The Unknown

I am currently reading "Night" by Elie Wiesel. I am not far in the book because I was in another country (Israel) for two weeks. Even though I couldn't connect with the book by reading it I could connect with the book, more importantly the story, by being in Israel (the home of the Jews) I even visited a holocaust. One of the things that stuck out to me in the book was in the very beginning when her mentor watches her pray at dusk and says, “Why do you cry when you pray?” She answers with I don’t know and then he asked, “Why do you pray” she then answers again with I don’t know.

            I can definitely relate tot his girl. Reason is I am a studying Jew who prays but doesn’t really know why. I also get sad when I prey sometimes because there is no way of me knowing if my prayers are going to be answered or even heard. The reason she might be crying when she prays is because she is afraid of the unknown, which is the same as me. I am completely terrified of the unknown. By the unknown I don’t mean “God” I mean life after death and things that we haven’t and probably never will find out about scientifically. If she is more religious she could be crying because she feels so close to God and the way God responds to her is through her tears and that’s how she makes her prayers feel real. Her mentor is obviously a could teacher because he is asking very simple questions that make you wonder and make you think deeper about yourself, prayer, and God.

            Something that my tour guide said in Israel also got me thinking by not asking any questions but by stating his belief or why he prays. When he told us this story is was in a place where I would always remember it because we were at the holiest place for the Jewish people in the entire world. The one place where all Jews come to pray and where your prayer has the most meaning. The Western Wall. It is the closest you can get from our old, destroyed temple. This temple was the 1^st most sacred place to pray until it was destroyed and now all we have left is the Western Wall. However he told us, mind you a religious man speaking, “I don’t know if our prayer goes anywhere or if there is a God, but it doesn’t hurt to try.” This stuck to me so much because me being spectacle about believing what people told me about the unknown now changed. Before this I might have said, “Why should I pray? There probably isn’t even a God!” but now I say “There might not be a God but if you really need something (like a mental question answered) it wont be truly there unless God answers you so it doesn’t hurt to try.” I think there being a unknown about God is a good think because then, f everyone knew God existed then everyone would pray only because they knew. But for people who pray to the unknown is something special something that they believe in and might not be true. They take their hopes and their ideas/dreams and make them real. Through prayer and through God.