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Ribbono Shel Olom/Master of the Universe
A yeshiva (plural yeshivos) is a Jewish educational institution. In the Ladover community, yeshiva education is single-sex. Asher attends yeshiva from around age six through his college years, studying both religious and “secular” subjects.
Yeshiva Quotes in My Name is Asher Lev
The My Name is Asher Lev quotes below are all either spoken by Yeshiva or refer to Yeshiva. 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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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?
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Get the entire My Name is Asher Lev LitChart as a printable PDF.
Yeshiva Term Timeline in My Name is Asher Lev
The timeline below shows where the term Yeshiva appears in My Name is Asher Lev. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...the sitra achra, she says, if Yaakov’s work remained incomplete. Soon Asher will be starting yeshiva. Aryeh could travel again. She begs Aryeh to let her call the college tomorrow. Aryeh...
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...Rebbe gives his permission for Rivkeh to start college. In September, Asher enters the Ladover yeshiva, his mother enters Brooklyn College, and Aryeh begins traveling for the Rebbe once again. Asher...
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Chapter 2
Asher starts school at the Ladover yeshiva. He is treated with special respect because of his father’s status as an emissary of...
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Chapter 3
...Vienna. Aryeh explains that they’re going to teach Ladover Jews all over Europe, opening new yeshivos in many cities. They will live in Vienna because it’s the center of Europe. He...
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Chapter 4
...away from Torah and from your people.” He tells Asher about the suppression of the yeshivos in Russia under Communism. Hasidic groups, like the Ladover, were the only ones who fought...
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...father was killed, he’d been making plans to travel to the Ukraine to start underground yeshivos. When his father was killed, Aryeh was 14, and that’s when the Rebbe’s father brought...
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Chapter 6
...drawings of Jesus and nudes. He has just spent half of the past year establishing yeshivos and teaching Torah all over Europe. Now he comes home and “discovered that his own...
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...happy. When his father returns from Vienna in the fall, his eyes “glittered with achievement.” Yeshivos are opening in Vienna and Paris. During Succos, Aryeh asks Asher if he might want...
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Chapter 7
...and explains that the Rebbe wants to meet with him, as he meets with all yeshiva students who are about to become bnai mitzvah. Asher starts meeting with the mashpia daily...
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Chapter 11
...continues studying with Jacob, painting, drawing, and sculpting. He continues making an effort with his yeshiva studies, too.
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At yeshiva, the registrar explains that the Rebbe has asked that Asher be enrolled in Russian, but...
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Asher continues painting and attending college and yeshiva. One day he and Jacob visit Anna Schaeffer’s gallery. As Asher admires the current exhibit,...
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Chapter 13
...the Jewish 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...
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...back to the hotel, there’s a message from Avraham Cutler, the head of the Paris yeshiva and the son of Asher’s old mashpia. On the way to the yeshiva, Asher asks...
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When they get to the yeshiva, Avraham Cutler tells Asher that six years ago, there was nothing here, but now there...
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Over the coming weeks, Asher paints in the apartment, eats meals in the yeshiva’s dining room, and attends its synagogue. Freed from “memories and roots,” Asher begins to reconnect...
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...to be incomplete?” He finally understands. Dreading what he must do, Asher prays at the yeshiva, sleeps, and prays again. He knows that his feeling of “incompleteness” would matter little to...
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...the painting is complete. Asher knows it is a good painting. He prays at the yeshiva and walks through Paris, realizing he wants to paint Brooklyn once again. He spends the...
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