Religion In Night By Elie Wiesel

Religion and beliefs were a huge part of the Holocaust. In fact, both things could be considered the cause of it. So naturally, these topics will pop up frequently in an autobiography written by a survivor of this horrible event. Religion serves as one of the main topics in Night by Elie Wiesel and is developed throughout the book by the things he experiences and how his beliefs change in reaction to them.

At the beginning of the book, Elie was 12 years old and very interested in religion. He yearned to study the Kabbalah and mysticism, but his father disagreed, saying that he was too young. In turn, Elie found Moishe the Beadle, a man he soon considered to be a mentor of sorts. Through Moishe, Elie learned more about religion, such as the fact that, “Man comes closer to God through the questions he asks Him…We don’t understand his replies. We cannot understand them. Because they dwell in the depths

He felt like if there was a god there, where was he? Why would he let all these terrible things happen to innocent people, His people? Earlier in the book, just after he saw the ditches filled with burning bodies, Elie had said that his God had been killed at the sight, but now it seemed like he had fully accepted that. He started referring to himself as “the former mystic” and said, “My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man. Without love or mercy. I was nothing but ashes now, but I felt myself to be stronger than this Almighty to whom my life had been bound for so long.” (page 68) So, at this point, God, who Elie had once considered to be everything, was now lesser than ashes and practically dead to him. He also expressed this the night the young pipel was hung, “’For God’s sake, where is God?’ And from within me, I heard a voice answer: ‘Where He is? This is where− hanging here from this gallows…’” (page 65) Meaning, like the little boy, God was (metaphorically)