Such a universe is in one sense impossible to conceive. There are literally no words to describe it. The best we can do it to call it ‘darkness.’ Within this realm of darkness, chaos reigns. Out of it, the darkness seeks to overcome the light, in part by infecting language itself. Stalin, for example, as part of the Sitra Achra kills Jewish writers, both because they are Jewish and because they write, and substitutes Soviet propaganda for divine truth. There are even Jewish Communists who persecute other Jews. Ultimately it is words that killed the writers, the millions of others in Russia, and in the Holocaust - laws, and commands, and secret memoranda, and judicial verdicts, all in the language made unsafe by the Sitra Achra. Asher explains that he is descended from a “ mythic ancestor,” the estate manager for a wealthy Russian nobleman. The nobleman had burned a village and killed people during a fit of drunkenness. After that, Asher’s ancestor began to travel, supporting Jewish scholarship and learning everywhere he went. As a child, Asher was taught that non-Jews—people of the sitra achra—behave like the Russian nobleman. Observant Jews, on the other hand, work to “bring the Master of the Universe into the world,” like Asher’s ancestor. Asher’s grandfather, an ingenious scholar, had also traveled as an emissary of the Ladover Rebbe, until he was brutally murdered by a Russian peasant. Unlike any of these ancestors, Asher, born in 1943 in Brooklyn, has a gift for drawing.

In Florence, the works of Michelangelo have a profound effect on Asher. As he travels in Italy and Paris, he meets with some of his father ’s Ladover connections and is moved to see the flourishing yeshivos Aryeh has established throughout his career. He decides to settle in Paris for a while. For the first time in years, he begins painting his mythic ancestor and scenes from his Brooklyn neighborhood. He also reflects on his mother ’s lifelong anguish, as she felt pulled between himself, Aryeh, and her own fears and desires. He works on two paintings, both of them portraying the Brooklyn apartment window in a way that evokes the crucifixion. In the second painting, he portrays his mother bound to the cruciform shape, her head divided into three segments looking upward and at the figures of himself and his father.A Jewish boy, only child to parents belonging to a strict Hasidic orthodox sect, is born with a gift for painting. (The sect is called Ladover in the book but wiki says it is the Lubavitch sect of Crown Heights, Brooklyn in which the author grew up.) The story is et in the 1950's. His mother encourages him to paint ‘pretty pictures’ but his strict father, a right-hand-man to the sect’s Rebbe, sees it as childish and from the ‘dark side.’ But his gift is so powerful that at age 13 even the Rebbe eventually gives the boy permission to take lessons from a famous Jewish but non-conforming painter within certain limits. which the painter ignores and has the child of ten years old painting nudes and crucifixions.

C’è una frase del Vangelo di Luca (Lc 9,25) che dice: “Che giova all’uomo guadagnare il mondo intero se poi perde se stesso?”. Potok was also a painter himself, and painted his own version of "The Brooklyn Crucifixion." It is here if you want to look at it, but I am protecting it as a spoiler since I personally find his verbal evocation comes across much more strongly. They’re not the truth, Papa; but they’re not lies, either.” How can art cross the boundary of truth and lie? Asher Lev introduces himself as “the notorious and legendary Lev of the Brooklyn Crucifixion.” He is also “an observant Jew.” Because Asher’s dual identity has generated gossip and myths, he will now offer a defense of himself. Asher's parents are also very lucid characters. Asher's mother is passionate and very torn between her devotion to her husband and to her son. The final climactic work of Asher truly captures his mother's character. His father was also very well portrayed. I found myself frustrated with him at times but also sympathizing with him. There was a section where Asher tries to explain art to his father, going into the technical artistic terms and phrases. That scene was a very profound description of the huge disparity between their two worlds.Why does Jacob Kahn try to warn Asher off his chosen route as an artist? How else does he counsel him about staying true to himself? What is it, do you think, that drives Asher to draw, both as a child and as an adult? Why is his father so against it? This book also has a lot of great detail about the art world. This is another realm in which I am an inexperienced traveler. I had a better understanding of art than Judaism, but there were still numerous names, periods, phrases and theories that I didn't understand directly. Considered one of Potok's best works, it has a sequel, The Gift of Asher Lev. The first "Brooklyn Crucifixion", a work by Asher which plays a central role in the novel's conclusion, is an actual painting by Potok, who was an accomplished artist as well as a novelist and rabbi; the second Crucifixion, which is described in the book as being superior to the first, does not have a real-life counterpart.

The Rebbe asks Asher's father to relocate to Vienna, which would make it easier to perform his work establishing yeshivas throughout Europe. Asher becomes very upset about this and refuses to move to Vienna, in spite of requests from his parents and teachers alike. Rivkeh ultimately decides to stay in Brooklyn with Asher while Aryeh moves to Vienna alone.

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This was a book I had a hard time finishing. It was too easily put down and, to be truthful, I didn't even like this book until about 3/4 of the way into it. Now, I emphatically say that it is one of the best books I have ever read. He has been told that he will be a great painter; so he reflects further: “Then be a great painter, Asher Lev; that will be the only justification for all the pain you will cause. But as a great painter I will cause pain again if I must. Then become a greater painter. But I will cause pain again. . . Master of the Universe, will I live this way all the rest of my life? Yes, came the whisper from the branches of the trees. Now journey with me, my Asher. Paint the anguish of all the world. Let people see the pain. But create your own moulds and your own play of forms for the pain. We must give a balance to the universe. The book is a thinly disguised depiction of the Lubavitch community. [9] "Brooklyn Parkway", with its heavy traffic and island promenades, is a reference to Eastern Parkway. However, contrary to popular opinion, the character of Yudel Krinsky is not meant to refer to Chaim Yehuda Krinsky, one of the assistants to Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.