The Jews.
There is an image people commonly bring to mind when they hear the word Jew.
Moneylenders without blood or tears.
Leeches sucking the lifeblood of poor Christians.
Cold-blooded creatures who, like Shylock in Shakespeare's play, demand a pound of flesh in place of a debt.
But that is wrong. It is a perfect misconception.
'Why are all Jews rich?'
They did not become rich because they were greedy by birth.
It is because all the poor Jews died.
To live as a Jew in medieval Europe was the same as living while paying the price of your life every single day.
Land to farm? They could not own it.
The right to join a guild? None.
The qualification to hold public office? Of course not.
The Bible taught, "Do not take interest from your brother," so Christians could not engage in lending.
So the only thing permitted to the Jews was the finance trade that Christians shunned as filthy sin. That is, moneylending.
If a lord was in a bad mood and issued an edict of expulsion? They had to offer bribes.
If a crusade passed by and started a massacre to pass the time? They had to buy mercenaries to hold them off.
If a drought came and public feeling turned ugly? They had to pay an enormous fine to clear themselves of the false charge of poisoning the wells.
History was written in blood.
1096, the First Crusade.
The Jews of the Rhineland were wiped out by the madness that said, "Before we go to kill the heathens, let us clean out the heathens among us first!"
1348, the Black Death.
While a third of Europe's population was dying off, people believed the baseless rumor that "the Jews poisoned the wells." In Strasbourg alone, two thousand Jews were burned alive.
Money.
Without money, you die.
Poor Jews died stabbed by a crusader's sword, or burned at the stake of the Black Death, or starved.
Only Jews who had money could extend their lives by exactly the weight of that gold coin.
This simple and cruel proposition was engraved into their genes over centuries.
So it was only natural that the Jews who had survived until now were rich. That was not the result of greed but purely the result of a desperate natural selection.
The ghetto.
The word used for the Jewish quarter.
That place was another prison inside the city.
The air of Josefov, the Jewish quarter of Prague, was heavier and more stagnant than the world outside.
The cramped alleys reeked of filth, and the old wooden houses crowded up against one another looked ready to collapse at any moment.
The sun hung high, but there was no vitality in the streets.
The children played with their voices hushed, and the adults walked pressed to the walls like shadows.
Because you never knew when or from where a stone might come flying.
Because you never knew when an angry mob might come bursting in with torches.
On their clothes, every one of them, was fastened a scrap of yellow cloth.
The Star of David. The mark of shame.
In 1215, at the Fourth Council of the Lateran, Pope Innocent III ordered the Jews to wear a 'distinguishing mark'.
A scrap of yellow cloth, or a horned hat. It turned them from human beings into walking targets.
The rabbi, Abraham, wiped the old door of the synagogue and let out a sigh.
"...Lord, how long will You test us?"
The mood in Prague had been ominous of late.
A new king had taken the throne. From what he heard, the man was a 'Heretic King' who had confiscated Church property and had even been excommunicated.
That was when it happened.
"Rabbi!"
The butcher came running in an apron dripping with blood. His face was drained with terror.
"Rabbi! Have you heard the news? They say the king has been excommunicated by the Pope!"
"...I know of it."
Abraham nodded heavily.
"This is a disaster. Now that the king has been excommunicated he will need something to take it out on. Has it not always been so? A bad harvest, our fault; a plague going round, our fault; and now they will say the king running mad is our fault too!"
"Calm yourself. Nothing has happened yet."
"They say soldiers are massing outside the city gates! How many will die this time... oh, dear God!"
For the Jews, a change of sovereign was always an object of terror.
Because the first thing a new king usually did to win public favor was oppress the Jews.
Unify public sentiment, have debts written off, and confiscate Jewish property to fill the treasury: three birds with one card.
Abraham's wrinkled hands trembled.
'How many will die this time. How much in bribes must we offer to survive.'
They had already conferred with the elders and were collecting an emergency fund. But it would fall hopelessly short of satisfying a king's greed.
That was when it happened.
Boom— boom— boom—!
A thunderous drumbeat rang out from the entrance to the ghetto.
'They have come!'
Abraham dropped the rag he was holding. The Jews in the street went ashen and fled into their homes. The sound of windows closing and bars being drawn came loud and clamorous.
"Oh, Adonai..."
But Abraham did not flee. No, he could not.
He was the rabbi. He was the shepherd who had to offer his own neck first when the flock was being slaughtered.
Armed soldiers were already drawn up in ranks in the ghetto square.
A banner painted with a two-tailed lion and a golden star fluttered, and before it stood a man in the gorgeous dress of a herald and one young knight.
The soldiers did not draw their swords. There were no torches either.
But that silence was more frightening.
"Let the representative of the Jews come forward!"
The herald shouted. Abraham swallowed dryly and walked slowly out, like a prisoner being dragged to the execution block.
"I-it is I... I am the rabbi of this place."
Abraham threw himself flat on the ground. The cold of the earthen floor touched his forehead.
"I convey the words of the king. Hear them, all of you!"
The herald unrolled a scroll.
The Jews who had hidden themselves put out terrified eyes through the cracks of windows, through the gaps of doors.
'Is it an edict of expulsion? Confiscation of property? Or a massacre?'
Abraham squeezed his eyes shut. Inwardly he screamed that they should at least spare the children.
But.
"His Grace Ulrich von Šternberk, King of Bohemia and lawful heir of Luxembourg, says thus."
The herald read the decree down.
"The Lord has said, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' This is the law among laws and the commandment among commandments."
Abraham's brow furrowed.
Here we go again. It was the repertoire Christians always recited before they began a massacre.
That you killed Jesus, so you do not deserve to be loved; that you should repent, and so on.
"However!"
The herald's voice rose.
"Looking back over the long course of history, we Christians have failed to keep that sacred commandment toward the Jewish people alone. We did not call you neighbors, and we did not treat you as brothers. We were hypocrites, and we were sinners who broke the commandment."
"...?"
Abraham's eyes widened.
What had he just said?
That we were not the sinners... that they were the sinners?
"Therefore I declare. From this day the ghetto of Prague is closed!"
Closed.
At that word a woman hiding in the corner of the square screamed. We are being driven out. Now we will be driven into the wilderness to die.
But the herald's next words shattered their imaginings to pieces.
"The walls that confined you shall be pulled down. You are no longer prisoners of the ghetto but free citizens of Bohemia."
"...What?"
Abraham made a stupid sound.
"From this day, restrictions on residence and movement for Jews are abolished. Freedom in the choice of occupation is guaranteed. Guild membership is permitted, ownership of land is allowed, and the same tax law applied to Bohemians shall apply to you."
"...!!"
Abraham's eyes widened as though they would pop out.
"Furthermore, the unjust head tax and protection tax imposed upon you are abolished. You are no longer foreigners but proud citizens of Bohemia and subjects under the protection of the king!"
The square went quiet as if cold water had been poured over it.
"Furthermore, the lives and property of the Jews shall be protected directly by the crown. Anyone who harms you or plunders your property for the reason that you are Jews shall be deemed to have committed treason against the king and shall be beheaded!"
The declaration ended.
But there were no cheers.
There was no applause either.
A shock too great sometimes paralyzes the sense of reality.
Abraham looked up at the herald with his mouth hanging blankly open. He could not comprehend it.
Is it a trap? Is the scheme to make us lower our guard and then kill us all at once? Or have I gone mad from too much fear?
"E-excuse me... my lord..."
Abraham asked in a trembling voice.
"What is it that you are saying just now..."
"Did you not hear? I said you are free now."
János, the young knight standing beside him, stood crooked and added as though it were a bother.
"It means you may tear down the gate of the ghetto if you like, and you may go out to the square and do business. Of course, you will have to pay taxes the same as any other subject."
"F-free citizens...?"
Tears ran streaming from Abraham's eyes. They were not tears of joy. They were the extreme terror and confusion that comes from a hope too unreal.
To people who had been treated as beasts for centuries, to suddenly declare that they had become human beings.
That was less a miracle than a shock closer to violence.
The Jews who had been watching through the cracks of their windows opened their doors one by one and came outside. On their faces too was the very same expression as Abraham's.
Doubt. Astonishment. And, very faintly beginning to bloom, an unbelievable hope.
János went up to Abraham, who stood there with his mouth blankly open, and tossed him the parchment on which the decree was written.
"Take it. It is the king's promise."
Abraham took the parchment with trembling hands.
The royal seal was stamped on it, clear and distinct.
"Wh-what is this..."
"His Grace does not want your money."
János added.
"What His Grace wants is your talent. Work for Bohemia. Then His Grace will become your shield."
János gave Abraham's shoulder a light tap as he stood there blankly.
"What are you doing? Should you not be shouting hurrah or something? This mood is awfully chilly."
Only then did a sound like a strangled groan burst out of Abraham's mouth.
"Ah... aah...!"
It was a sound boiling up from the very bottom of the soul, and there was no telling whether it was a wail or a cheer.
The decree of the Heretic King.
It was a real bomb, more powerful than the Pope's writ of excommunication, one that would shake the order of Europe.
The herald, the royal guard, and the young knight vanished, leaving dust behind them.
Silence came to the ghetto again.
But it was different from the death-like silence of before.
"Rabbi..."
Someone asked in a voice that came crawling out.
"Could this... be a trap?"
"It must be a trap! It will be a trick to find out our property and confiscate it all at once!"
"But the king's seal..."
Abraham tightened his grip on the hand that held the decree. He gripped it hard enough to crumple the parchment.
He had lived his whole life amid discrimination and contempt. He knew in his bones how deceitful the mercy and love the Christians cried out about really were.
Is this the truth? Or is it a trial from the Lord to bring down an even greater despair?
Or else... has the savior of the Jews, a second Cyrus the Great, truly appeared?
Abraham wiped away his flowing tears.
Whether they were tears of profound emotion or tears of fear at the upheaval to come, not even he himself could tell.
But one thing was certain.
That tonight, no one in the ghetto would be able to sleep.
"My friends."
Abraham opened his mouth in a hoarse voice.
"Summon the elders. And... we shall have to bring out the hidden ledgers."
An opportunity that had come to the people after centuries.
For the first time, the old leader's eyes glinted like those of a hunter rather than of prey.