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Shabbos
Ribbono Shel Olom is a Hebrew term meaning “Master of the Universe.” The characters in the novel frequently use both the Hebrew and English terms to refer to God.
Ribbono Shel Olom/Master of the Universe Quotes in My Name is Asher Lev
The My Name is Asher Lev quotes below are all either spoken by Ribbono Shel Olom/Master of the Universe or refer to Ribbono Shel Olom/Master of the Universe. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 4
Quotes
“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?”
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Chapter 6
Quotes
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.”
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“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.”
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Chapter 14
Quotes
“I understand,” he kept saying. “Jacob Kahn once explained it to me in connection with sculpture. I understand.” Then he said, “I do not hold with those who believe that all painting and sculpture is from the sitra achra. I believe such gifts are from the Master of the Universe. But they have to be used wisely, Asher. What you have done has caused harm. People are angry. They ask questions, and I have no answer to give them that they will understand. Your naked women were a great difficulty for me, Asher. But this is an impossibility.” He was silent for a long moment. I could see his dark eyes in the shadow cast by the brim of his hat. Then he said, “I will ask you not to continue living here, Asher Lev. I will ask you to go away.”
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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.
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Ribbono Shel Olom/Master of the Universe Term Timeline in My Name is Asher Lev
The timeline below shows where the term Ribbono Shel Olom/Master of the Universe appears in My Name is Asher Lev. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...Asher’s father always told him that his ancestor 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...
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...him, “It is a victory for the sitra achra to leave a task for the Ribbono Shel Olom unfinished.” Later, Asher goes to his room and tries and fails to draw, “feeling the...
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Chapter 2
...day. The next morning, his father leaves on a scheduled trip, because, Rivkeh says, “The Ribbono Shel Olom wanted him to go.”
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...staring out the 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.
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...exiled to Siberia. One of them (Asher’s grandfather) was murdered. The mashpia says that the Ribbono Shel Olom remembers these men’s suffering and that it will be rewarded in the next world.
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...you […] Didn’t it occur to you what it means to wait?” She asks, “ Ribbono Shel Olom […] What do You want from me?” Then she disappears into her room. Asher feels...
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Chapter 3
...Krinsky, Yudel says, “The dead do not return to life because a tyrant dies. The Ribbono Shel Olom was late.”
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...knows the people there and all the details of the neighborhood. He prays that the Ribbono Shel Olom will change the Rebbe’s mind. On Shabbos, after Asher is well, he asks his mother...
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Chapter 4
...focused on his drawing that he barely hears her and doesn’t respond. Rivkeh says, “ Ribbono Shel Olom , what are we going to do?”
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...that it’s up to people to take the first step toward a connection with the Master of the Universe . When that is done, the Master of the Universe moves in and “[widens] the...
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Chapter 5
...mashpia mean he’s expected to stifle his gift? If his gift is truly from the Ribbono Shel Olom , then why is it less important than his father’s work?
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...well. Everything will be 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.”
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Chapter 9
...that he is still “not reconciled” to what Asher is doing. He says that the Ribbono Shel Olom is “sometimes unkind.” He doesn’t understand why God couldn’t have kept the sitra achra away...
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Chapter 11
...refuses. Later, the Rebbe himself wants to see him. He tells Asher that sometimes, the Master of the Universe gives glimpses into his greater plan. He tells Asher that one of these glimpses is...
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Chapter 14
...wanders through the apartment, alone with his memories. He remembers his childish belief that the Master of the Universe gave him the power to “make the world pretty” for his mother. Around midnight, he...
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...Yudel Krinsky shoveling snow outside his store, and they talk inside. Yudel says that the Master of the Universe has been good to him. He has a daughter and is expecting another child. He...
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...climax of the show. Asher is stunned by their raw power. He prays to the Master of the Universe for forgiveness for “[emulating]…Your ability to create out of nothing.”
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...“creativity was [both] demonic and divine,” and that he is both “the child of the Master of the Universe and the Other Side.” He knows that he cannot help hurting those he loves with...
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