MY NAME IS ASHER LEV
Chapter 8
Andrew Beck
Period 7 2/24/99
Mr. Luizzi
Chapter eight begins with the real introduction to Jacob Kahn. He is not presented as a very compassionate man but neither a strict and mean man. Instead he is portrayed as a serious no-nonsense man who does not want to waste his time. He knows that he is taking a chance by taking Asher in as a student, yet he trusts the Rebbe. Jacob Kahn also knows that he is going to become the enemy of Reb Aryeh Lev by going against his wishes. Kahn knows that Asher’s father wants to raise his son in the tradition of his family.
Asher is finally crossing the bridge from his small world on his street and his apartment to the vast world of art that will take very far from just New York City. Jacob Kahn is taking Asher not only to the world of art but to the world of goyim. Goyim is something that most Hasids do not value. Even Asher feels odd about reading the goyim Bible. Reading that Jews killed Jesus. He describes himself as feeling ”unclean”. Asher also feels very foreign when entering the city. He notices that the farther into the city he goes, the more eyes stare at him. Even in Jacob Kahn’s studio Asher feels out of place. Anna Shaeffer can’t stop staring at Asher’s skull cap and side curls. In the immense studio, Asher walks and glances at all the artwork probably feeling incapable of such things. It is only when he read the book his mother had brought to him does his confidence level rise.
After leafing through the book Rivkeh attained from one of her professors Asher realizes that he has many of the attributes of a true artist. One passage states that the artist must study intensely the work of others to not make the same mistakes and go forth with that knowledge to better their art and its personal value to you. Other passages are similar stating that an artist should be intoxicated with the idea of the thing he wants to express. Asher has gone through great lengths to study the artwork of others. After analyzing Guernica, Asher can draw the entire painting by hand! The last passage Asher reads twice. It says that an artist must free himself from his family, his nation and his race. The artist must be rebel and a “universal without patriotism among other things. This demonstrates to Asher that he has a serious decision to make. He can decide not to follow his dream of becoming an artist, because if he does he must go all the way. There is no point of return. Once Asher enters the world of goyim, as Kahn says, there is no way back.
Asher is torn with this problem. It seems as if the very people who are helping him are trying to turn him around and send him back home. Anna Schaeffer tells Asher that he is “entering the wrong world.” That “this world will destroy you, art is not for people who want to make the world holy.” Even Jacob Kahn tells Asher that he is trying to frighten him, that he wants to see Asher go back to Brooklyn and remain a nice Jewish boy. Jacob Kahn wants to make certain that this is not a mistake and that if Asher goes through with it, he goes the whole nine yards.