My interpretation is different. God asks Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" [Genesis 4:9] And Cain answers "Lo yadati, "I don't know" or "I didn't know." Then comes a period, followed by "Am I my brother's keeper?"

Elie Wiesel

Categorized in : Brother Different Cain

It always hurts when you lose a secret.

Elie Wiesel

loses hurt secret

And I, the former mystic, was thinking: Yes, man is stronger, greater than God. When Adam and Eve deceived You, You chased them from paradise. When You were displeased by Noah’s generation, You brought down the Flood. When Sodom lost Your favour, You caused the heavens to rain down fire and damnation. But look at these men whom You have betrayed, allowing them to be tortured, slaughtered, gassed, and burned, what do they do? They pray before You! They praise Your name!

Elie Wiesel

rain men thinking

I'm not a political person, and their ambitions are not mine. They want power. I don't want power.

Elie Wiesel

political ambition want

We live in the age of communication. Write letters to the editor. Speak to your congressman, to your senator. If you are young, especially young people are taken by this human rights activities. They should organize the universities.

Elie Wiesel

communication taken writing

I have absolutely no problem with the young Germans. I even feel sorry for the young Germans because to be maybe sons or daughters of killers is different than them to be sons and daughters of the victims. And I felt sorry for them. I still do.

Elie Wiesel

daughter sorry son

[Tibet] is a small country based on religious principle, religious traditions. It never wanted any conquest.

Elie Wiesel

principles religious country

For nearly 3,500 years Exodus has left such an imprint on people's memories that I cannot imagine it had been invented just as a legend or a tale.

Elie Wiesel

memories people years

As you know, I describe Shirat ha-Yam as part of an epic story that has qualities of history and which also has qualities of the mythological, of an epic.

Elie Wiesel

yams quality epic

I think [Sacrifice of Isaac] is the most important event in the Bible except for Sinai.

Elie Wiesel

important-events sacrifice thinking

I personally have no doubt that the Exodus occurred. How it occurred, I don't know.

Elie Wiesel

exodus doubt knows

The story [of the Sacrifice of Isaac ] is much more a part of theology than of history.

Elie Wiesel

theology sacrifice stories

[The Bible] is been my passion almost from my youth.

Elie Wiesel

my-passion youth passion

Christians call it the "Sacrifice of Isaac," and Jews call it the "Binding of Isaac."

Elie Wiesel

jew sacrifice christian

The story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac are nowhere in any other tradition.

Elie Wiesel

tradition sacrifice stories

We're both [with Elie Wiesel] a long way from the position of the so-called Biblical minimalists. Some of them see no history in the Bible until Josiah.

Elie Wiesel

biblical long way

For me [Patriarchs] exist. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob exist today. They are people that you see with white beards. I have no doubt of their existence.

Elie Wiesel

doubt white people

Go over to Greece with the Iliad and Odyssey. These have elements of history, and they have non-historical elements. It's very difficult to pull them apart. And I think there's not much reason to.

Elie Wiesel

elements historical thinking

I have a tremendous respect for Professor [Frank Moore] Cross.

Elie Wiesel

frank professors crosses

If you read Exodus 15 carefully, it describes a storm at sea. This is the old Yahwistic source. In the retelling of the story in the later Priestly source, it is more miraculous: The water stands up on either side like a wall. There are walls of water standing up. As you move back in time, oddly enough, the story becomes more historical.

Elie Wiesel

wall sea moving

I believe in the story [ of Adam and Eve]. For me, it's a story.

Elie Wiesel

adam stories believe