Eli had the keys to the synagogue. Yet, they still felt as if they were trespassing and being sacrilegious, but then again, nothing could have stopped them now. The old man walked right through the main area to the Ari’s room. It was still illuminated by dozens of candles that had been placed there during the day. The old man knelt at the very bottom of the furthest wall and using a small penknife, began to scratch the old mortar all around the only protruding stone in the recess’ masonry.
‘You want to pull out that stone?’ asked Jack.
‘Yes.’
‘I’ll run to the van and get a crowbar,’ he ran back through the synagogue.
The old man continued clearing the stone’s mortar.
‘Can you tell me what you dreamed of, Eli?’ asked Mina.
‘I dreamed that the Ari came to me. He was pointing at the inscription affixed to the facade, outside.’
‘I didn’t pay much attention to it. What does it say?’
Jack had returned with the crowbar. Eli stood up to let him do his work and continued his conversation with Mina.
‘It says the original synagogue dates back to the 14th century but that it was damaged in an earthquake in 1759 and then destroyed in 1837 after a much stronger earthquake. The building was restored and rebuilt in parts a few years later thanks to a donation by Rabbi Yitzhak Guetta of Trieste. The inscription on the facade refers to this Italian rabbi. Recently, a team of surveyors started a restoration project here and one of the specialists showed me which parts of the building pre-date the two earthquakes. This stone I am trying to loosen is the only original stone from the Ari’s room. I just thought that maybe someone stumbled on documents among the rubble and respectfully put them back behind the new wall when it was reconstructed.
‘We’ll know soon enough,’ said Jack.
With a strong pull he managed to prise the stone out of the wall. Eli and Mina joined Jack on their hands and knees. Eli brought a candle a little closer to the empty space and pulled out a bundle of papers wrapped in an oil skin. The old man was trembling all over and kept repeating, ‘It’s a Chanukah miracle, it’s a Chanukah miracle.’
Eli was so excited he immediately proceeded to translate the text written in a mixture of Aramaic and Hebrew to his two avid listeners. Mina jotted as much as she could from his live translation in her own notebook.
‘Safed, 2 Kheshvan 5332.’ Eli thought for a while and said ‘I may be wrong, but that would approximately be October 1571.’
‘I will recount here faithfully the events that occurred during the last week, so that these extraordinary events do not come to pass into oblivion.
‘The opening words of the text clearly identify it as a chronicle.’ Eli said, ‘I have to skip a few lines; the document is illegible.’
‘…months ago, I was putting some order in the archives of our synagogue when I came across a bundle of papers which seemed much older than the documents I usually deal with. As I opened the bundle, the typical musty smell of old paper momentarily took me aback. I delicately prised open the papers and to my astonishment realised it was a lengthy letter written by the eccentric traveller, Benjamin of Tudela three centuries ago, to Morderchai of Safed. I could not understand what these letters were doing there. I felt much enthusiasm at the discovery of such a correspondence. It has always been my dream to travel to faraway lands, and I looked forward to reading some of Tudela’s accounts, from his own hand. After the usual civilities, and business issues, the tone of the letter became very enigmatic. And, when I got to Tudela’s description of an ancient and spellbinding tablet kept in the Jerusalem Temple that had survived the coming of the Romans I immediately brought the whole bundle of papers to my master.
Eli stopped and said, ‘This is extraordinary. A tablet…in the Temple in Jerusalem! If it survived the Romans, he means that the tablet was still there after the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 7 °C.E. This next part is illegible.’
‘… that night. There was our beloved Ari, my holy master Rabbi Chaim Vital, myself and…’
‘That’s strange,’ Eli said, ‘A name has been crossed out. I’ll continue.’
‘[XXX], who we all thought had lost his mind, was sitting on a chair at the back of the room as he always did. On the main table, my master had spread out for all to see the remains of Tudela’s letter. After a while seven other rabbis came to join the session. There was…’
‘Illegible’ said Eli, sighing with frustration.
‘… in his letter to this Mordechai, Benjamin of Tudela entrusts his friend with a secret. In the archives of a synagogue in Nineveh, he read about an enigmatic clay tablet that had been sent from Nineveh to Yerushalayim and hidden… in the Kodesh Hakodashim.’
Eli murmured, ‘that’s the name for the holy of holies, the most sacred part of the temple in Jerusalem.’
‘As soon as my master uttered these words, the room seemed to bustle with energy. All the rabbis started talking at once. Our beloved Ari stood up…’
‘I can’t read any of the following. Let me jump to the next paragraph,’ said Eli.
‘… all eyes focused on his radiance, as he seldom speaks and his words inspire our every thought. He said ‘Thank you Chaim. Rabbi Benjamin’s letter describes a tablet written in the old language of the Sumerians, from a time preceding the destruction of the first temple. The Babylonian King’s advisers recorded odd discoveries while trying to read omens of floods and earthquakes. According to this letter, the tablet is a Babylonian rendering of Noah’s Mabul.’
‘Mabul means a flood or a river, but here it means the deluge,’ Eli explained.
‘It enables its possessor, if he can decipher its inner knowledge, to observe nature’s secrets, and prepare for the next…’ Eli stopped for a moment and said, ‘I’m not sure how to translate the next phrase, but “Godly changes of nature” is about as close as I can get.’
Eli stopped for a moment and said, 'I'm not sure how to translate the next phrase, but "Godly changes of nature" is about as close as I can get.'
‘… Godly changes of nature. We were all in shock. I shuddered, as I half-envisioned the mystical consequences of our beloved Rabbi’s last words: ‘The next Godly changes.’
My holy master was the first to speak. He turned to our beloved Ari and said, ‘Master, I have also read the letter, and do not doubt its veracity nor Benjamin of Tudela’s assessment. Yet I wonder about three things. First, where is the tablet at present, if it survived the Roman destruction? Two, I am troubled by the idea that there could be more Mabuls to come. Finally, even if we were able to predict when the next Mabuls were to occur, and this is a problem in itself, as it would involve divining practices, which are forbidden to us, who are we to disturb His Holy Will?’ My master had unravelled everyone’s thoughts in the methodical fashion he had learned from his own master.’
‘Here’s another damaged passage I can’t decipher,’ said Eli.
‘… we can be sure that if we are all seated in this room tonight, The Holy One Blessed be He… saved the tablet from the Romans, so that we would find it at the right moment in time. Everyone agreed with the speaker.
My holy master reminded us all of King David’s psalm: “Like rivers they raised, O HASHEM, like rivers they raised their voice, like rivers they shall raise their destructiveness”. ‘This means that the tablet can only refer to other Mabuls not The Mabul, as The Holy One Blessed be He had promised Noah that The Mabul would never happen again’.
Then, Rabbi Tammim…’
‘I don’t know of this rabbi,’ said Eli
‘…who was tapping his foot impatiently as was his habit, cried out that just as Noah was saved because he was the only just man of his time, no-one should interfere with His Holy Will. When these Mabuls would happen the survivors would, once again be the only just ones. He paused, and then hammered out each word: The Holy One Blessed be He is Gevurah Shebechesed…’
‘In Kabbalah,’ said Eli, ‘there are ten revelations of the Creator’s will. They are called Sephirot in Hebrew. What we have here is a combination of two revelations: strength and kindness or gevurah bechesed. He’s saying that God acts with the firmness and benevolence of a father who can see further than his children.’
‘He purified humanity in forty days, with strength and kindness’ concluded Tammim.
My holy master asked Tammim ‘No-one doubts His Strength and Kindness, nor his divine Plan, Tammim, but what of those who will not survive, the men, women and children who will die in the process?’
Rabbi Tammin did not answer. My master pursued his argument, ‘as Avraham bargained with The Holy One, Blessed be He for every soul in Sodom, not merely the just ones, but the fallen ones too, it is our sacred duty to choose to save ALL life, good as well as evil.’
I thought of the discussions we had had with my holy master only weeks before on Ramban’s commentaries on miracles and free will. We were all part of The Holy One, Blessed be He’s, plan. All was written from all time, and Nature is both illusion and one form of reality. There was no contradiction between our having free will and being the instruments of His Holy Will. Had I wanted to answer to Rabbi Tammim, I would have reminded him that The Holy One, Blessed be He, was justice. I had also noticed that when Rabbi Tammim spoke…’
‘A name is crossed out again’ said Eli, ‘I think it is the same person. Clearly he must have done something very wicked for his name to have been obliterated in this way.’
‘[XXX] stirred. He had not spoken a word for more than a year, since the time he had, in youthful exuberance, and against all the forewarnings of our master, tried to unravel the Zohar’s teachings. He was no longer glassy-eyed. It was as if the conversation he was witnessing had brought back his soul from the depth of madness to the tip of his tongue. He did not speak. Had I only known what would come to pass, I would have tried to speak to him then, but we were all so confused and focused on Tudela’s letter and how to find this magical tablet that I did not pay any attention to him.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Eli, ‘the next passage is illegible.’
‘… but the blessed Ari spoke: ‘As it is written “as in water, face answers to face, so the heart of man to man”. If we decide to act to save lives, this action is just. As it is written, “whoever saves one life saves the entire world”.’
His last words still hung in the room, as prophetic beams of light. He hummed to himself in the surrounding silence, and his hands waved gently over the table. He then opened his eyes, and very matter-of-factly said: ‘these mabuls will not occur in our times. I will send a search party to Jerusalem. If they find the tablet, we will conceal its existence until the time is right.’ I think we all silently interpreted his vision in the following way: if the simple people knew of the mabul before it happened, humanity would turn to chaos, and we all shared the wisdom of his words.
By now night was upon us, and my holy master considered the matter concluded. He left Tudela’s letter on the table overnight for us all to meditate upon His Holy Will. I dared not touch it, not even to put it in safekeeping back in the archive. When I woke up the next morning, I returned to the study. The letter had disappeared.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Eli, ‘the next passage is illegible.’
‘… A month had passed since our beloved Ari sent the search party to Jerusalem with special instructions to locate the tablet. Finally, last night, they returned from their quest. I watched in awe as the five cautious and watchful men, their clothes still dusty from their travels, entered, silently, one-by-one the study of our blessed Ari. I watched, as the last one locked the door behind him. We all gathered in the hall, disciples and masters, trembling with anticipation, and in utter silence, impatient to know the outcome of their search, like young men on their wedding night. I still remember my excitement, my heart pounding in my chest at the idea that this tablet, which had caused such disturbance in our scholarly community was perhaps just a few feet away, in this small study, a small crack in the divine plan.
At last the blessed Ari opened the door and from the way he looked at us, each in turn, we all knew without a doubt that the search party had been successful. A wave of relief swept over me. I felt tears running silently down my cheeks. Yet, this profound joy lasted but a few seconds for suddenly…
‘The crossed out name again,’ said Eli.
‘[XXX] whom we thought had disappeared, came storming in the hall accompanied by Rabbi Tammim and a few other disciples, and pushed us aside to get closer to the Ari. [XXX] stepped forward, with darkened brow, his eyes rolling in angst and his body shaking with fury. He pointed his finger at the Ari and screamed at him like a rabid dog: ‘Hand over the tablet, Rabbi, give us the tablet, as it must be destroyed’.
Everyone stood frozen in horror. It was all too clear now that it was he who had stolen Tudela’s letter from the study. But the blessed Ari, raised his hand in a sign of peace, and said to [XXX] ‘You were given the grace of recovering your sanity and returning to life, yet you still turn a blind eye to His Will. Know this, that the tablet you crave for is out of your reach and that it is with sadness and humility that I cast you out of this community. You shall become dark like the night and be nameless, as shall be your descendants for all the years to come’.
‘The rest of the document is totally illegible’ said Eli, ‘and I can’t see any signature at the bottom which could tell us more about the author of this chronicle.’
Mina and Jack were dumbfounded. They were incapable of uttering a single word. Eli just kept repeating ‘It’s incredible!’ over and over again, his face beaming with ineffable joy.
Jack carefully placed the stone back in its place in the wall. Eli, holding the bundle of papers under his coat, close to his heart, walked hesitantly out of the synagogue, followed by Jack and Mina. They walked down the cobbled path towards the main road. The night was pitch black. Jack told them both to wait for him there while he picked up the van.
‘I’m speechless, Eli,’ said Mina.
‘I understand. It is as if one had stumbled on a sacred gathering and felt still under its spell. I know I feel this way.’
‘Yes but there is a detail you don’t know yet.’ Speaking quietly and slowly, she said, ‘I have the tablet they speak of. I have it here, in my bag.’
‘You have what?’ Eli dropped all the papers in the snow.
He got slowly to his knees and started gathering them with Mina’s help. She went on, ‘I have one of the tablets. It’s actually a stone tablet, but that’s a story which I’ll tell you some other time. I believe there is more than one tablet. I think that the one described by the Safed rabbis was a clay tablet sent to Israel long ago, maybe even before the building in Jerusalem of the first temple of Solomon. I suppose we’ll never know how Tudela found out about all this’.
Eli looked at Mina in amazement and then sunk deep into thought. Suddenly his face lit up. He seemed relieved as if he had finally understood something but was reluctant to share it. He turned to Mina and confessed ‘I haven’t been entirely truthful with you either.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Mina.
‘Let’s wait ‘till we’re out of the cold and in Josh’s van.’
As they drove off, Mina looked at Eli. She felt miserable about lying about their identity. She was about to tell him her real name when he spoke.
‘Miriam’, he began slowly, ‘Over the years I’ve collected many documents relating to the Ari. Among them I found a short letter which only makes sense to me now. It’s in my bag, which I left at your place. It dates back to 1755. It’s a letter from a Jewish gentleman in England to his brother living in Safed. I know it by heart.’ The old man began to recite,
‘Dear brother,
I hope the printing business is picking up as you hoped it would when you left for Safed. I am writing to reassure you. As you probably know by now, we had to leave Lisbon in a hurry. Everyone is alive and well. As for the clay tablet, I followed father’s instructions. I keep it with me at all times. Let’s hope that when the time is right, our sons or their descendents will receive a sign from G’d, and return this burden to its rightful place, wherever it may be. I miss you brother and I pray G’d we can be reunited before long. If you wish to write to us, we’re now in Cambridge. Hildersham’
I remember thinking it was a rather odd letter, but not until now did it make any sense’.
‘Well, I still don’t understand…’ said Mina.
‘I do’, said Jack, ‘the tablet which was found by Ari’s search party was entrusted to this guy or his family in Portugal, and the tablet’s now in England’.
‘Exactly’, said Eli, ‘or at least it was there in the 18th century.’
‘But where in England? And what were their names?’ asked Mina.
‘The man signed his letter ‘Hildersham’ from Cambridge, so I guess we have the answer.
Eli sighed. ‘I am too old for all this. But you should continue.’
‘We will,’ said Mina.
‘Then go to Cambridge at once. A number of scholars from Cambridge came to visit Safed years ago. They worked at a Research centre in the University Library. I’m sure they could help.’
Suddenly, Jack braked hard and the van juddered to a halt. A car was blocking the road up ahead and because the road was very narrow he could not do a U-turn. Three men had jumped out of the car and were flashing their torches up the road in their direction. They were armed and pointed their guns at the van.
‘Oh my god,’ said Mina.
‘Maybe it’s the plain clothes police,’ said Eli.
‘I don’t think so’ hissed Jack, ‘Stay still!’
The men slowly approached the van. Jack waited until they were almost at arms length from the passenger door, then suddenly reversed at full-throttle. One of the men fired his weapon, but the van was already out of range. Mina and Eli cringed in terror, as Jack drove the car backwards at high speed into the darkness, scraping against the walls on either side of the road. The men had run back and jumped into their car and were driving fast down the alley after them. They were almost back to the cobbled stone path that led to the Ari shul. There was no way out.
‘I’ll stop the van in the middle of the road, and we’ll have to run for it,’ yelled Jack, ‘Eli, go back to the Ari synagogue and find a place to hide. We’ll hide in the old cemetery.’
The poor man, still clutching his papers, hobbled out of the back of the van and Jack and Mina watched him hobble as quickly as he could back to the synagogue.
‘He’ll be alright. Let’s go,’ said Jack, pulling Mina by the hand.
As they rushed towards the cemetery, they could hear the men climbing over the van. They ran as fast as they could, trying not to fall on the uneven ground.
Safed had known a number of earthquakes and the cemetery was a chaotic assemblage of tombs and paths from different ages. They could hear the men’s heavy steps thumping the ground in hot pursuit. Mina hid behind a tombstone as Jack slowly crept to one side, gun in hand, waiting for the men to arrive. As the first one appeared, he shot at him but missed. Mina started running again. He could not rush after her as he was cornered by two of the gunmen. The third man was catching up with Mina. Jack saw her stumble and lose balance. She dropped her bag in her fall, and for an instant hesitated to pick it up. But as she saw the man fast approaching, she left it where it had fallen in the dust and ran further on. The man stopped to pick up the bag. Jack watched him as he searched with one hand while holding his flash light in the other. He pulled out something and dropped the bag. He then turned round and signalled to the other two to follow. Jack understood at once what this meant. They had the stone tablet. There was no need to pursue Mina or him any longer. They had what they’d come for.
Eli hid in the only place where he felt truly safe, in the Ari’s room. A candle was still burning, but he couldn’t summon up the courage to put it out, even at the price of his own safety. He waited in absolute silence for what seemed an eternity. Suddenly he heard footsteps coming towards him. A tall dark shape entered the softly lit room. Eli clutched the bundle of papers as tightly as he could under his coat. When he saw who the man was, he was surprised and started to rise to his feet, but the man pushed him violently against the back wall and held him there by the throat. Eli‘s eyes widened in shock. The man grabbed the scarf from around the old man’s neck and slowly tightened it around Eli’s neck until he was gasping for breath. Eli’s last sensation was that of his precious papers being wrenched out of his helpless hands.