Yom Kippur In Elie Wiesel's Night

During Yom Kippur, or the day of atonement, Jews normally fast, miss work, and say a certain prayer. They fast to ask God to forgive them for their sins that happened during the year. Yom Kippur is also the holiest day of the year in Judaism. The inmates discussed the situation, and were in to try to decide if they would fast, in the book Night by Elie Wiesel. “Some said we should fast, precisely because it was dangerous.” (Night page 69) To me, this would make no sense. They were already in so much danger and being starved, so missing one day of food could have made some die. I understand they wanted to show their religion, but there could have been other ways (praying) in this situation. Fasting for Yom Kippur was discussed more in Night, and some of the prisoners found the ideas of fasting ridiculous. …show more content…
“I did not fast. First of all, to please my father who had forbidden me to do so. And then, there was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God’s silence.” (Night page 69) Prisoners also did not fast because they were starting to loose all their faith in their God. If you were loosing all your faith, there would be no reason to fast for a holiday relating to your religion. I believe that if the Jews had fasted or missed work to observe their holiday the SS may have killed them. This is because the SS were very violent, and the entire reason they were there was because they were Jews. This is why Elie did not fast, and why I feel that other Jews should not have