Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Glory Glory!
There are two significant holes-in-the-wall (or is it hole-in-the-walls?) in this story.
First, when Brod is born, she is stored in the Upright Synagogue. (Definitely pediatrician-approved.) Women aren't allowed to enter this synagogue, obviously, so they have to look at her through a hole in the wall. Since the hole is so tiny, they can't get a good view. Instead, all they see is pieces of her. Spooky! The hole adds to Brod's mystique and builds up an atmosphere of fear.
Brod must have been shaped by her childhood events, since she later cuts a hole in the wall to view her husband in the year before he dies. (He's secluded himself in a room after an accident which changes his mood and makes him beat her.) Weirdly, seeing each other in pieces—sometimes nekkid pieces—ends up bringing them together more intimately than before. Unlike when she was a child, this hole alleviates the fear Brod feels toward her husband. In fact, it brings them so close together that Brod conceives her third child through the hole.
These holes raise an important question: can you ever look at all of a person? Don't we see everyone through a theoretical hole, piecing together the—ahem—whole from a series of glimpses?