At the beginning of Night, author Elie Wiesel is passionate about his Judaism. He is fascinated with Cabala (Jewish mysticism) and has a strong desire to learn everything he can about it by finding a teacher. In Judaism, normally a man does not even begin the study of Cabala until he is at least forty years old because it takes a certain amount of wisdom just to attempt to decipher it. Orthodox Jewish boys spend much of their time praying and studying, and Elie is no exception. When he finally finds a Cabala teacher in Moshe the Beadle, Moshe asks Elie why he cries when he prays. Elie responds, "I don't know why." He continues:
"The question had never entered my head. I wept because--because of something inside me that felt the need for tears. That was all I knew.
'Why do you pray?' he asked me, after a moment. Why do I pray? A strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?
'I don't know why,' I said, even more disturbed and ill at ease" (Wiesel 2).
Weeping and praying are like breathing to Elie. They are an inherent part of him--like the blood running through his veins and his heart beating. Elie's belief in God is that strong, which is one of the reasons his story is so tragic. The Nazis take everything away from Elie Wiesel. They take his possessions, his parents, his little sister, and perhaps worse of all, they take his faith that had meant so much to him.
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