Question

On Rosh Hashanah, Eliezer says, "I was alone—terribly alone in a world without God and without man. Without love or mercy, I was nothing but ashes now…..: Eliezer is describing himself at a religious service attended by ten thousand men, including his own father. What do you think he means when he says that he is alone? In what sense is he alone?

Answer 1

Answer:

When he said that he was alone, he means that he felt God had deserted him and he felt as if he no longer have any connection with God.

He is alone in the sense that he felt removed from God's providing and graceful protection.

Explanation:

Eliezar Wiesel's memoir "Night" about his Holocaust experience and that of the other Jews details the extreme prejudice and torment they faced at the hands of the Nazis. This memoir also became one of the leading written proof and witness account of the atrocities faced by the Jewish people.

When he states that he "was alone" he meant that he did not feel the presence of God in him. Since childhood, he had been taught and made to belief that God made people in his own image and that we are his prized possessions. So, when he saw the brutality of the Nazis on the Jews and other people, he could not understand why there can be such kind of person capable of inflicting such extreme pain and torture to others. If this was the image of God, then he wanted to be far away from it. Also, he wondered how God can stay silent at the suffering of his people. If he claimed to love them, why did he not do anything to save them?

The experience at the concentration camps diminish his faith and he became one among the many who question their belief in God and his very existence.