Character Analysis
Rabbi Eliahu is the rabbi of a small Polish community, beloved and kind. He retains his holiness, despite his time in the concentration camps. He is portrayed as a man to be pitied because his son deserts him. Why? Because he’s old, and he’s getting to be a burden. On realizing that the rabbi’s son abandoned his father, Eliezer prays desperately to God that he himself will not give in to the temptation to treat his own father in the same way.