Alfaro 1

Sara Alfaro
Mrs. Struzziero
English-9CPA
10/30/13

How Faith Never Fades

During the Holocaust millions of people were killed in the concentration camps. The
memoir Night by Elie Wiesel is his story about how he made it through those horrible times and
how this experience changed his faith in God forever. Elie was always a religious person, while
growing up in a Jewish family, but when he was deported and placed in a concentration camp his
faith in God wavered. He wondered how God could allow such horrors to occur if he was all
powerful and how He could just stand by while the number of the deaths of the people who
worshiped Him grew each day.
Before Elie was moved into the ghettos, he lived in a town called Sighet. He was a very
religious person and wanted to learn as much as possible about his religion. So when Elies
father would not let Elie study the Kabbalah he seeks the help of Moishe the Beadle. Moishe the
Beadle is a poor but liked man in the town of Sighet. He is described as awkward as a clown
(3) and shy by most people but, Elie said he had a wide, dreamy eyes (3). He is also a very
religious man and is said to never speak but sing and chant of the divine suffering, of the
Shekhinah in Exile (3). Moishe the Beadle becomes Elies mentor and role model in the study
of the Kabbalah, because he is willing to help him learn when no one else was.

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When Elie and his family are moved to the ghettos his faith at first is still strong but as
his family spend more time in the ghettos it starts to lose the strength it had in the beginning of
the book. When first they arrive in the new ghetto Elie writes: Oh God, Master of the Universe,
in your infinite compassion have mercy on us (20). This shows that Elie still believes that
God will come and fix everything and save them from the horrors that are to come. But this
confidence in God wavers, after being verbally abused by German soldiers and treated very
cruelly, he doesnt go to God for help like he would have done at the beginning of the book, and
as night falls on the ghetto Elie says that No one was praying (21).
Elies faith in God is lessened and eventually fades when he arrives in the concentration
camp. When he arrives he sees so many horrors that Elie says: I felt anger rising within me.
Why should I sanctify His name? [] What was there to thank him for? (33). Elie feels that
God is just sitting back and letting all of these horrible things happen, he also wonders if God is
all powerful as he has said earlier on in the book, why can he not put a stop to the suffering? As
Elie spend more and more time in the concentration camps his faith in god starts to vanish. After
he has spent a lot of time in the camp the Jewish New Year is coming to an end with the holiday
of Rosh Hashanah. When they have a service in the camp to celebrate this holiday, Elie gets
angry at God because he believes that He caused thousands of children to burn in his mass
graves? Because He kept six crematoria working day and night, including Sabbath and the Holy
Days? (67) Elie blames God for all of the bad things happening and going on around him and
on Yom Kippur Elie does not follow the tradition to fast that he has followed every year before.
Elie said that even though he did this partly because his father said that he should not, but also in
an act of rebellion, but even though Elie had valid reasons not to follow traditions he said that he
felt a great void opening (69).

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Throughout this book Elies relationship with God lessens as it goes on. But after all that
he has gone through he is still a religious man, but maybe not as serious as in the beginning of
the book. Throughout this book the reader realizes that you can never completely lose your faith
in God, because in the most desperate times that is who you will go to for help, and guidance
even if you do not expect an answer.