December 10th, 2004
Jack woke at dawn, still fully clothed. His first thought was for Mina and her safety, so he dashed to the other room and peered through the doorway to be met with a lovely morning sight. Mina’s jet-black hair was strewn about her face as she breathed slowly, deep in sleep. He stared at her for a while and then crossed to the windows and gazed out at Mount Meron. Reassured, he went back to his own room, found a spot in a pool of morning sun, sat down and started stretching.
Mina woke up when she heard Jack taking a shower. She walked up to the bathroom, and took a guilty peep through the open door. Her heart was beating as fast as hell, as she savoured Jack’s toned body. She had already noticed how fit he was back in Mosul but now she noticed the many battle scars in his back. God only knew the things he had done in his life. She probably didn’t want to know. If he’d chosen to leave the army, why should she inquire?
‘Morning Jack… do you always leave the bathroom door open?’ He turned the shower off, and picked up a towel to wrap around his waist.
‘Yes. An old habit; you never know who’s about to come in while you are in a vulnerable position.’
He raised an eyebrow at her. She blushed and wondered if he had known she was there all along.
‘Let’s have breakfast and then go to the Ari synagogue,’ he said.
‘OK. I’ll be ready in a second,’ she replied.
Natasha had already arrived at the Merkazi Central Hotel. She approached the front desk and said that her name was Mina Osman and there was a package waiting for her. The receptionist looked deeply embarrassed and told her that a man had already picked it up. There was nothing here. Natasha was furious. She asked him to check again. He called his colleague at home, who confirmed that a man in his mid-thirties had picked up the package and cancelled Miss Osman’s stay. Natasha stormed out of the hotel and walked back to the car, where three men were patiently waiting for her. She picked up her phone.
‘Sir?’
‘Yes Natasha?’
‘I don’t know how to say this. Someone has already picked up the package. According to the concierge, it was collected yesterday afternoon. The man also cancelled her room reservation.’
‘Damn it! She tricked us. She’d planned for this person to pick up the tablet all along.’
‘Could she still be alive, Sir?’
‘She’s not that resourceful, Natasha. Then again, leave a few men there for a day or two. Give them the girl’s description and tell them to check out the place. Maybe they’ll find out more about that man who picked up the parcel.’
‘Should I stick around?’
‘No, take the first flight back. The trail’s cold.’
Jack and Mina arrived early at the Ari shul and decided to have a look at the small recess where Ari was said to have met the prophet Elijah.
‘Mina, we need to be really careful,’ Jack reminded her. ‘Wheatley’s probably on his way to Safed as we speak. Hopefully he won’t go sightseeing after failing to find the tablet.’
‘Right. I might not have your training but I can be discreet, I assure you.’
An old man walked into the synagogue and sized them up. He walked straight up to them.
‘Josh, Miriam? Are you the youngsters who wanted to meet me?’
‘Yes,’ said Mina, surprised at the old man’s New York accent. ‘Are you from New York?’
‘Yes. A long time ago, mind you. Let’s sit down over there.’ They walked to a bench to the side. ‘So, how can I help you?’
‘We’ve been told by Ezra from the Abuhav shul that you are the person to speak to about Benjamin of Tudela.’
His eyes widened a little, and he seemed almost annoyed.
‘What else did he say?’
‘Nothing’ she lied.
His face brightened slightly.
‘Well, what would you like to know?’
‘I am PhD student at Columbia and I am researching the travels of Benjamin of Tudela, especially with regard to his discovery of Nineveh, as my work focuses on the first European travellers to visit Mesopotamia.’
The old man nodded without saying a word, as seems to be the habit of all sages when listening to young scholars.
‘I learned from unpublished travel notes by Tudela that he sent a letter to a certain Mordechai in Safed. Now, until then I really believed Tudela when he wrote in the Book of Travels that there were no Jews in Safed. Obviously, if he sent something here later, all the way from Spain, he was being untruthful. So I thought there might be a small but exciting mystery to uncover here.’
‘When is Tudela thought to have passed by Safed?’
‘117 °C.E.’
‘Hmm. Young lady, that would have been about the time the crusaders came here and built their citadel on the hill. It was their custom to expel the Jewish or Arab populations from their newly built fortress cities.’
Mina smacked her forehead. ‘What an idiot! Of course, the crusaders. Why didn’t I think of that? I was so engrossed with Tudela’s personal voyage that I overlooked the context. So there is no mystery. Maybe there were just one or two Jewish families still living within the city at the time of the crusaders. Maybe he wasn’t the author of this passage. End of story.’
The old man looked very troubled. ‘Not quite. There is more to this story than you imagine. But first, what are these travel notes you’re referring to? I’ve been researching Tudela for a long time and never heard of them.’
‘There’s a good reason for that. I found them by accident in the British Library while working on the compiled manuscript. These travel notes were never inserted into the canonical edition of Tudela’s Book of Travels.
‘Fascinating, who’d have known…’ said Eli.
‘It seems that Tudela hoped his friend in Safed would pursue a quest about an important item he had learned about in Mosul.’
‘I think we have both been looking at the same story from two different ends,’ said Eli.
Mina and Jack looked at him in surprise, then with anticipation.
‘When I first arrived in Safed, I was still a young bible student. Every day I learned more on the saintly scholars who shaped our destiny. I was especially interested in the Ari and his disciples. I read avidly, day and night. Blessed was the time when my eyesight was keen and my hand steady. Never mind, as you probably know, the Holy Ari didn’t write much himself, his disciples wrote down all his teachings.’
‘No, I didn’t know that’, said Jack ironically, ‘but please go on,’ he added quickly, after Mina kicked him in the shin to shut him up.
‘Well’, continued the old man, ‘when Chaim Vital, Ari’s favourite disciple wrote the famous book The Tree of Life, which compiled his master’s teachings, there were only manuscripts, no printed copies. Each disciple had to make a vow, under the threat of excommunication, not to allow any copy to made and sent to a foreign land and to keep the knowledge secret. It did get out eventually and was published, but I always wondered how accurate the printed copies were.’
Eli took a deep breath and continued: ‘After years of patience and dedication, I was finally introduced to a small group of men in Safed who let me read from one of the original manuscripts. There I was, in a small room, reading feverishly through the ancient pages of The Tree of Life, when I suddenly came across a short marginalia, you know, a tiny commentary in the margin. It was so strange that to this day it is still branded in my memory.’
‘What did it say, Eli?’ asked an excited Mina.
Eli quoted: ‘Was it God’s plan? Rabbi Benjamin the Traveller divided our community, but the Lion cast out the Dark Ones. Beware of their return. In the holy room.’
‘It’s like a warning in riddles’ said Mina feeling a shiver of excitement run down her spine, ‘but how do you interpret it?’
‘Well, it took me some time to figure it out and unfortunately I was never allowed access to the manuscript again but I am pretty sure “Rabbi Benjamin the Traveller” is Benjamin of Tudela who wrote about his travels in the 12th century. As The Tree of Life was written over 400 years after his death, Tudela couldn’t have divided the community in person, it must be something he did or wrote. Something concerning God’s plan.
Eli took in another deep breath and continued: ‘I read Tudela’s Book of Travels over and over again but I never found out how he divided their community, nor who the Dark Ones were, nor why one should beware their return. But, it is clear that they were evil enough to be “cast out by the Lion”, that is to say excommunicated by the Holy Ari himself. The last part of the passage troubled me for days on end. There is only one “holy room” that makes sense here and it’s in the Ari’s synagogue. It’s the recess in which it is said that the Ari pondered deeply on the mysteries of Kabbalah and received instructions from the prophet Elijah himself. But I have never found anything there, not even peace of mind.’
Jack and Mina looked at the old man in wonder. Mina’s research was taking the strangest turn.
‘Still, you were right’, Mina added passionately, ‘this commentary you read in the margin of The Tree of Life is verified by the travel notes I found in the British Library: Tudela clearly states that he wrote to Safed about an object of the greatest importance to mankind.’
The old man looked at her and sighed. ‘Don’t mistake my tone for a lack of enthusiasm at your endeavours: whatever the content of the letter Tudela sent to Safed, it must have been quite significant to divide such a learned community. But I spent many years gathering useless information on Tudela, looking everywhere in this synagogue for a sign. I even went to Egypt, to the small island where the Ari is said to have spent time in a cave as a young man. I found the cave: I searched every inch of it with great reverence, but it was to no avail. I’m tired now.’
Mina shook her head, dispirited. The old man rose to his feet.
‘I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help. Here’s my phone number. Get in touch before you leave Safed. I would love to talk some more about these matters. Maybe I’ve missed something?’
Jack laid a hand on Mina’s slumped shoulder and tried to comfort her, but she was too depressed to listen to him. They thanked Eli and slowly left the synagogue. Mina looked for a last time at the recess where Ari had met the prophet Elijah, and they were out in the cold streets once again.
Mina and Jack strolled aimlessly through the Citadel and the park for two hours. The cold air cleared their minds and numbed their feet. Although Jack was disappointed for Mina that they had not found out more about her research, he was mainly relieved that they would soon be on their way, far from Wheatley’s grasp. They entered an art gallery and while Mina asked a few questions, Jack looked out of the store’s window and suddenly froze. Springing into action he pushed Mina into a corner of the gallery and waited there for a few minutes. She asked him what the matter was but he just told her to stay there and not to leave the gallery. He had just recognised Wheatley’s men from the yacht, on the other side of the street. He quickly deduced that they had already been to the Merkazi Hotel and were now asking around about him, and possibly Mina, if they thought she might still be alive.
Leaving Mina safely in the gallery, Jack discreetly followed the two men. Hopefully they would not sense him on their trail; the narrow and winding streets made it easier to conceal oneself, but he still had to keep his wits about him. He followed them for half an hour, street after street, watching them as they questioned owners of art galleries and people coming out of synagogues throughout the Old Town. He had a fleeting impression he was being watched too and turned round, but there was no-one there. He wondered if Oberon had sent more than two men, or if he was in Safed himself.
The men were approaching the Abuhav shul. Jack thought of Ezra, the synagogue’s administrator. He would definitely remember Mina and himself from the day before. He would send the men to the Ari synagogue and straight to Eli. He calculated he had about fifteen minutes to deal with this. He picked up his mobile phone and called Eli’s home number to warn him of the danger. He did not tell him much, just enough to scare him out of staying at home and convince him to meet Mina and himself at the guest house in thirty minutes. He then rushed back to the art gallery, picked up Mina and brought her up to speed on the latest events as they made their way back quickly to the guest house.
Mina paced up and down their room, waiting impatiently for Eli.
‘Don’t worry Mina. I’m sure he’ll make it.’
‘I just don’t understand, all I did was ask a few questions.’
‘Sometimes questions can have dangerous consequences.’
‘It reminds me of something… That’s it! I’d totally forgotten to tell you about it.’
She explained who Moshe Shobai was and the email he had sent from London, warning her about playing with century-old riddles. Jack agreed she should get in touch with Shobai once they were sure Eli was out of danger. They heard some huffing and puffing and finally the old scholar made it up the stairs to the suite, carrying a small shoulder bag. Mina rushed to greet him and apologised profusely for putting him in danger. The old man simply shook his head and told her not to burden herself with the shameful actions of other men. He said he’d brought some precious documents on Tudela so they would have an opportunity to talk more about her fascinating research.
He reminded them that sunset was fast approaching and that tonight would be a special Shabbat, as it was Chanukah. Members of his congregation would be surprised not to see him officiate on this special night but Jack advised him not to return to his house tonight, nor to the Ari synagogue during Shabbat. He suggested that Eli could participate in the Shabbat dinner at the guest house instead. Surely it would count for something? Mina felt a little embarrassed by Jack’s blunt way with the old scholar, but he was right.
After the Shabbat meal, Mina and Eli went to sleep in separate rooms in the suite, whilst Jack stood guard. Several hours later, in the dead of night, he heard the old man scream. He raced down the corridor and went into the old man’s room. Mina followed in a matter of seconds, as she too had been awoken by the screams.
‘What’s wrong, Eli?’ asked Jack.
The old man was visibly shaken. ‘I had a dream. I saw a rabbi. He spoke to me. He said his name was… I can’t say.’
‘What?’ asked Mina bewildered. The old man sat up against the wall to gather his thoughts.
‘I have the answer. We must go. Now.’
‘Where?’
‘To the Ari shul.’
To Jack and Mina’s surprise, he leapt from the bed, hurriedly put on his shoes, coat and scarf, and rushed out of the room.