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 More Quotes by Elie Wiesel More Quotes From Elie Wiesel We didn't really differ [with Frank Moore Cross] because we have the same love of the text. We share that love. Elie Wiesel same-love crosses share We know, for instance, of "The Book of the Wars of the Lord." It is mentioned in the text [Numbers 21:14]. There was a book: Where is it? One day you will dig and you will maybe find it. [Laughter] Elie Wiesel laughter war book I was working as a journalist for an Israeli paper in Paris, and my salary at the highest was fifty dollars a month. At the end of the month I always had palpitations; I didn't know how to pay my rent. Even after the war, I was often hungry. But that's part of the romantic condition of a student. To be a student in Paris and not be hungry is wrong. Elie Wiesel paris paper war There is not anti-semitism as an ideology. The civilized world must think that anti-semitism is stupid. Elie Wiesel stupid world thinking I don't speak about my pain. My pain is something that doesn't need to be purged. I want to prevent people from suffering. I don't speak about my suffering. Suffering is something personal and discreet. Also, I know it will never leave me. I don't want it to leave me. It would be a betrayal. Elie Wiesel betrayal pain people Take the story of Cain and Abel. Why were we given that story? Scientifically, you may have an explanation for it, but I'm not approaching it from the scientific point of view. I'm saying: Why do we need that? It's a sordid story, a depressing story, a dark story. Why should I believe that I'm a descendant of either Cain or Abel? Thank God there is a third son! [Genesis 4:25] Elie Wiesel depressing believe son Whether every story that's there [in the Bible] is a historic truth ... Again, I'm not concerned. Elie Wiesel concerned historic stories I am looking for the word which is there and shouldn't be there. I wonder, why is it there? Or I look for problems: the Akedah [the Binding of Isaac - Genesis 22]. It still baffles me. Each time I read it - and I read it at least twice a year - each time I discover new layers in it. Always. So this is of more concern to me than the minimalists. Elie Wiesel layers looks years Usually I get up early every morning and from 6:00 to 10:00 I write. The rest of the time I study and prepare my work or I do other things. But four hours a day are exclusively devoted to writing. Elie Wiesel up-early writing morning The primary task of a Jew in turbulent times is to be Jewish. Elie Wiesel turbulent-times jew tasks I cannot cure everybody. I cannot help everybody. But to tell the lonely person that I am not far or different from that lonely person, that I am with him or her, that's all I think we can do and we should do. Elie Wiesel different lonely thinking If there is one person on the planet who still is suffering from loneliness and from pain or despair, and we don't know about it, or we don't want to know about it, then something is wrong with the world. Elie Wiesel pain loneliness suffering I don't believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents. Elie Wiesel I rarely speak about God. To God, yes. I protest against Him. I shout at Him. But to open a discourse about the qualities of God, about the problems that God imposes, theodicy, no. And yet He is there, in silence, in filigree. Elie Wiesel God made man because He loves stories. Elie Wiesel There is divine beauty in learning, just as there is human beauty in tolerance. To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps. The books I have read were composed by generations of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, teachers and disciples. I am the sum total of their experiences, their quests. And so are you. Elie Wiesel Don't go to Bitburg, that place is not your place. Your place is with the victims of the SS. Elie Wiesel top-news 'Psychopath' - it's too nice a word for him. Elie Wiesel top-news We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie Wiesel never silence victim sides When language fails, violence becomes a language; I never had that feeling. Elie Wiesel feeling never violence language
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