The main topic that struck me from this section of Night was Wiesel’s confliction with his religion. I was glad that Wiesel made sure to mention in the beginning of the story how dedicated to his religion he had been- it made his anger with God that much more tragic. He studied the Talmud and Kabbalah, and was completely devoted to his Jewish faith. But after suffering weeks in the concentration camp, he begins having doubts. The day before Rosh Hashanah, the last day of the year, the prisoners gather to pray. Here, Wiesel realizes that their devotion is useless, that this being they are devoutly worshipping has done nothing for them:

“What are You, my God? I thought angrily. How do You compare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their anger, their defiance? What does Your grandeur mean, Master of the Universe, in the face of all this cowardice, this decay, and this misery? Why do you go on troubling these poor people’s wounded minds, their ailing bodies?” (66)

            If you think about it, it’s a completely reasonable question- what was He thinking? If He really controls the Universe, what was the purpose of making so many people suffer and die, especially people that were devoted and faithful to Him?! Was He proud, watching over all of the weakened prisoners still praying to him even in the worst of conditions? It’s a difficult thing, questioning God. Perhaps it’s the most difficult, because you’ll never, by any means, get an answer. Getting lost in thoughts like that is dizzying, because they can go on and on, and eventually you can begin to question everything. But it’s completely understandable why Wiesel would begin to have doubts and anger. He says,

“Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why would I bless Him? 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)

It’s sad to see Wiesel lose his faith, but it’s even more final to hear a rabbi say, “It’s over. God is no longer with us.” (76) A rabbi, who is supposed to be devoted to gathering others in support of God. It really shows how drastically hopeless their situation was. And it makes you wonder- was God with them? Because quite frankly, it doesn’t seem like it.