Although chapter 3 in My Name is Asher Lev was perhaps not the longest chapter in terms of pages, it was just as rich as the others in meaning and insight. In this chapter, more is learned about Asher’s complex character and about the type of people he and his community are.
The chapter began with the news that Joseph Stalin, the dictator of Russia who had ordered the deaths of millions of Jews, had suffered a heart attack and had died. Obviously, his death meant the persecution of the Jews would slow tremendously meaning that Asher’s family and Jews everywhere could be grateful, but that sense of gratefulness was nowhere to be detected. The reason for this is because of the great sense of human compassion that these people have for all humans, even the ones who may not deserve it. Asher’s mother captured that great characteristic by saying that Jews do not find comfort in the death of anyone, even in the death of a great enemy. This is merely the nature of these people that was shown to be pervasive throughout the Jewish community when they all gathered in the synagogue to pray for the dead. And this is also something about his community that Asher has yet to understand. However, this experience, like many others already shown in the book and like the ones that are sure to come, has given him more knowledge and understanding and will go towards shaping him into a respectable Jew.
Another one of these experiences occured in the latter stages of the chapter, an experience that Asher would probably like to do without. This was the situation pushed suddenly on him that he was to move to Vienna with his parents, a situation created by the death of Stalin. From this, Asher showed his stubborn and somewhat selfish attitude by basically refusing to go, even though it was not for him to decide. This behavior, though, is to be expected as his outlook on life has been anything but optimistic ever since his father began traveling for the Rebbe and his mother had returned to school. His continuing pessimism has built strong emotions in him, emotions that he needs to express. And without anyone but Reb Yudel Krinsky to talk to about them, he has once again turned to drawing, and will undoubtedly continue to.