IT’S JOURNAL #7, ASHER LEV!

Chapter 7 of My Name is Asher Lev, is comparably, rather short and compact compared to most of the other chapters. Nonetheless, it is obviously also a very important one, as it marks a turning point in the story. It seems that I’ve said just about every chapter thus far that there was a turning point in the story, but this one is for sure. (Of course not all my "turning points" have been false, it’s just it seems looking back on them they were more like major stepping stones than turning points.) Anyhow, this is obviously quite an important chapter, although I was disappointed by it’s shocker end sentence thing. It just didn’t shock me.

Before I try to figure out what exactly the new development means, I should probably figure out exactly what the heck happened. I have to admit, what happened is a bit of a mystery to me. The things I have figured out is this: Asher’s parents, the Rebbe, the entire community more or less giving up on Asher being strictly a Hasidic, perfect Jew. I believe the weird new artistic guy, Jacob Kahn, who also seems to have been a Jew, is going to more or less become Asher’s new painting helper/mentor or something of that sort. And Asher will somehow, probably through his art as he has already done, work with ideas etc. which are Christian. The strange thing about it is that, since the Rebbe approved of it, or more accurately seems to have a part in making this new development come true, nobody acts like it is wrong anymore. The Christian drawing etc. is suddenly OK, because the Rebbe said Asher could do it. Asher’s dad isn’t "happy" about it, but there is no argument at all etc. If it had happened without the Rebbe, Asher’s dad would probably go crazy again. It is almost as if, the Rebbe, has released Asher of his religion. It’s as if Asher was no longer a Hasidic Jew at the end of the chapter. Obviously this is not true because he still celebrated his bar mitzvah, but nonetheless it’s very strange. As one reads, after seeing all the struggle between Asher and his father over similar but smaller things, it seems odd it can be settled so quickly, and without any protest whatsoever, with a nod from the Rebbe. It is hard to find someone in the Christian religion with such power. Not even the pope commands that type of "respect" if one wishes to call it that.

In short I found the chapter just plain hard to follow exactly, it was a rather mysterious chapter and I think it was supposed to be. I was just disappointed that the shocker sentence wasn’t much of a shocker.