My Name is Asher Lev Chapter 5 Summary

  • Asher's behavior has gotten so weird that his mom decides to take him to a series of doctors. None of these doctors can find anything wrong with him, much to her frustration.
  • In yeshiva, he absentmindedly draws a really ugly caricature of the Rabbi in his Chumash, which is the Hebrew term for Torah. This is an act of sacrilege, and it gets Asher in trouble with pretty much everyone, from the mashpia—who's basically the spiritual mentor of the congregation, kind of like a Hasidic Yoda—to some really annoying kid who can't get over the fact that Asher drew something in his Chumash.
  • Asher goes to see the mashpia, who is calm-but-stern about the Chumash incident. He asks Asher if he's ready to go to Vienna, which is pretty much Asher's least favorite topic of conversation.
  • Asher starts daydreaming about how he'd draw the mashpia, which is definitely a sign that he's got a problem. The mashpia tells Asher he has a gift, but the gift is making him selfish. He asks Asher to fill a sketchbook for him, and Asher does, and then feels weird and depressed about it.
  • He leaves the