Religion In Night By Elie Wiesel

Religion in Night

In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, religion plays an important role in the lives of the characters. As the story progresses, the characters all react to their situations with varying degrees of questioning their faith. Their reactions range from turning their back on religion completely to clinging to it in an effort to explain what is happening around them. Ultimately, this book shows that religion, although an important part of many people’s lives, can never explain why bad (or even good) things happen to people.

In the beginning of Night, Eliezer, along with the Jewish people in Sighet is secure in his faith. He worships, studies, and lives for his God, who is loving and merciful. He studies Talmud and Kabbalah. When asked

They continue studying their religious texts, even with the threat of the advancing German army looming over them.They celebrated Passover within their community. It isn’t until the Hungarian police started declaring laws that dehumanized the Jewish people that they realized darker days were upon them. Even then, their faith that God would help them was a crutch to deal with their situation.

As the novel progresses and Eliezer witnesses more and more unjust, inconceivable actions from the Germans, his faith in God quickly diminishes. One of the first times Eliezer questions his faith is when he arrives at the concentration camp and sees babies being tossed into the flames and some of the Jews begin saying Kaddish, a prayer for the dead, for themselves. For the first time in the novel, Eliezer thinks that God has no hand in what is happening to them. “The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to stay silent. What was there to thank Him for” (Wiesel,

Because they were already starving, to pass up the meager ration of soup and bread would mean that the prisoners would be that much closer to dying of starvation. However, eating on Yom Kippur would be a symbol of rebellion against their religion. Ultimately, some very devout Jews fast, but Eliezer, someone who worked so hard studying the Jewish religion and believed wholly in God in the beginning of the novel, did not fast. Partly because his father requested that he eat, but internally he wanted nothing to do with a God who could leave his people in such deplorable conditions. This refusal to fast on Yom Kippur shows that even the most devoted of people can fail to find meaning or justification in religion when their situation gets too