Student Essay on Elie Wiesel's Faith in "Night"

Elie Wiesel's Faith in "Night" by Elie Wiesel

Essay

Faith plays an important part in Elie Wiesel's Night. In the beginning of the text, Eliezer believes profoundly. "During the day I [Eliezer] studied the Talmud, and at Night I ran to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the temple ... I asked my father to find me a master to guide me in my studies of the cabbala" (14). Even though his father says he is too young to study mysticism, he finds a master anyways, Moché the Beadle. Moché asks him "Why do you weep when you pray" (14)? Eliezer answers that he doesn't know and that he had never thought of it before. Something inside told him he needed to, the same as he needs to live and breathe. When the Jews are deported from their homes, Elie remains faithful, praying early in the morning and thanking God when they arrive at Auschwitz. When he and his father are about to be burned, Elie's faith starts to change. For the first time, he starts to doubt God. "Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank him for" (42)? At the last second before they reach the flames however, he whispers, "May his name be blessed and magnified..." (43). This shows that he still remains faithful. As his days go on in the prison camps, Elie feels alone, in a world without God or man, and feels stronger than God. When he is forced to witness the execution of a well-liked child, he hears himself asking, "Where is God Now" (72)? On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, he rebels against God, wondering why he should bless Him, "He had had thousands of children burned in His pits.... who chose us from among the races to be tortured day and night... (74)" By the end of the book, although he has questioned his faith many times, he still is able to emerge from the horrible time during the Holocaust with his faith intact.