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Rivkeh Lev
The mythic ancestor is Asher’s great-great-great grandfather on his father Aryeh’s side. From early childhood, Asher hears stories of his ancestor’s exploits—he initially worked as the overseer for a Russian nobleman’s estates, enriching himself and the nobleman in the process. After the nobleman burned down a peasant village, however, the ancestor began traveling the world to promote holiness and Torah study. Asher always hears of his ancestor as an example of holiness as opposed to non-Jewish wickedness. He also dreams vividly of his ancestor, especially after experiencing conflict between his artistic goals and his family’s and community’s expectations of him as an observant Jew. His image of his ancestor is usually ominous and threatening, casting judgment on Asher for wasting time. At the end of the book, however, Asher reinterprets his ancestor’s story, imagining that he traveled in order to atone for his complicity in the nobleman’s violence. The ancestor becomes milder and gentler in Asher’s dreams, and Asher imagines that he is joining his ancestor in bringing greater balance to the world.
Mythic Ancestor Quotes in My Name is Asher Lev
The My Name is Asher Lev quotes below are all either spoken by Mythic Ancestor or refer to Mythic Ancestor. 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:
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Chapter 4 Quotes
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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Chapter 13 Quotes
The nobleman was a despotic goy, a degenerate whose debaucheries grew wilder as he grew wealthier. The Jew, my mythic ancestor, made him wealthier. Serfs were on occasion slain by that nobleman during his long hours of drunken insanity, and once houses were set on fire by a wildly thrown torch and a village was burned. You see how a goy behaves, went the whispered word to the child. A Jew does not behave this way. But the Jew had made him wealthy, wondered the child. Is not the Jew also somehow to blame? The child had never given voice to that question. Now the man who had once been the child asked it again and wondered if the giving and the goodness and the journeys of that mythic ancestor might have been acts born in the memories of screams and burning flesh. A balance had to be given the world; the demonic had to be reshaped into meaning. Had a dream-haunted Jew spent the rest of his life sculpting form out of the horror of his private night?
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Mythic Ancestor Character Timeline in My Name is Asher Lev
The timeline below shows where the character Mythic Ancestor appears in My Name is Asher Lev. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
Asher’s ancestor had transformed the Russian nobleman’s estates into immense wealth for both himself and the nobleman....
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Asher heard about this ancestor so often that he began to appear in Asher’s dreams: “a man of mythic dimensions”...
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...say his bedtime prayer and bids him goodnight. That night, Asher dreams of his mythic ancestor, raging and storming, telling Asher he’s “wasting time.” Asher wakes up and sees his father...
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Chapter 2
...them about Jewish persecution under the Communists. He reminds Asher vaguely of his “thunderous mythic ancestor.” He is taught religious subjects in Yiddish and secular subjects in English. While some of...
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Chapter 3
That night, Asher dreams of his mythic ancestor, “pounding his way through the trees […] thunder in his voice.” Asher wakes up and...
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Chapter 4
That night, Asher dreams of his mythic ancestor, “endlessly journeying.” His ancestor says thunderously, “And what are you doing with your time, my...
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Chapter 5
...to speak to Asher the next morning. Asher falls asleep and dreams of his mythic ancestor, “[thundering] with rage.”
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Chapter 6
...Sometimes Asher lies awake and pictures his father journeying across Europe much like the mythic ancestor. He feels horrified at what he’s done and repeatedly promises himself that the next morning,...
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Chapter 9
...refuse to consider the possibility of Rivkeh leaving New York. Asher dreams about his mythic ancestor again and, overwhelmed by confused feelings, struggles to paint.
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...time for him to concern himself with others’ needs. He dreams again of his mythic ancestor shouting at him, and the next day, he falls asleep in class and is mocked...
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Chapter 11
...and can only bring to life through his art. He dreams again of his mythic ancestor.
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Chapter 13
...As he alternates between these works of art, he begins to dream of his mythic ancestor once again, “but he was less thunderous than he had ever been.”
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The night Asher arrives in Paris, he dreams again of his mythic ancestor, “thundering his rage.” As he eats breakfast the next morning, he draws the Pietá on...
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Asher thinks of his mythic ancestor. As a child, he was told stories about the Russian nobleman whom his ancestor had...
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Asher also thinks about his reclusive grandfather. Had the mythic ancestor’s wanderings been passed down to him? Asher paints him, too—his studies, his journeys, and even...
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Chapter 14
...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...
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...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.”
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