Religion In Night By Elie Wiesel

God is gracious in the eyes of those who are ignorant. Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, is the accounts of his experiences being taken to the Nazi concentration camps, Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Eliezer begins as a faithful Jew, proud to a long heritage and willing to show his devotion by studying Kabbalah, or a branch of Jewish mysticism. However, his studies are put to a halt when the Germans arrive in his village. The experiences Elie has as a Jew in the Nazi concentration camps develops his view on faith and God, through these events his look on God becomes less idealistic. Faith for Eliezer was the only thing he focused upon before being taken to the concentration camp, Eliezer would show his faithfulness to God through studying the,”Talmud

Near the end of the book, while the Jews were being taken to Buchenwald, Eliezer encounters Rabbi Eliahu who has lost his son. However, Eliezer realizes that the Rabbi’s son abandoned him when they were being forced to run to Gleiwitz. Thoughts run through Eliezer's mind about how terrible it would be to abandon his father, his purpose for living,”And in spite of myself, a prayer formed inside me, a prayer towards this God in whom I no longer believed” (91). With all that has happened, Eliezer still stays true to his religion but in the process loses his stalwart devotion which shows in this quote when he says that the prayer is directed towards a God he no longer believes in. Eliezer believes that this God has turned his back on him, but still acts nostalgic towards the days when he was hopelessly devoted to knowing his whole religion. Just before boarding the train to Buchenwald, the remaining Jews are “driven out of the barracks”(96) as Eliezer states, and goes on to describe how,”We threw blankets over our shoulders, like prayer shawls”(96). Even if this is not a show of devotion, it still makes readers think how Eliezer still thought about his religion, becoming nostalgic about even when he doesn’t realize