usury, all of which has blessed him with “as much coyne as wull buye the towne.” I couldn’t say exactly what the last sentence meant, but it sure didn’t sound like a love letter to Christians. I wondered if the author had ever seen a Jew, since the English King Edward had exiled us from his lands more than three hundred years ago. Not that it would have made much of a difference, I suppose.
Still, I found myself hoping that Emperor Rudolf’s English wasn’t so very good after all.
I had expected the ostentatious displays of wealth that we had seen so far, but I was utterly amazed when we passed through a library containing thousands of books. It didn’t seem possible for one man to own so many books. And it brought me no comfort when I spotted several titles in English.
Rabbi Gans tried to comfort me by observing that such an intellectually curious sovereign simply had to be a friend of Israel because of our longstanding reputation as a nation of wisdom and reason, but I wasn’t convinced.
Finally, the Obersthofmeister led us into an antechamber, where a page boy drew back a curtain, and announced us, pronouncing the Maharal’s name in the Czech manner: “Rabbi Yehuda Liwa and his entourage.”
The inner chamber wasn’t as large as the banquet hall, but it was every bit as cold. A green porcelain stove in the corner did very little to heat the room. Its lacquered surface was doubtless hot to the touch, but the heat completely vanished into the air just a few feet away.
The emperor himself was sitting with his back to us, gazing into the metal tube of some strange optical device. Beside him lay an open book with large illustrations that matched some of the plants and minerals cluttering up the table. I caught a glimpse of a frown as he turned, but it changed into a smile the moment he saw us.
The emperor stood up and greeted us warmly. We bowed our heads, but he insisted on shaking our hands as if we were his equals, and he stopped us from taking off our hats.
“Keep your head coverings on, for I know it is your way.”
We thanked His Majesty for this privilege.
He instinctively struck a pose with all the straight-backed dignity befitting a monarch.
He was about forty years old, with sad, intelligent eyes and a strong chin ennobled by a curly black beard. He dressed in the latest Spanish fashion—simple, austere clothing with clean lines, and draped with the sort of long black cloak one might expect a magician or a sorcerer to wear. This was the man who was next in line for the Spanish throne if Prince Don Carlos turned out to be too mentally unstable to rule, though I wondered how one went about determining mental instability in a country that once banned all scientific study, expelled most of its non-Christian scholars, and then, with no one left to persecute, turned on each other, finding witches and heretics in every closet and under every bed, before seeking out fresh victims in the New World.
“Please, take your seats,” he said.
We took our seats.
“It is my great privilege to welcome such learned men as yourselves to my laboratorium. There are so many questions that I wish to ask of you.”
“And we of you,” said Rabbi Loew.
“My councilors inform me that you, alone among the rabbis of the Jewish Town, have instructed your fellow Jews to study mathematics and natural sciences in order to understand the world, and ultimately the Creator.”
“Your councilors have spoken correctly,” said Rabbi Loew.
“Excellent. But I understand that you also believe that human science will always be inferior to Kabbalistic and Scriptural studies. So perhaps you could teach me about how one might use the Kabbalah to decode the secrets of creation.”
Is that why he granted us an audience? To talk Kabbalah?
Rabbi Loew was better schooled than I in the ways of the powerful, and he responded with great enthusiasm to the emperor’s request.
“It would give me no greater plea sure than to discuss these matters with you, Your Grace, since the Law encompasses all forms of knowledge, and leaves out nothing.”
The emperor actually rubbed his hands together like a little boy. “Then please begin by telling me what you know about the manipulation of numbers and letters, for I have been told that you are a master of that art.”
“Very well, Your Majesty,” said Rabbi Loew. “It is a fitting place to begin,