boy of twelve to a young man of fifteen. He is deeply religious, and studies the Torah every day. At night he goes to the synagogue to pray. Through his prayer and study, Elie attempts to understand God and be a good only son.

Yet even Elie has a rebellious streak. When his father tells him that he should not study Jewish mysticism, Elie enlists the help of Moshe the Beadle to teach him the Kabbalah. Through these secret sessions, Elie believes that he will finally understand the mysteries of existence.

Elie Wiesel was a Jew from Sighet, Hungary where he spent his childhood. Elie speaks of his townspeople regarding their attitude towards poor people and he states that although they help the poor they really don’t like them. This was with regard to Moishe the Beadle who was a poor foreign Jew; for Moishe to earn his place within the community he had to render himself insignificant. This comes out clearly when the Jews of Sighet disregard his warning because of his status within the community even after he escapes death at the hands of the Gestapo. Elie’s father was an esteemed member of the Jewish community in Sighet and highly sought after for advice on a variety of issues. Elie’s understanding of his place in the world was influenced by his need to achieve a higher understanding of his religion as seen in his interest in the Kaballah. The Jewish community is unperturbed by the imminent danger posed by the war even when warnings are delivered about the impeding destruction.

Elie Wiesel's story, as presented in Night, begins in the small Transylvanian village of Sighet. The village had a German community and a Jewish segment; Elie's world was in the Jewish part. Daily life included his parents and three siblings, his extended family, and Elie's schooling - by day, the training in the Talmud (the oral traditions interpreting the Torah) and by night, struggling to begin to understand the Kabbalah (the advanced and mystical interpretations of Jewish writings and beliefs). Elie's father did not approve of his desire to study Kabbalah, as he felt Elie was too young and inexperienced to be able to understand and appreciate its content.

You are too young for that. Maimonides tells us that one must be thirty before venturing into the world of mysticism, a world fraught with peril. First you must study the basic subjects, those you are able to comprehend.

However, with the assistance and support of Moishe the Beadle, Elie pressed on with his nightly studies, yearning as they talked and prayed in the synagogue late into the night to answer and understand the questions he wanted to ask God.

When the German occupation forces arrived in Sighet, the Jews at first tried to avoid facing the impending threat.

The Germans were already in our town, the Fascists were already in power, the verdict was already out-and the Jews of Sighet were still smiling.

Moishe the Beadle tried in vain to warn the Jews of what was being done to those who had already been taken away, but no one believed him - not even Elie. Jewish ghettos were created, but this came to be seen as "a good thing." Elie, along with the other Jews, expected "we would remain in the ghetto until the end of the war, until the arrival of the Red Army."

When the news of transportation arrives, Elie and the others are forced to confront the awful reality of their situation. As the only son of a respected leader in the Jewish community, it becomes Elie's role to assist in spreading the word throughout the ghetto, and later to help those who left earlier by secretly bringing water to those in line.

I think that Eliezer believes in community and in a spiritual view of the world.  Certainly, taking his spiritual lessons from Moshe and understanding his world in Sighet as one that is predicated upon the bonds of solidarity and collectivity are critical elements that help to define Elizer's view of the world at the start of the narrative.  This is probably what ends up making the Holocaust as something more than painful, more than agonizing, because it repudiates these principles.  As the narrative unfolds, Elizer begins to see and experience the withering of community, of individuals who lose their moral center, of people no longer acknowledging the bonds of connection between them, but rather look to their severance in the drive for survival.