Summary

As he begins learning at the yeshiva, Asher recalls the constant gaze of the Rebbe from paintings of the Ladover leader on the classroom walls. Rav Yosef Cutler, the mashpia, or spiritual mentor of the yeshiva, comes into the classroom on a regular basis to speak to the students about “the development of [souls]” and to teach “the doctrines of Ladover Hasidism.” During his early years at the yeshiva, he loses interest in drawing. When his mother asks him why, he tells her he hates it. “It’s a waste. It’s from the sitra achra. Like Stalin.”

Asher and his parents spend their summers at a Hasidic colony in the Berkshire Mountains, on the shores of a lake. He remembers seeing his parents walking along the shore and talking, or spending time on the lake in a rowboat together. Asher enjoys the summers because...