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A disciple came to the celebrated Master of the Good Name with a question. “Rabbi, how are we to distinguish between a true master and a fake?” And the master of the good name said, “When you meet a person who poses as a master, ask him a question: whether he knows how to purify your thoughts. If he says that he knows, then he is a fake.

Elie Wiesel

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Elie Wiesel
Age: 87 †
Born: 1928
Born: September 30
Died: 2016
Died: July 2
Autobiographer
Humanist
Journalist
Judaic Scholar
Novelist
Philosopher
Political Activist
Professor
Translator
University Teacher
Writer
Sighetu Marmaţiei
Eliezer Wiesel
A-7713
Élie Wiesel
Good
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Disciple
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Fake
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Master
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Purify
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True
Thoughts
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Question
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Distinguish

More quotes by Elie Wiesel

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Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.
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Today, as yesterday, a nation is judged by its attitude towards refugees.
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No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions.
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[Moishe] explained to me, with great emphasis, that every question possessed a power that was lost in the answer.... And why do you pray, Moishe?' I asked him. I pray to the God within me for the strength to ask Him the real questions.
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There are real people behind the [Bible] stories.
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I would say to [Chinese government], You don't need Tibet really. You don't need all the problems Tibet creates for you. It's so small, so far away. Give them their religious freedom and I know that they wouldn't misuse it.
Elie Wiesel
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There is no word in Hebrew for religion, by the way.
Elie Wiesel
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Of course, afterward, I studied [commentary on the Bible by a Rabbi Moshe Dessauer] more closely. But, in truth, it doesn't touch me. It doesn't change my attitude toward the text.
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Fanaticism in many lands has surfaced as the greatest threat to the world. Indifference to its consequences would be a serious mistake.
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You know, words have strange destiny, too. They grow. They get old. They die. They come back.
Elie Wiesel
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Therefore, all my adult life, since I began my life as an author, or as a teacher, I always try to listen to the victim.
Elie Wiesel
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We've sort of agreed that the account of Adam and Eve is a story.
Elie Wiesel
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I describe incidents which may or may not have happened but which are true.
Elie Wiesel
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Except if it has some historical meaning for them to have Tibet under their control. I don't understand why [ Chinese] want it so much.
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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
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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
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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
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The impact of the holocaust on believers as well as unbelievers, on Jews as well as Christians, has not yet been evaluated. Not deeply, not enough.
Elie Wiesel
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The night was gone. The morning star was shining in the sky. I too had become a completely different person. The student of the Talmud, the child that I was, had been consumed in the flames. There remained only a shape that looked like me. A dark flame had entered into my soul and devoured it.
Elie Wiesel
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There is not anti-semitism as an ideology. The civilized world must think that anti-semitism is stupid.
Elie Wiesel