My Name is Asher Lev Chapter 4 Summary

  • Now Asher is just drawing unpretty pictures of dead Stalin constantly. His dad discovers the drawings and is like, "Wow, why are you drawing pictures of dead Stalin instead of not being terrible at school?" And Asher's like, "I have no idea."
  • Not surprisingly, Asher still doesn't want to go to Vienna. His stubbornness leads his parents to reschedule an appointment to get the family their passports.
  • When Asher throws a fit during Passover and begs Uncle Yitzchok to let him live with him while Aryeh and Rivkeh go to Vienna, Uncle Yitzchok responds by saying that although Asher may be an artistic genius, he's currently acting like a little brat.
  • Because Asher's being so annoying, his dad eventually sits him down to try and teach him a life lesson about making sacrifices for the Jewish people.
  • Asher learns the story of how his father's father, who was a great Jewish scholar, died in service of the Rabbi's father. Basically, he was being scholarly in Europe and planning to open a bunch of yeshivas for the Rabbi's father, but then he got murdered by a drunk peasant the night before Easter. So now it's up to Aryeh to finish all the work his father left unfinished. Basically there's a lot of inherited guilt going on.
  • That same night, Asher has a dream about his mythic ancestor and wakes up stressed out about the fact that his artistic gift seems to be causing more harm than good. He asks God why he's an artist instead of a scholar like his father, his father before him, and his father before him. God doesn't respond.