The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Acting Into a New Way of Thinking

“What a person does is what he is,” says the father of Asher Lev. This is the central theme of Potok’s book and, in a sense, it is the essence of Judaism. How one acts, one’s ethical impact on the world, describes everything that is relevant about a person. ‘Deeds not words’ may seem a mere shibboleth until it as taken as seriously as it is by the Hasidim for whom even the smallest and apparently trivial human act - entering a room, switching on a light, greeting one’s spouse or parents - has cosmic significance. In Hasidic Judaism it is punctillious behaviour toward others and towards the world - not belief, not intent, not doctrinal thought - which is the sign and carrier of one’s religion and therefore of one's self, one’s family, one’s society, one’s world.

Judaism in other words, not Ancient Greece, nor medieval Christianity is the origin of what has come to be known as ‘virtue ethics’, the idea that one can act oneself into a better mode of being. Put simply: the only way to be a better person is to behave like one. And ‘better’ has an operational meaning in Orthodox Judaism - that which brings the world closer to being a suitable dwelling place for the Almighty in the form of his Messiah. This is the world of the Torah, a world of hope and trust not of blind faith and formalized dogmatics. The difference is crucial. The Torah, and therefore God in the world, lives as it is acted out.

Judaism is consequently a remarkable ethos. It implies the ultimate salvation not of an individual but of the entire world based on the dedication of a quorum of individuals who choose how to behave properly toward one another. And salvation comes about not through one’s thoughts but through one’s relationships. That is to say, the spiritual force of redemption is present in human beings as a divine gift of creation which is in a way returned in kind when it is acted upon. It is possible to reject such an ethos but only by placing the power of human intellect beyond the claims of human responsibility to and for others.

It is, therefore, not inaccurate, although perhaps a bit unconventional, to say that humanity is the route through which God is redeemed within his creation. As one character notes, “Without man, what is God? And without God, what is man? Everyone needs the help of someone to complete the work of Creation that is never truly completed. Everyone.” The consciousness of this force in every act is the manner in which the gift of free will is acknowledged and respected. The Messiah will arrive when the world is sufficiently prepared by human effort. Our responsibility as human beings is therefore to act appropriately. Thinking, believing, and theologizing are optional hobbies.

Nevertheless, even in Judaism, conscious action can deteriorate into mere habit and stifling tradition. Behaviour then becomes fetishistic ritualism, little more than a mark of tribal membership. Its usefulness becomes that of political weapon or self-serving rationale for pursuing personal interests. Such a fate probably threatens all institutions not just religious ones. Doing things a certain way because they've always been done that way is more an ideology than an ethic.

Asher Lev's artistic life follows a parallel evolutionary path to that of his Hasidic sect. Both drive towards sameness for the sake of continuity rather than for improvement in the readiness of the world for salvation. Redemption is never finished; to assume otherwise is smug - in religion as well as art. Finding a way beyond the staleness of one's own conventions is as difficult for an individual as it is for a religious community. It takes a transformation, the force of which seems to come from elsewhere as a gift. We often call this gift ‘truth’ and it may not be easy to bear, so that it “must be uncovered slowly and with great care lest its fires burn and its power destroy.”

The form of this gift in Potok's story is literally a riddle posed by the Hasidic Rabbi. Acceptance of this gift - engagement with the riddle’s meaning - is also a return to its hidden source through which both Lev and his sect are renewed - artistically as well as spiritually. Then again, perhaps these are two ways of expressing the same event of a regenerated ethical awareness brought about by acting differently. It’s certainly a lot more effective than trying to think your way into a new way of acting.

Postscript: Also see: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

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