FAITH and DOUBT (pages 71-107) Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom by Ariel Burger

"Is it possible to build a religious life based on doubt?" (Burger quotes Wiesel, page 77)

"'I have so many questions,' I replied. 'And the rabbis in my yeshiva give so many answers. But when I hear their answers, my questions only feel heavier than before.'

He looked at me for a long moment in silence. Then he said, 'You are sincere; I can see that. And these questions come from your sincerity, your seriousness. We all ask questions, and we should. It is more dangerous if we do not. But perhaps you are not looking for answers. You are looking for responses to your questions, to your life, for ways to live rather than ideas to espouse. Answers close things down; responses do not.'

In the days that followed, I felt my old beliefs peel off like skin after a sunburn. Maybe it wasn’t true that faith and doubt were opposites. Maybe my questions actually emerged from faith and served to telegraph the immensity of the subconscious spaces that I had yet to fill with meaning. As I walked through my days, I felt my questions as a comet’s tail behind me, marking my crossing, illuminating rather than darkening the path before me." (Burger quotes conversation with Wiesel, page 78)

"And from within me, I heard a voice answer; 'Where is He? This is where-hanging here from this gallows'...

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.

Never shall I forget that smoke.

Never shall I forget the small faces of children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.

Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.

Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.

Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.

Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.

Never." (Burger quotes from Wiesel's NIGHT, page 86-87)

"But in class, on a cloudy November day, Professor Wiesel tells his students, 'Even there [in Auschwitz], I prayed. I remember, one day, someone managed to smuggle tefillin into the camp by bribing a kapo with bread and margarine. My father and I woke up early and stood in line with many others to put them on . . . We were not obligated to put on tefillin in the camps-according to the law, under such circumstances, one is not obligated. And yet, these Jews risked their lives to perform this commandment. And I prayed. If I could pray there, it is possible to pray under any circumstance. Does it mean my prayers were answered? They were not; of course not. My father died. So many died. But the prayers were prayers nonetheless. Even an unanswered prayer is a prayer.’

Philip asks, 'How could you do it? How could you find it in yourself to pray?'

Professor Wiesel responds: 'It is a good question. Every morning in the prayers, we say, ‘With a great love have You loved us,’ and I said it there. It’s a part of the prayers, after all. But then I thought, Come on, really? A great love? In Auschwitz? It is impossible. As I said, we cannot conceive of that place with God or without God. It is impossible to pray. But I did, and I said that prayer, because my father said it, his father, his grandfather. How could I be the last?” (Burger quotes Wiesel, page 87)

"To be human is to doubt. The Hebrew word for 'question,' shelah, contains the word for 'God,' El. God is in the question." (Burger quotes Wiesel, page 100)

"If, as Weisel famously claimed, the opposite of love is not hatred but indifference, then even when we cannot avert tragedy, we must at least protest it. If the source of suffering is a tyrant or a faceless government, we must engage in political protest. If the source of suffering is God, we must protest against God. How can such protest be an expression of faith?" (Burger, page 90-91)

"If even the most authoritative teaching, the most sacred text, leads to dehumanization, to humiliation, to harm, then we must reject it. Remember, the Bible itself shows us how to do this: Abraham argues with God on behalf of Sodom. Moses breaks the tablets of law-yes, even the law must be broken when it threatens humanity. Job refuses to accept easy answers that falsely render him a sinner and God a vindictive god. We need courage in reading scripture, courage and compassion. Remember also: This is what the rabbis did with so many of the legends they taught, so many interpretations. They worked to align the text with their moral understanding. And in doing so, they gave us permission-no, an obligation --to do the same.” (Burger quotes Wiesel, page 96)

"All of the abstract answers to human pain, any of them can sound convincing-until you suffer, or meet someone who is suffering. And after all, isn’t the encounter with another’s suffering a form of suffering itself? Don’t you suffer, [Geoff,] when you see someone else in pain? Therefore, the answers go away, they cannot stand in that moment. And this is how we must judge such answers-do we find them compelling even when we are in pain? If not, we must reject them. If this inspires a crisis of faith, then so be it.

According to my tradition, God also experiences such vicarious suffering. When God sees His creatures in pain, He is in pain. Imo anochi b’tzaruh, ‘I am with him,’ the person who is suffering or humiliated, in his pain. In one sense, God is alone, terribly alone, and in addition to being all powerful, God suffers every blow, every ache, of every child in the world. Even as I demand justice from God, I feel compassion for God." (Burger quotes Wiesel, page 102)

"Faith can coexist with tragedy, can survive it, and that we carry it with us in spite of- or perhaps because of-our wounds." (Burger quotes Wiesel, page 107)

Sarah Hurwitz, Here All Along. (pages 61-63)

"If anything, when it comes to God, Judaism embraces complexity - almost to a fault. While there are few things Jews agree on, there seems to be a consensus that we cannot fully understand or adequately describe God...Other than monotheism, there is no universally accepted Jewish creed or article of faith defining the Divine."