn’t someone... (full context)

...eyes. He spends the day drawing a series of pictures of the pair. When his mother sees the drawings, her eyes grow moist, and she leaves in silence. Asher notices that... (full context)

At bedtime, Rivkeh asks if Asher understands what his father told him—“Do you understand what it means to... (full context)

...continues drawing. Many of the drawings include books and buildings burning, including the Ladover headquarters. Rivkeh takes Asher to the family doctor, but he can find nothing wrong with Asher. Rivkeh... (full context)

...Asher gets home, it’s almost dark. He didn’t realize how much time had passed. His mother’s face is frightened, and her voice is strained. She tries to get Asher to eat... (full context)

...harmful and a waste of time. He’s never spoken to his father that way before. Rivkeh tells him he mustn’t be disrespectful. Though his voice is “tremulous with anger,” Aryeh just... (full context)

When Asher gets home, Mrs. Rackover tells him she had just called the police. Rivkeh has gone to bed, sick with fear. Aryeh is on a trip to Washington. Asher... (full context)

...store. He steals five tubes of oil paint and other supplies. He doesn’t tell his mother why he is home late, and she doesn’t ask. (full context)

...Asher goes to the museum for the rest of the afternoon. Mrs. Rackover and his mother say nothing to him about it. When Asher knows that his father will be home... (full context)

...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 his... (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.... (full context)

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

...all right, my son. We are doing the work of the Master of the Universe.” Rivkeh cries and says over and over, “Have a safe journey, my husband.” (full context)

...at what he’s done and repeatedly promises himself that the next morning, he will tell Rivkeh that he wants to go to Vienna. But when morning comes, he can never do... (full context)

...Aryeh, Asher finally begins to draw him—reading the newspaper, sitting on the parkway, walking with Rivkeh—“in all the small and quiet ways I had never thought to draw him before.” Asher... (full context)

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

Rivkeh’s bookshelves begin to fill with volumes on Russian history. She writes many papers for her... (full context)

One day, Rivkeh brings home a gift for Asher—12 tubes of oil paints, brushes, an easel, canvases, and... (full context)

One January night, Rivkeh comes into Asher’s room as he’s working on a painting of Yudel Krinsky. Aryeh has... (full context)

...with this behavior. The mashpia and Uncle Yitzchok also speak to Asher. Asher asks his mother, “What do they all want from me?” She tells Asher that a boy his age... (full context)

When Asher is off school for Purim, Rivkeh accompanies him to the Parkway Museum. Asher likes seeing the huge statue of Moses in... (full context)

When they look at some paintings containing nudes, Rivkeh explains that she’s embarrassed to stand in front of these paintings, and that it’s against... (full context)

Later, Rivkeh and Asher talk more about the museum. Rivkeh says that she hopes God will help... (full context)

...to him how strange he must have looked. When Asher gets home and shows his mother his drawings, Rivkeh is horrified. “Do you know how much Jewish blood has been spilled... (full context)

...can draw the figures from memory. He doesn’t show any of those drawings to his mother. Rivkeh is busy preparing for Passover and writing her master’s dissertation, so she doesn’t ask... (full context)

...In the coming days, he continues to shout at Asher and even to fight with Rivkeh. (full context)

Later, when Aryeh is at a meeting with the Rebbe, Asher asks Rivkeh why Papa yells at her. She explains that he thinks she’s failing in her responsibilities... (full context)

...he doesn’t, next he’ll “become a goy. Better you should not have been born.” When Rivkeh gasps, Aryeh tells her, “We must fight against the Other Side, Rivkeh […] Otherwise it... (full context)

By the next Shabbos, Aryeh is gentle and apologetic. Before synagogue the next morning, Rivkeh looks radiant. But Aryeh walks to synagogue without Asher. During the first Passover seder, Aryeh... (full context)

Later, on one of the intermediate days of Passover, Rivkeh tells Asher that he shouldn’t be frightened when she and Aryeh fight. People who love... (full context)

...promise himself he’ll go to Vienna, but 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... (full context)

...bit less than before. He uses the memory of his parents’ quarrels as motivation. His mother, the mashpia, and his teachers are pleased. (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 Psalms in front of the window in... (full context)

They spend summer in the 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... (full context)

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

...is “tense and apprehensive,” and he tells Asher, “Remember with whom you will be speaking.” Rivkeh looks proud. (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 tells Rivkeh that... (full context)

At the end of January, Rivkeh takes Asher to the Museum of Modern Art so that he can study Guernica. She... (full context)

When Rivkeh gets home, she brings Asher a book that a professor at her university gave her.... (full context)

...“freed himself from his family, his nation, his race.” The next morning, Asher tells his mother that he doesn’t think he wants to free himself in that way. (full context)

...Kahn calls. He tells Asher to bring his Guernica drawings and any others he wants. Rivkeh wants to accompany him into Manhattan the first time, but Asher refuses. He stays up... (full context)

...after Passover, they get word from Aryeh, who is safely in Vienna. Later, that summer, Rivkeh travels to Europe to be with her husband, and Asher moves into Uncle Yitzchok’s house.... (full context)

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

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

Rivkeh continues to bring up plans for next year. She tells Asher that it might be... (full context)

Rivkeh tells Asher that this summer, she will be moving to Europe for a year to... (full context)

As Rivkeh defends her dissertation and prepares for the journey to Europe, she seems “filled with new... (full context)

...in the ocean. It reminds Asher painfully of his summers in the Berkshires with his mother. In the afternoons, they paint. In the evenings, they often walk through the art galleries... (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 “a permanent high wall of uncertainty... (full context)

...Aryeh displays a reviewed vigor, and his success is respected by the Ladover community. Even Rivkeh has put on weight and looks “luminous.” (full context)

...indignation about the harsh critic and says that he’s glad Asher’s work “didn’t shame us.” Rivkeh asks Asher about his next show—will there be nudes? Asher says yes. Rivkeh says that... (full context)

Later, Rivkeh approaches Asher to talk about a neighborhood family with a daughter. When Asher realizes what... (full context)

That summer, Rivkeh tries to get Asher to come to the Berkshires for a couple of weeks. Asher... (full context)

...beard and ritual fringes. Aryeh seems relieved. Later, as they walk to the subway together, Rivkeh asks Asher why he must paint nudes. Asher explains that he is an artist. Rivkeh... (full context)

...He could not even ask intelligent questions.” Eventually, they give up the discussion as futile. Rivkeh asks Asher if he is still seeing Jacob Kahn. Asher says that he hasn’t recently.... (full context)

Aryeh begins traveling for the Rebbe again. Rivkeh tells Asher that she thought she’d grown used to this: “How many windows have I... (full context)

...the Pietá from memory and is horrified to notice that the figure of Mary resembles Rivkeh. When Asher connects with the Jewish man in Rome, the man offers to give Asher... (full context)

...can see Picasso’s old studio. The building is dilapidated. Before he leaves, Asher draws his mother’s profile in the dust of the adjacent square. He isn’t sure why he feels the... (full context)

...studies, his journeys, and even his gruesome death. He thinks about his father during his mother’s illness, especially his torment at being unable to travel. He wonders if that same impulse... (full context)

Asher begins to understand something more of his mother’s anguish over the years. She had stood “between two different ways of giving meaning to... (full context)

...the Brooklyn apartment window and the slanted horizontal of its Venetian blind. He draws his mother behind those lines. Afterward, he feels “vaguely unclean, as if I had betrayed a friend.” (full context)

...doesn’t “reflect fully the anguish and torment” he had wanted to convey. He remembers his mother once saying, “Can you understand what it means for something to be incomplete?” He finally... (full context)

...the horizontal and vertical from the Brooklyn apartment window. This time, however, he draws his mother with her arms tied to the horizontal with the cords of the blind and her... (full context)

...Master of the Universe gave him the power to “make the world pretty” for his mother. Around midnight, he finally calls Rav Dorochoff and learns that his parents are attending a... (full context)

...fact that his paintings will hurt people he loves. Asher goes home and sees his mother looking down at him through the window. She embraces him, weeping. She tells him about... (full context)

As they drink coffee together, Rivkeh asks Asher about his exhibition. He tells her that there are no nudes in the... (full context)

The next morning, Rivkeh tells Asher that they know the Paris girl’s family and that Aryeh will give Asher... (full context)

...that museums have bought some of Asher’s work, his eyes “glittered with pride.” But when Rivkeh hears this, she just gives Asher the same “strange troubled look.” (full context)

...three of them move in front of the paintings and stare at their own faces. Rivkeh shudders. Aryeh stiffens when he reads the titles of the works. He gives Asher a... (full context)

...to him about the paintings. But when an unkind review is published in the Times, Rivkeh checks on him, and Asher finally gets her to listen to his explanation. She accepts... (full context)

...returning to Paris. He also might go to Russia. When Asher tells his parents, his mother cries. He books a flight for the following night and prepares to leave. When it’s... (full context)