A Life Is Measured By

Each Generation Thinks It Fights New Battles. But The Battles Are The Same. Only The People Are Different.

In Russia I Went To A Great Yeshiva, And In America I Work In A Carnival.

I Won't Talk To You About My Family And You Won't Talk To Me About Yours. Family Talk Is Either Boring Or Self-pitying. Or It's Gothic, Like A Faulkner Novel. Who Needs To Talk About It? It's Enough To Live It.

A Man Is Born Into This World With Only A Tiny Spark Of Goodness In Him. The Spark Is God, It Is The Soul; The Rest Is Ugliness And Evil, A Shell. The Spark Must Be Guarded Like A Treasure, It Must Be Nurtured, It Must Be Fanned Into Flame. It Must Learn To Seek Out Other Sparks, It Must Dominate The Shell. Anything Can Be A Shell, Reuven. Anything. Indifference, Laziness, Brutality, And Genius. Yes, Even A Great Mind Can Be A Shell And Choke The Spark.

My Name Is Asher Lev... I Am A Traitor, An Apostate, A Self-hater, An Inflicter Of Shame Upon My Family, My Friends, My People; Also, I Am A Mocker Of Ideas Sacred To Christians, A Blasphemous Manipulator Of Modes And Forms Revered By Gentiles For Two Thousand Years.