FREE ESSAY ON FAITH IN NIGHT

FAITH IN NIGHT

Faith
Faith, it is what some people grasp on to in the time of despair. For Elie Wiesel faith
was a hard thing to keep a hold of. Elie was in some situations that made him lose his
faith in God. After the experiences Elie lived through will he ever regain his faith for
God?
In a recent interview Elie said, "I come from a small city somewhere in Eastern Europe. I
come from a place where every Jew was drunk with God, those whose faith was burning as
was burning the vision of the first Jew in history". As a young child Elie was eager to
learn of religion, starting with the studies of the Cabbala, which his father thought he
was too young to learn. Elie's father was also a religious man and many people in the
community looked up to him. With a combination of home and school, Elie learned from an
early age to have a belief in God. 
"We had to go to school, so we went to school too, but I received the main impact from my
religious schools as a child. We studied the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch) and
then, again, Talmud and Hasidic stories. At home we didn't study the prophets 
that much. My ambition really was, even as a child, to be a writer, a commentator, and a
teacher, but a teacher of Talmud" (interview). 
Elie had a strong belief in God. What Elie is about to experience in the next few months
of his life may change his whole belief in God?
The town of Sighet was a normal Jewish community, the business men doing business, the
student's buried in their books, children playing in the streets, and Elie studying the
Talmud. But everyone's life was about to be changed; the Gestapo entered their town. The
Gestapo was common designation of the terrorist political police of the Nazi regime in
Germany. The Gestapo divided the town of Sighet into two ghettos. This didn't have a
significant difference in Elie's life because he was still with his family. "Very often I
think of my father and my mother. At any important moment in my life, they are there
thinking, What an injustice(interview). A short time later the entire town was taken from
their homes and only permitted to bring one bag of luggage. Elie still has a hold of his
faith in God he "wanted time to pray" (16). "I spent most of my time talking to God more
than to people. He was my partner, my friend, my teacher, my king, my sovereign, 
and I was so crazily religious that nothing else mattered" (interview). The Jews were
than crammed into boxcars on a train. Having no light, food, or water. "I have seen
children, hundreds of Jewish children, who suffered more than Jesus did on his
cross..."(interview). This was the beginning of Elie's disbelief in God. Never being
exposed to such harsh conditions the people and Elie thought that God could have devised
no torment in hell worse that that of sitting there among the bundles, in the middle of
the road, beneath a blazing sun.
Being taken from his home into a Nazi death camp made Elie emotionally unstable. It
happened at such a young age and had more of an impact on him. "I was 15 when I entered
the camp, I was 16 when I left it..."(interview). At such an influential age Elie felt
confusion and at times he would feel revolt " Why should I bless His name? The Eternal,
Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him
for" (31)? Everything that happened from the time he arrived at the death camps such as
losing half his family and seeing his father being beaten; gave him no reason to believe
in God. The situations Elie were in were a tough struggle, not only physically but also
emotionally. The 
experiences Elie went through affected his life. Everything Elie believed in was
shattered. He questioned religion and at his age these types of situations can have
extreme effects on a person, such as how they perceive God when they get older.
After the Holocaust was over and Elie grew older, with age he can look back at what he
went through during his childhood. "My childhood, really, was a childhood blessed with
love and hope and faith and prayer"(interview). After the war, he did not speak; he
wasn't a witness, for ten years. "Of course it had an overwhelming affect. It affected me
a lot. I cannot talk about myself. I like to talk about other people, not about myself"
(interview). He being able to talk about the Holocaust through other people is Elie's way
of helping people understand. It took Elie ten years to finally regain the courage and
rebuild his faith to discuss the story of the Nazi death camps. 
After the ten years of silence, a Jew called Mendes-France influenced Elie to speak.
Mendes-France was a Catholic writer who was honest, had a sense of integrity, and he was
in love with Jesus. He spoke only of Jesus. 
"He, of course, had a lasting influence on me. And here I am. I'm a writer, for want of a
better word, and I'm a teacher. I don't teach the same things. I don't write about the
same things -- although I do write commentaries on the Bible, and on the Prophets, and
the Talmud, and Hasidic Masters. But still, I am a writer and a teacher"(interview). 
Faith, Elie did anything but lose his faith after everything he went through. The
Holocaust and all of the pain and suffering made his faith for God stronger. "During the
war I think of the killer and I lose all faith. But then I think of the victim and I am
inundated with compassion"(interview). Elie Wiesel is an example of true faith.