What Really is Silence?

Silence plays a role of communication between Reb. Saunders and his son Danny. Danny expresses this when he began to talk to Reuven about his father. He says, "he taught me with silence. He taught me to look into myself, to find my own strength, to walk around inside myself in company with my soul." (pg.265) Danny further explained what his father taught him. "And it is important to know of pain he said. It destroys our self- pride, our arrogance, and our indifference toward others. Only slowly, very slowly, did I begin to understand what he was saying." (pg.265) Reb. Saunders told Reuven of a time when he was crying and Danny noticed and asked why he was crying. Reb. Saunders explains that Danny did not understand it. As Danny got older Reb. Saunders began to communicate with him less through verbal communication instead he use silence.

As time went on Danny befriended Reuven and this had a major impact in Danny life. Reb. Saunders express the fact he was happy when he found out that Danny was friends with Reuven because he knew Reuven had soul and this what he wanted for his son. Reb. Saunders did something that got between them. This causes Reuven to have great anger toward Reb. Saunders even to the point of hating him. Danny expressed this when he said; " I hated the silence between us and thought it unimaginable that Danny and his father never really talked. Silence was ugly, it was black, it leered, it was cancerous, and it was death."(pg.220)