The significance of the Rebbe finally becoming intolerable of Asher was that the Rebbe was in essence the governor of the Hasidic community meaning that when he stopped supporting Asher, it allowed for everyone else to stop supporting him as well. At the time when everyone in the community was upset with Asher (including his father), because the Rebbe had said Asher’s pursuit of his gift was acceptable, everyone had to respect that decision. However, when Asher released his paintings of crucifixions to the world, not even the Rebbe could retain enough respect for him to tolerate his actions. He said to Asher, "what you have done has caused harm. People are angry. They ask questions, and I have no answer to give them that they will understand. Your naked women were a great difficulty to me, Asher. But this is an impossibility". Thus, when not even the Rebbe could consent to what Asher had done, his only choice was to ask him to separate himself from his community and his country all together. Hence, the process of shunning Asher was completed.
With Asher no longer accepted in his community by anyone, even his parents, Asher had little choice about what he was to do next. Although he honestly did not want to totally abandon the Hasidic faith since it had been such a part of his life, with what he had done there was little hope for him to be able to practice anywhere without being ridiculed. Thus, he decided, ultimately, to return to Europe where he could be inspired to become a great artist. By doing this, not only is he essentially abandoning his faith, but he is choosing art over religion, something that his community was worried about all along. And although Asher’s community did play a strong role in chasing him away from Hasidism, Asher must accept some of the blame as well. He stepped over the thin line he was trying to balance when he displayed the crucifixions and so the Rebbe really had no choice.