"Images and Legends of the Jew ..." a Prague Travel Page by nicolaitan

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Rabbi Pinkas and the Dead Monkey

The founder of the Pinkas synagogue was a poor man. One evening he heard his window crash and found the earthly remains of a dead monkey on the floor. The monkey appeared emaciated but was very heavy. He cut the monkey open and found many gold coins in the stomach. Correctly surmising that the monkey belonged to the goldsmith, he returned the coins. The goldsmith was so impressed with the virtuous rabbi he gifted the coins. With them, the rabbi built the synagogue. It seems the monkey had been eating the gold coins and starved to death because his stomach was full. The goldsmith's workers had thrown the monkey through the rabbi's window as a prank.

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The Maharal and the Golem

The imaged gravestone is for Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, known as the Maharal (acronym for Our Teacher the Rabbi Loew in Hebrew). A leading rabbi of Prague in the 16th Century, he was also a mystic and expert on the Kabbalah, a Talmud scholar, and a philospher. During the reign of Rudolf II, anti-Semitic violence was at a peak in Prague. To him is attributed the creation of the Golem from clay taken from the riverbanks, a giant animate protector of the Jewish Quarter. As the Golem became more powerful, he also became more lethal, and the Prague citizens promised to cease that anti-Jewish actions if the Golem was destroyed.

The Golem, known as Yossel, finally went crazy one day and the rabbi was called form his services to kill it. The congregation kept repeating the same prayer until the rabbi returned. By tradition, this line is still repeated in every service today. To this day, the spirit is believed to live on in the attic of the Old New Synagogue. The original story of the golem is the basis for the Frankenstein stories.

Of interest, former Presidential candidate John Kerry, who is a sworn enemy of Israel and the Jewish people, is a descendant of Rabbi Loew's father. You won't see this information in the catsup ads, trust me.

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The False Messiah and the Horowitz Family

The very wealthy and influential Horowitz family, who renovated the Pinkas synagogue, would eventually fall on hard times. Diego Pirez, a Portuguese born Catholic became interested in Jewish culture. He performed his own circumcision, adopted the name Shlomo Molko, and over the years became a renowned mystic and Kabbalah scholar as well as a preacher. His renown won him audiences with Pope Clement VII and Emperor Charles V. Emboldened, he declared himself he Messiah in 1532. After his past was discovered and publicized, he was excommunicated. Refusing to recant, he was burned at the stake for apostasy. The Horowitz family had strongly supported Molko as the Messiah. After his fall, the family lost great prestige and with it their rich life style. But the synagogue they had renovated lives on till today.

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The Gravestones in the Wall

With the Jews confined to the ghetto, visits to older cemeteries were a thing of the past. Several gothic gravestones were removed to the main cemetery and placed within this wall, many going back to the 14th Century and earlier.