Rivkeh Lev

Character Analysis

Rivkeh Lev is Asher's mother: kind, gentle, and torn between the desires of her son and her husband. She loves Asher and wants to foster his talent, but she's also dismayed by the fact that his talent has caused such a rift in the family. Like Aryeh, she is a born scholar and extremely dedicated to the education of the Jewish people and spreading Hasidic teachings.

Rivkeh the Mother

Rivkeh is the loving mom everyone wants: kind, indulgent, and not too stingy with sweets. But her role as mother is a constant juggling act, trying to balance her son's controversial artistic gift with her husband's fire-and-brimstone obsession with Talmudic law. Asher begins to realize his mom's pain towards the end of the book:

Would she wait now in dread all the rest of her life, now for me, now for my father, now for us both—as she had once waited for me to return from a museum, as she had once waited for my father to return in a snowstorm? And I could understand her torment now; I could see her waiting endlessly with the fear that someone she loved would be brought to her dead. I could feel her anguish. (325.3)

Motherhood isn't easy for Rivkeh, although she does the best she can with what she has. Her love for Asher is a truly sustaining force in the book, making it all the more devastating when she is separated from him at the book's end.

Rivkeh the Wife

Rivkeh loves Aryeh madly, truly, and deeply, but she doesn't necessarily love the patriarchal conventions that force her to act obedient to him. Aryeh is a traditionalist, as is Orthodox Judaism. Rivkeh often finds herself struggling to obey her husband's rules—the girl just wants to have some (kosher) fun:

'Your father wanted me to promise I would not let you go to the museum.' She shook her head sadly. 'I can't promise the impossible.' (180.5)

The unreasonable expectations that Aryeh places on Rivkeh as his wife lead to some major difficulties in their marriage, including frequent arguments about how to raise their artistic prodigy son. When Asher is disowned by his father, Rivkeh is forced to keep quiet because the will of her husband and the patriarchal culture of orthodox Judaism keep her from speaking. This is heartbreaking and devastating to her as both a wife and a mother.

Rivkeh the Scholar

Rivkeh is certainly no slouch when it comes to academics. In fact, she may be the least slouchy in the family, earning her PhD in Russian history over the course of Asher's adolescence. She earns this PhD in order to complete the scholarly work of Yaakov, her brother who was killed in a car accident while traveling for the Rabbi:

'It's wrong for this to be incomplete,' my mother said. 'It would be a victory for the sitra achra.' (47.9)

Rivkeh's fierce determination to complete her brother's academic work reflects in the level of her achievement. She is at her bravest as a scholar, asserting her desire to attend college (even though this is something typically forbidden for orthodox Jewish women), and surpassing her husband in terms of degrees.

Strong though she may be, she is not strong enough to weather her family's storm. Her massive intelligence does not prepare her for Brooklyn Crucifixion I and II, which effectively devastate her. Wouldn't you be a little disturbed to see a depiction yourself hung from a cross?