My Name is Asher Lev: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

Asher arrives home in a snowstorm and finds the apartment empty. He 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 finally calls Rav Dorochoff and learns that his parents are attending a campus conference in Chicago.

The next day, Asher walks along the parkway in the snow. He prays in the synagogue and is warmly greeted. He talks with the mashpia, who is now stooped and elderly. Later he finds 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 looks old and tired to Asher. Then Asher stops by his uncle’s store and greets him. Uncle Yitzchok asks if he should come to the exhibition. Asher assures him there are no naked women in the paintings, but doesn’t know how to tell him that he will see crucifixions.

At home, Asher calls Anna Schaeffer and learns that most of his paintings, including the crucifixions, have already been sold. She also tells him that Jacob Kahn is recovering from  major surgery. Asher thinks about how quickly everyone ages. He feels very tired and falls asleep. He dreams of his mythic ancestor, “bent with grief.” His ancestor “smiled sadly and beckoned”: “My precious Asher, will you and I walk together now through the centuries?”

Asher wakes up and takes the subway to Manhattan. He and Anna talk about the upcoming show; she tries to talk to him about complicated tax matters, but he is distracted by the 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 the work she and Aryeh are doing on campuses across the country. Campuses are filled with “chaos” and “nihilism,” she tells him, and many poorly taught Jews are involved, “their heads […] filled with the ideas of the sitra achra.”

As they drink coffee together, Rivkeh asks Asher about his 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 hard time listening. Then Aryeh comes home and embraces Asher. They continue to talk about his parents’ work on college campuses and about Asher’s growing fame. Aryeh remarks that perhaps Asher’s gift “is not from the sitra achra.” He asks Asher why he looks so pale.

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 walk together to the subway, and Asher goes to the Kahns’ apartment. Jacob Kahn’s face looks sunken, and he is “sickly pale.” Asher struggles to approach him. Jacob thinks at first that Asher’s visit is a dream. He compliments Asher’s crucifixion paintings. He says they are great works and “culminations”; after this, Asher will have to do something new. Asher agrees. Jacob says that he is proud to have sculpted a new “breathing David.” Before they part, he tells Asher to become a great painter, as it’s “the only justification for all the pain your art will cause.”

At Shabbos dinner, Asher’s father sings hymns exultantly. He feels satisfied with his life and happily anticipates new challenges in his university work. Asher doesn’t know what to do. At the synagogue service, he prays for a miracle. He wonders how he could possibly explain the crucifixion paintings to his father. He knows his father will not understand the problem of needing an “aesthetic mold.” He will only see the crucifixion and, with it, “rivers of Jewish blood.” But as they walk home together from the synagogue, Asher doesn’t broach the subject. When Aryeh hears 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.”

Asher spends an anguished night unable to sleep. He has a quiet, ordinary breakfast with his parents and is still unable to warn them about what they will see at the gallery. He watches sunlight shining on them from the window and then dresses for the exhibition.

When Asher arrives at the gallery, he feels overpowered by the sight of about 60 paintings of his family and neighborhood, tastefully hung in the huge gallery. It feels as if someone else has painted them. Anna has placed the Brooklyn Crucifixion paintings just before the elevator, the 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.”

Anna tells Asher that there’s a bidding war over some of his paintings. Asher can barely listen as Anna introduces him to prospective buyers and quotes the huge numbers his work is likely to bring in. There are such crowds that they have to open the gallery doors early. As Asher circulates among the crowd, he can only think of his parents. They finally arrive, looking bewildered. Asher moves through the exhibit with them. Gradually, he notices that people are staring at his parents and whispering.

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 the crowd as the 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 look of “awe and rage and bewilderment and sadness.” Asher remembers seeing this same look when he was a small boy, using cigarette ash to create an image of his mother. The look says, “Who are you?” Aryeh slowly and silently leads Rivkeh out of the exhibit. Asher follows them. On the street, Aryeh hails a cab. Rivkeh tearfully tells Asher, “There are limits, Asher.” She doesn’t want to speak to him further. Aryeh never looks at Asher as they get into the cab and drive away.

Back upstairs, Anna congratulates Asher on the exhibit, telling him, “The apprentice has become a master.” The next day, his parents go to Uncle Yitzchok’s house and do not eat with him. Asher reads a friendly review of his work in the Times. Over the coming week, more stories appear, along with photos of Asher and his parents. There are comments, some of them harsh, from Catholic leaders about Asher’s use of the crucifix. At Shabbos the following week, people turn their backs on Asher in the synagogue. Friends and relatives look at him with bewilderment and anger.

Asher’s parents refuse to speak 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 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.

Rav Dorochoff calls, requesting that Asher come immediately for a meeting with the Rebbe. When Asher gets there, Rav Dorochoff is angry and brusque. In his office, the Rebbe gives Asher a “long burning gaze.” He has read everything in the papers, he tells Asher; he understands. And  he does not agree with those who attribute art to the sitra achra. But these gifts must be used wisely, he goes on, and Asher’s actions have caused harm. The Rebbe cannot explain Asher’s work to his people in a way they will understand. Therefore, the Rebbe must ask Asher to go away. He encourages Asher to move to the Ladover community in Paris. Asher has crossed a boundary, and the Rebbe cannot help him here.

After the meeting, Asher walks for hours along the parkway, “along streets that had once been my world but were now cold and gone from me.” He considers the interplay of the demonic and divine in his work, concluding that “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 his work; rather, he must simply strive to become an ever greater painter. He senses his mythic ancestor telling him, “Paint the anguish of all the world […] but create your own molds.”

Asher calls Anna Schaeffer and tells her that he is 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 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 and gets into a cab. As the cab drives down the street, he turns around and sees his parents watching him through the living room window.