Following his interaction with Rabbi Eliahu, who had expressed his inability to ascertain the position of his son, Eliezer recalls an event of notable significance. In the midst of the disorder produced by the abhorrent march to Gleiwitz, Eliahu had descended to the lower ranks of the procession, fatigued by the gelid climate, believing himself to have gone unnoticed by his son. Eliezer, however, having marched adjacent to his estranged child, later discredits this claim, maintaining that he had indeed witnessed his father’s decline. Despite this, the individual had refused to reunite with his father, with Eliezer recounting, “He had seen him. And he had continued to run in front, letting the distance between them become greater. A terrible…show more content… Within his initial encounter with this child, Eliezer garners significant insight into the purpose of prayer, as well as God’s conventional method of response, when Moishe states, “Man asks and God replies. But we don’t understand His replies. We cannot understand them . . . The real answers, Eliezer, you will find only within yourself” (Wiesel 5). According to Moishe, one does not discover the responses to their inquiries externally, but through extended periods of introspection. From this advice, Eliezer derives the necessity of self-contemplation, as he had been informed that one must look not to others for answers, but to themselves. Throughout the course of the novel, Eliezer applies this lesson to his own life, most notably upon his confrontation with the horrors of the concentration camps, which incites him to ponder the existence of God. Rather than accepting the notions of his spiritual leaders as answers to this inquiry, he concludes that God is but a human construct, reasoning that if such a being existed, it would not permit the atrocities present in the camp to occur. Additionally, the theme of faith is evident in Moishe’s advice, as one cannot turn to physical evidence for the existence of God, but is required to rely solely upon His arcane responses to the questions that reside deep within themselves as
