Asher Lev

Today, on my day of rest, I have been reading. I decided to pick up my favorite novel of all time, My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok. I have loved this book since I was in my early teens and have read it at least ten times. It is both a triumphant and sad story of a Hasidic Jew with a great gift as an artist, who struggles to follow his calling while he breaks his family's heart in the process. It is filled with Judeo-Christian imagery and themes, and in that sense, is particularly intriguing to me at this point in my life.

I think on some level, every persons struggles with the dichotomy in life of striking a path while hurting others in the process. Sometimes the chosen path is a right one, and sometimes it is a wrong one. In fact, upon reading My Name is Asher Lev at age 42 (as opposed to 14), it occurs to me for the first time that it is not so readily apparent all the time whether this man's chosen path is ultimately right or wrong, but rather it is always apparent how significant his choices are.

I'm no great artist (my famous Snoopy drawings aside), but I take away from this convicting book the truth that all choices, whether they seem large or small, are significant, and even the small ones ultimately lead us down a path that we may not realize is the chosen path until we look back at the clearing we've made in the journey.

So, today I triumphantly recall some areas of my life with an understanding of how seemingly small choices turned into God honoring habits. I can also look back at other areas and recognize how off-course I wandered as a result of what I thought were insignificant choices with supposedly short term consequences.

We are all Asher Levs.