Aleezay Shahzad Heritage High School

 

One of Night’s theme was based upon religion. Elie Wiesel was a boy who was most devoted and attracted towards God’s existence in his family. As his life takes turns and becomes complicated, his stable relation with God becomes tangled up as he becomes an accuser and God as accused. The series of events makes it difficult which leads to the struggle to keep his faith upon Him. His belief in the exitances of the almighty develops throughout the course of the novel as he struggles to keep his faith on his existence of the one who how once truly loved now starts to question him and shows anger towards Him.

Religion was the most common and important theme of the Hight. In the beginning of the novel, Elie mentioned the faith on God in the first chapter which showed his interest toward Him. As the chapter progress, it was clearly shown that he wanted to go the depth of His words as he wanted to “enter eternity” (5). His love for Him didn’t stopped him when his father “wanted to drive out the idea of studding Kabbalah from...mind” as the father constantly told him the there weren't any “kabbalists in Sighet” .

However, he succeeds in “finding a master” and purses to learn with the master, Moishe the beadle . His journey toward the faith started as Moishe started to question him by asking” why do you pray” thus Elie started to explore his Jewish faith as the questions were served as the outline. The time he spent with Moishe made him more invested and devoted in his religion. His affection starts to grow even bigger as Moishe spoke to him “for hours on the end of Kabbalah’s revelation and mysterious” . Furthermore, the beginning pages of the novel showed that at the very young age he wanted to the understand the meaning behind His words and actions as he read “over and over again the same pages of Zohar”. In his words, he wanted to “not to learn by heart but to discover within the very essence of divinity” .

The time Moishe and Elie spent together helped him to understand the meaning behind his doings which made Elie to eventually convinced that Moishe was the one who could. help him to enter eternity” into that time when question and answer would become one” . The time went by with Moishe, Elie was able to reach a point where his relation with Him was deep and unshakeable. However, the fantasy world of his, crumbled down when the Nazi came to Germany.

Furthermore, the relation of him with the God didn’t lasted as long as Elie wanted. The doubts started to plant its roots in his mind once he reached the Auschwitz the concentration camp. At the first night, elie saw that women, men and children were thrown in the buring hell, the conflict of disbelief started. He couldn’t believe himself after what he saw and questioned “how was it possible that...the world kept silent”, which was the beginning of disbelief . The act of inhumanity, brutality toward the Jews (people of God) and dehumanization of Elie, himself, made him question the authority, justice and mercy of Him.

The first made an implacable mark on the mind that he vows he shall “never forget that night...flames which consumed my faith forever” which indicated that nor did he suffered because he saw murders of his fellow Jews but he also felt the murder of god, his faith. As few days went by, he ceased to pray as the concentration camp “consumed my faith …murdered my God” which to him only felt like just a job he has to do . The beginning of a new chapter in his life shakes Elie’s his faith which at one point was unshakeable.

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