As often occurs in literature, a speaker may reveal much of self while passing judgment on another character. Significant exposition of the narrator's character evolves from Elie's description of his reliance on Moshe the Beadle, the sole villager who recognizes the impressionable young man's need for guidance. Elie, who is moved by the long history of oppression of the Jews, weeps for the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, a historical event that occurred under Nebuchadnezzar after a Jewish revolt in 586 B.C. and a second time in 70 A.D. after Roman troops, led by Titus, quelled a Judaean uprising that had begun four years earlier. According to the chronicle The Wars of the Jews:
"While the holy house was on fire, everything was plundered that came to hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were slain; nor was there a commiseration of any age, or any reverence of gravity. . . . The flame was also carried a long way, and made an echo, together with the groans of those that were slain; and because this hill was high, and the works at the temple were very great, one would have thought that the whole city had been on fire. (V, 1)"
