Eliezers questioning of his faith is a major conflict in Night.

At the beginning of the work, his

faith in God is absolute. When asked why he prays to God, he replies with, Why did I pray? . . .
Why did I live? Why did I breathe? His belief in an God is almost Bi-polar like and almost
always is fluctuating throughout the novel. He cannot imagine living without faith in a higher
power, But his faith is tested and faded by his experience during the Holocaust.

At first, Elies religious beliefs are that of the Jewish faith, which teaches him that God is
everywhere in the world, that nothing exists without God, that in fact everything in the physical
world is an emanation, or reflection, of the world. Basically, Elie has grown up believing that
God is the end all be all and his faith is grounded in the idea that God is everywhere, all the
time, that his power touches every aspect of his daily life. Since God is good, his studies teach
him, and God is everywhere in the world, the world must therefore be good. There is no
arguing with the faith; You cant argue with god, so therefore he learns to just accept the fact
that the world is good.But.

Elies faith in humanity and the purity of the world is greatly shaken by the things he
experiences and witnesses in the Holocaust. He cannot imagine that the concentration camps
unbelievable, disgusting cruelty could possibly reflect divinity. He wonders how a benevolent
God could be part of such depravity and how an omnipotent God could permit such cruelty to
take place. His faith is equally shaken by the cruelty and selfishness he sees among the
prisoners. If all the prisoners were to unite to oppose the cruel oppression of the Nazis, Eliezer
believes, then maybe he could understand the Nazi menace as an evil aberration. He would
then be able to maintain the belief that society is essentially good. But he sees that the
Holocaust exposes the selfishness, evil, and cruelty of which everybodynot only the Nazis, but
also his fellow prisoners, his fellow Jews, even himselfis capable. If the world is so disgusting
and cruel, he feels, then God either must be disgusting and cruel or must not exist at all.

Though this realization seems to destroy his faith, Elie retains some of this faith throughout his
experiences. At certain moments; During his first night in the camp Elie does argue with his
faith, but his struggle should not be confused with a complete rejection of his faith. When
Moshe the Beadle is asked why he prays, he replies, I pray to the God within me that He will
give me the strength to ask Him the right questions. In other words, questioning is
fundamental to the idea of faith in God. The Holocaust forces Elie to ask horrible questions
about society and whether God exists. But the very fact that he asks these questions reflects
his belief in God.
Discussing his own experience, Wiesel once wrote, My anger rises up within faith and not
outside it. Elies back and forth questioning his religion reflects that. Only in the lowest
moments of his faith does he turn his back on God. Thats how most of the other prisoners
battle of their own faith went too. Even when Elie says that he has given up on God completely,
Wiesels constant use of religious metaphors contradict what Elie says he believes. Elie even
refers to biblical passages when he denies his faith. When he fears that he might abandon his
father, he prays to God, and, after his fathers death, he expresses regret that there was no
religious burial. At the end of the book, even though he has been forever changed by his
Holocaust experience; despite the fact that Elie constantly struggled with his belief in God, Elie
survives. with his faith intact.