My Name is Asher Lev is a novel by Chaim Potok. It is based on a boy named Asher Lev and his years of growing up and his love for the arts. .
The book also focuses on what Asher loved the most which is arts and paintings. Asher was very talented in painting and drawing; he loved the arts deeply too. Art was a way of Asher expressing his feeling, whenever he felt unhappy he would just start drawing. Asher's drawings would sometimes get him in trouble with his family, community and religion. .
Asher lived in a Jewish community, it was a Ladover Hasidic community. Everyone in Asher's community was close like a big family and Rebbe was their leader who advised them. Asher lived with his father, Aryeh, and his mother, Rivkeh. Aryeh was an emissary of the community, so he was a very important man to the community. Sometimes they would have to move away from their home because of his job. Asher would get depressed and wouldn't want to go. So he would talk with the Rebbe about not going and Asher and his mother would stay behind. But Asher's mother would sometimes miss her husband and the Rebbe advised her to go meet her husband while Asher stayed behind with his Uncle Yitzchok. While they were gone he met Jacob Kahn, a very good artist, and got even more involved in art. Kahn mentored him in his art skills, while his Uncle Yitzchok also pushed him by making his attic into an art studio for him. .
After years passed, Asher's parents came back from Europe. He was then in college. When his parents came back, he found it weird staying with them. So he then began to travel and go off and pursue his love of art even more. He went to Florence and he loved the artwork there. He especially loves Michelangelo's drawing called the Pieta and he was fascinated with the crucifix. He then started making his own drawings of the Pieta and the crucifix.
