Quote of the Day (Elie Wiesel, on Why ‘We Must Not See Any Person as an Abstraction’)

“We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasure, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph.” —Holocaust survivor, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and human-rights activist Elie Wiesel (1928-2016), quoted by Susan Seligson, “Elie Wiesel (Hon.’74), Spokesman for Peace and Human Rights, Dies at 87,” BU Today, July 3, 2016

Quote of the Day (Elie Wiesel, on Hope in Memory)

“Is there hope in memory? There must be. Without hope memory would be morbid and sterile. Without memory, hope would be empty of meaning, and above all, empty of gratitude.”— Romanian-born American writer, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel (1928-2016), address at “Days of Remembrance” ceremony, U.S. Holocaust Museum, Washington DC, April 2002 

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Elie Wiesel, on the ‘Great Melancholy’ of Moses’ Joshua)

“Joshua, the perfect disciple. Obedient and humble. The man whose devotion to his master can serve as an example to all. God’s chosen, just as Moses had been. The servant become leader, whom God and Moses do not cease to encourage—so much so that we wonder why he had such a need. Is it because, in his humility, Joshua felt so inferior to Moses that he believed himself inadequate, unqualified and even unworthy to complete a task that only his master was capable of completing satisfactorily? Joshua will inherit political and religious authority from Moses but not his prophetic style. God accomplished miracles for Joshua. He went so far as to upset the laws of nature by ordering the sun to stand still, but Joshua’s speech lacks the magic that emanates from the words of the prophets.

“A great melancholy emerges from his life story, a sadness that stays with him to the end of his days. Is it because his life unfolds in the midst of noise and fury?”—Jewish novelist, essayist, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel (1928-2016), “Joshua: Silent at the Tent Door,” Bible Review, December 1998

The image accompanying this post is of Joshua, Israel’s leader after the death of Moses—played onscreen by John Derek in the 1956 blockbuster, The Ten Commandments.

Quote of the Day (Elie Wiesel, on Abraham, ‘The First Angry Young Man’)

“Abraham: the first enemy of idolatry. The first angry young man. The first rebel to rise up against the ‘establishment,’ society and authority. The first to demystify official taboos and suspend ritual prohibitions. The first to reject civilization in order to form a minority of one. The first believer, the first one to suffer for his belief. Alone against the world, he declared himself free. Alone against the world, he braved the fire and the mob, affirming that God is one and present wherever His name is invoked; that one is the secret and the beginning of all that exists in heaven and on earth and that God's secret coincides with that of man.” —Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Holocaust survivor and human-rights activist Elie Wiesel (1928-2016), “The Sacrifice of Isaac: A Survivor’s Story,” in Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits and Legends (1976)

The image accompanying this post is God Renews His Promises to Abraham (c. 1896-1902), gouache on board, by the French painter James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836-1902), at the Jewish Museum, New York.

Quote of the Day (Elie Wiesel, on Adam and How It Is ‘Given to Man to Begin Again’)

“It is not given to man to begin; that privilege is God's alone. But it is given to man to begin again—and he does so every time he chooses to defy death and side with the living.  Thus he justifies the ancient plan of the most ancient of men, Adam, to whom we are bound both by the anguish that oppressed him and the defiance that elevated him above the paradise we shall never enter.”—Romanian-born American Jewish Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Holocaust survivor and human-rights activist Elie Wiesel (1928-2016), Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits and Legends (1976)

Quote of the Day (Elie Wiesel, on the Proper Response to Human Suffering)

“Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.”— Holocaust survivor, human-rights activist, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel (1928-2016), Night, translated by Marion Wiesel (1955)

Quote of the Day (Elie Wiesel, on the Need ‘Never To Be Silent’)

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”—Holocaust survivor, author and moral witness Elie Wiesel (1928-2016), Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 1986

Quote of the Day (Elie Wiesel, on Despair and Creation)

“Out of despair, one creates. What else can one do? There is no good reason to go on living, but you must go on living. There is no good reason to bring a child into this world but you must have children to give the world a new innocence, a new reason to aspire toward innocence. As Camus said, in a world of unhappiness, you must create happiness.”—Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, quoted by Michiko Kakutani, The Poet at the Piano: Portraits of Writers, Filmmakers, Playwrights, and Other Artists at Work (1988)