Night By Elie Wiesel Night Summary

In this passage, my mother and I listened to a discussion Eliezer and Moishe the Beadle had together. Moishe the Beadle asks Eliezer why does he pray. Eliezer is dumbfounded by the question as he his used to praying regularly. He replies to Moishe he does not know why prays. Moishe later tells him that people should ask God questions even though people won’t understand His reply.

This book was first published in 1989 by Elie Wiesel. Elie Wiesel is a jewish writer who was born in 1928 in Sighetu Marmației, Transylvania, which is apart of Romania. Him and his family were deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz in which him and his two older sisters survived. At first I was selecting a book to get it over with, but after I’ve read the story I started to take interest in it.

Elie recounts what he spent his days doing, “By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple.” (3). He wanted to devote himself even more to God by learning

Elie’s first reaction is to question is, “Why, but why would I bless [God]? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? Because in His great might He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of Death?”(67). Elie witnesses horror on a level the world had not seen, let alone a 15 year old child.

Furthermore, while living in a concentration camp named “Buna”, Elie bears witness to the heartless hanging of a young boy whose death left sadness in the eyes of many. Overhearing a man say “For God’s sake where is God ?” Elie’s innervoice said “Where He is ? This is where-- hanging here from this gallows...”(65). Wiesel, utilizing the cruelty of the Nazis, portrays that the killing of the young boy evokes such raw sadness and pain that it causes Elie to feel as if the Nazis had killed God himself.

With Moishe strong belief of God in the beginning of the book he communicated with Elie about the study of Kabbalah. However Mr. Wiesel, Elie’s father, “. . . wanted to drive the idea of studying the Kabbalah out of [Elie’s] mind . . .”(4). Elie opposes his father's wishes and “he succeed on [his] own in finding a master for [himself] in the person of Moishe the Beadle”(4). When Elie finds a master to teach him about Judaism shows how unwavering he is about his faith and learning more about it. On the other hand as the book continues Elie loses sight of his faith.

Elie asks, “For the first time I felt anger rise inside me. Why should I sanctify his name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for''(33). Since Elie is going through this traumatic situation and has loved and worshiped God throughout his whole life he is mad at God for doing nothing when he and his father are being tortured.

Elie is scarred and will forever have to live with the constant reoccurring thoughts about all of the infants, children, and adults being burned alive; however, Elie is also angered knowing while these unimaginable events is happening around the Jews, there is still nothing happening from Gods end. Nevertheless, as the Jews stood around discussing their views on God in this time, Elie states,” I had ceased to pray” (45 emphasis added). Evidently Elie is losing faith to the point where it even leads to him to stop praying, he believes as though we cant pray to someone we are starting to lose belief in. Another example, is when the prisoners went to participate in a a solemn service, as they are listening to the service a saying starts replaying in Elies head, “ "Blessed be the Almighty…”(67). Hearing this lead to Elie

my eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone, in a world without god” (67-68). Suddenly, Elie the previously dedicated worshipper began questioning, and even realizing the ridicule of praying and iterating his faith to God. God was the one who damned them into the death camps in the first place. God is the one who kept them there, devoid of any hope in liberation.

It is here where Elie watches German soldiers throw truckloads of children and babies into the flames. The longer Eliezer stays in the concentration camp the more he sees and experiences cruelty and suffering. Elie can no longer believe that a God who would permit such nightmare places to exist could be just. The fact that many Jews do continue to pray, to study Talmud, and to look for comfort in their faith while in the concentration camp amazes and confuses Eliezer. While in the concentration camp, Elie finds that people would still pray to a God that would allowed their families to be gassed and incinerated suggests to Eliezer that people are stronger and more forgiving than the God they pray to.

Elie did not understand why the suffering of his people who believe in God was put to this abuse as Gods plan. It was difficult for him to believe in God when he felt God was in control of everyone's life, Elie is left to question God and do nothing more to help. God's role in Elie and other faithful follower dropped, they no longer had faith and hope in the help God would give them. Those who remained faithful and who would continue to pray used it as a source of comfort for them to go to with all the hardships occurring. Unlike them Elie no longer cried while praying, it was no longer a source of comfort for him, it stayed with him but it was always on a tip of a scale ready to fall.

Elie started out the book with a string faith in God and wanting to learn everything he could even asking his father to find him a master who could guide him in his studies of the kabbalah. Elie when leaving his home believes that God will get them this tragedy and will protect him and the Jewish community from harm. Throughout the book this faith slowly starts to fade from the loss of his sister and mother, the torture of young children, and being forced to work long days with little food he starts to doubt his faith God (Cerullo). Elie then later has almost given up all faith saying things like “I did not fast. First of all, to please my father who had forbidden me to do so.

As for me, I had ceased to pray... I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice” (45). It is apparent here that the effect of the Holocaust on the Jewish people’s faith was delayed on some level. Elie refuses to pray to the God that apparently abandoned him. This is personified when he says he doubts that God has absolute justice.

Chapter One Summary: In chapter one of Night by Elie Wiesel, the some of the characters of the story are introduced and the conflict begins. The main character is the author because this is an autobiographical novel. Eliezer was a Jew during Hitler’s reign in which Jews were persecuted. The book starts out with the author describing his faith.

I thought angrily. How do you compare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their anger, their defiance?”(pg. 66). This moment shows that at this moment he is angry and he doesn't believe in god because god have not make a miracle to help him get out or survive from the camp. The reader can infer that he doesn't believe in god now, which supports the argument that Elie changes from a person who believes in god to a person who only thinks about