My Name Is Asher Lev

In Chaim Potok’s novel My Name Is Asher Lev the title character Asher goes through the common struggles of a minority trying to find his identity in America. Adapting to Western culture often means Asher has to make a choice between the Western culture and his Jewish heritage. The choices that Asher often makes builds an ever-growing chasm between Asher and the community he was born to be a part of. Art is the ultimate symbol of Asher’s own identity and maturity. Asher’s drive to be a Western artist inevitably drives him away from his Jewish community. As a Jew, Asher is expected to follow in his father, Aryeh’s footsteps, and dedicate his life to the work of the Lord. However, living as Aryeh does is a future Asher is reluctant to embrace.

Instead, from a very young age, Asher aspires to be an artist. When Asher was only four and had just begun to draw, Aryeh chastises him for it and told him, “Your grandfather would not have liked you to waste so much time with foolishness” (12). Asher goes on to tell the reader that Aryeh “was indifferent to my drawing; he thought it something children did when they were very young and then outgrew” (12). From this time on, though Asher cares for his father, the distance between Asher and Aryeh grows. However, art is something that Asher never gave up. It is something he embraced with the help and partial support of his mother, Rikveh. Unfortunately, Rikveh fails to fully understand Asher’s art.

At one point in his life, she asks him why he does not draw pretty pictures. He tries to explain that art is not supposed to be pretty, that it is supposed to evoke emotions. Though Rikveh does not fully understand, she does support Asher’s decision to draw by allowing him to buy pencils and notebooks. In essence, Rikveh is feeding Asher’s need to find himself in the confusing world he lives in. In the world Asher lives in, everything must be done with the approval of the Rebbe. When the Rebbe decides Asher’s family is ready to move to Vienna, Asher tells everyone he does not want to go. Yudel Krinsky reminds Asher, “The Torah says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’” (103). Mrs. Rackover also tells Asher that he is “driving us all crazy with your pictures and your stubbornness” (115). Already, at the age of ten, Asher is being ostracized by his community.

Asher’s drive to find himself through his art is so powerful that he steals the paints and brushes that he cannot afford. Asher begins to hate his artistic gift, and he says, “The gift was making me ill and causing everyone around me to suffer – and I hated it, despised, it, wanted to burn and destroy it, felt toward it a mountainous rage” (148). After speaking to the Rebbe, Asher was officially given the permission to continue to study art. This marks a turning point in Asher’s life, the point in his life that invites him to enter the secular world as long as his life “is lived for the sake of heaven” (192). Soon Asher becomes the understudy of Jacob Kahn, who he had met in the waiting room of the Rebbe’s office. Jacob serves as Asher’s spiritual guide into the secular, pagan world. He encourages Asher to draw pictures of nude women and takes him to art exhibits for study.

During his time studying art, Aryeh and Rikveh are living a life of their own, a life that does not include Asher. Likewise, Asher’s life is becoming one of his own. While in Europe, Asher comes to an understanding of his father’s work and the work of his grandfather. In his apartment in Paris, he is forced to reach deep within himself for “memories of my own” (322). Asher realizes he has become separated from his community. However, for the first time in his life, he feels a close connection to his ancestors. He feels that he is to bring a balance to the world just as his ancestor had tried to do. After returning home, Asher visits his ill mentor, Jacob Kahn. Jacob commends Asher on his crucifixions that he has drawn. He tells Asher, “I sculptured a David. I am proud… I created a new David… A breathing David.” This alludes to Asher’s growth and maturity, for Asher has surpassed his teacher.

When Asher finally meets up with his parents, Aryeh tells him, “Wherever I travel now, there is always someone who knows your name. ‘Are you the father of Asher Lev, the painter?’ they ask me. It’s a very strange feeling. Asher Lev, the painter” (352-3). This alludes to a reversal of roles between Asher and his father. Several times in the first half of the book, people call Asher “Asher Lev son of Reb Aryeh Lev.” Now, Asher’s father is known for who Asher has become. Being an artist adds additional strain on the relationship between Asher and his father, and Asher and his community. Because of the stress put on the lives of all the people close to Asher, the Rebbe decides to send Asher to the yeshiva in Paris. He tells Asher that he is now alone. Throughout the novel, the drive to become a successful artist was also a quest for Asher to find himself. He was driven to become an artist by his gift, and this drive led Asher toward maturity and a sense of self.

I Desire Mercy, Not Sacrifice

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (NIV Genesis 2:2-3)

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)

The sabbath is defined as “a day of religious observance and abstinence from work.” It is the fourth commandment handed down to Christians and Jews by their common creator. It is a rule that many of Christians forget to follow on a weekly basis.

Many Christians see the sabbath as Sunday, but they are truly mistaken. We worship on Sunday because in worship we are celebrating our life and birth. We are celebrating the birth of the universe. Look very closely to the word Sun-day.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. (NIV Genesis 1:1-5)

Therefore, the sabbath would actually be on Saturday, as Sunday is the day that the Sun was created. Some faiths, including Christian faiths, do worship on Saturday. In their way of worship, they are keeping the day Holy. In Judaism, the sabbath is a sacred day, which they do not work, nor do they drive on Saturday. Many Catholic churches also worship on the sabbath, for that is when they often hold evening mass.

I do believe that there are many American Christians that overlook the "Keep it holy" part of our fourth commandment. Many Christians spend the wee hours of their Saturday mornings and late Saturday evenings partying it up. I have seen these same Christians in church, looking worse for wear, and fighting major headaches due to hangovers on Sunday mornings. This is the type of hypocrisy in Christian Americans that many critics of Christianity speak of.

As Christians, though, do we rest on the sabbath? Not always. Now there are certain professions where it is not possible to rest on each and every Saturday. These professions are law enforcement agencies, medical professions, and other similar civil service agencies. But in those professions, though the person is not resting, are they keeping the day Holy?

I am convinced that sacrificing your day of rest to be one of the body is Holy. If we sacrifice our day of rest to ensure the safety and welfare of others, are we not being the Lord's hands and feet in the world?

With that being said, I have seen many, many changes for American Christians in my lifetime. As a child there was one store in town that was open on Sundays, and most others were closed for the majority of the day on Saturdays. There were no restaurants opened on Sunday, and going downtown on Sunday meant walking through a ghost town. Today, most business excluding offices and such are opened on both Saturday and Sunday. Due to the economy, many Christians must work on the sabbath, as they need to on Sunday as well. However, I am not convinced that they are breaking God's law. Again, to sacrifice your day of rest in order to ensure the welfare and safety of others is a Christian act.

Jesus has taught us that one who has sacrificed for the sake of another is still keeping the sabbath.

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:1-12)

Do you believe that working for income on a Saturday and Sunday is keeping the sabbath? I do. I feel that a person who does such in order to provide food, shelter, and clothing to their families. I feel that the economy makes working on the sabbath necessary. We need to remember, as Christians, that the Bible was written for a different time and circumstances. Keeping the sabbath does not come before caring for your brothers and sisters, whether they be family or strangers.