Abstract

Chaim Potok’s novel My Name is Asher Lev tells the story about the artistically gifted Chabad-Hasidic boy Asher Lev, who is expelled from the Hasidic community he grew up in because he chose to become a painter. The story introduces several layers of conflict: between father and son&&between the individual and the loyalty to the group&&between a religious movement and Western modern society&&and finally, within the protagonist himself. I believe this last conflict, within Asher Lev himself, is the essential and defining one. In this article I will examine how Asher Lev is divided between his Hasidic upbringing and the world he is introduced to through his work as a painter – a situation that creates a serious rift between Asher and his father. I furthermore intend to show, through a comparison of Marc Chagall and Asher Lev, that there is an inner connection between art and mysticism in the novel, and that Asher Lev is more faithful to the original Hasidic mysticism than his father is. Finally, I wish to show that MAL, as a novel, transcends itself. Art can be seen as analogous to religiosity and mysticism, because art and mysticism both have a transcending effect on the human mind.