Night: chapter 1 literary analysis
Moishe the Beadle is a recurring character in the book Night by Elie Wiesel. I would say he is one of the most important characters because he knows how cruel the Germans can be and he try's to warn everyone about what's coming. The book started out with describing Moishe the Beadle. It said that he chanted songs about the Jewish faith. And he “spoke of divine suffering, of the Shekhinah in Exile, where, according to Kabbalah, it awaits its redemption linked to that of man.” I find it kind of ironic that he chants about suffering just before the Jewish people suffer. This is an example of foreshadowing. It seems that Moishe the Beadle and his faith are a recurring theme. He helps Elie when he seeks someone to help him better understand the Kabbalah. Elie is a very religious boy, even though he's barely thirteen, he wants to study the Kabbalah although most people wait until their in their thirties. So why is Eile so eager to study? Elie admits that he doesn't even know why he prays so why is he in such a hurry to study the Kabbalah? I mean most kids his age want to be a police man or a doctor not a religious person of some sort. When Moishe the Beadle comes back from the forest he loses his faith and starts warning everyone about the Nazis. Although no one listens and they think he's gone mad or seeking for pity. What he went through must have been pretty bad for a hard core religious guy to lose his faith. I called Moishe hard core because not everyone chants about their faith and when they do you can assume that they take their religion seriously.
In the rest of the chapter Elie and his family were on a train going to the concentration camps. On the train there was this women, Mrs. Schächter, who Elie knew. All of her family expect her ten year old son, was take before her by mistake. On the train ride she had constant outburst about some fire. But why a fire? And why was she constantly killing about a fire that's not there. Maybe when her husband and two sons were take she was traumatized and these outburst were just hallucinations. Or maybe she had really gone mad. But if that were the case then shouldn't the majors of the people be somewhat traumatized seeing and knowing that they will probably never see their friends and neighbors again. I know I would be. While reading I notices how Mrs. Schächter talks about a fire and Moishe the Beadle was describing a fire when he got back. Is it possible that maybe she's having some kind of 'vision'? Like how some people just know what's going to happen. Or maybe she got the fire idea for Moishe the beadle and is repeating the fire incident — saying what Moishe said.