Of Jews, Gingerbread, and Jesus

Before dinner, I took a couple of hours with two colleagues to stroll the streets of the Old City in Prague. The buildings just made me smile. They have decorations all over them, put there just to look pretty, and are often brightly painted. Little gargoyles, little curlicues, swirly carving, and geometric architecture beckon wherever the eye lands. I had learned to call this sort of thing “gingerbread,” but was surprised that some of my colleagues hadn’t heard the term. Anyway, it was fabulous. [Later, after seeing lots of written Czech, I realized that their very alphabet is bedecked with gingerbread, too. Many letters look Roman, but have some kind of decoration on them. Perhaps ornament is embedded in their national character].

Amazingly, Prague was not destroyed in WWII or in the subsequent Soviet era, so many buildings stand in their original form from centuries ago. Wow!!

I had no free day to look around, but did sneak in about two hours before dinner on the only evening I was there. I went with two work colleagues, and we started in the main square, which features a huge clock tower, the Tyn Church, and other architectural sights. The clock tower is like a large version of those clunky wristwatches that have astronomical time, depth, world time zones, etc. It's got lots of painting and statues around it. Apparently it's quite a show when it opens up and chimes the hour, but alas, we didn't manage to catch it in action.

Then we headed up to the Jewish Quarter, where we strolled narrow cobblestone streets and viewed synagogues. It harked back to the time of the Inquisition, when the Jews of Prague were (as often happens) reviled as moneylenders and shunned from mainstream society. The myth of the Golem originates here, with the Rabbi Joseph (indeed, this section of town is now called Josefov). If you have ever read Marge Piercy's He, She, and It-- and if you haven't, you should; it's great sci fi-- you might recognize some of the names and locations around the area. We wanted to go in the Jewish cemetary, but it was closed because it was late in the day.

So we headed down the river and crossed the Charles Bridge. This is an amazing pedestrian bridge lined with a couple dozen large statues. I wished for more background knowledge, because I'm sure there is much history contained in these images. But I contented myself with admiring the workmanship and the artistic beauty. One that caught my eye was a statue of Jesus on the cross, surrounded by.... Hebrew lettering! This is, of course, historically accurate, but it is not common to see Jesus linked with Hebrew in modern times. Sometimes he is shown with a few characters meaning something like "Jesus, King of the Jews," but this was a whole phrase arched over his body. And without a camera, I couldn't bring back a picture of it to be read by my friend who knows Hebrew. Does anyone out in cyberspace know what the Hebrew on the Charles Bridge Jesus says?

If you look up from the Charles Bridge, you see a fine view of Prague Castle. I was instantly reminded of Dracula. The castle is huge and imposing, and mildly sinister-looking with its dark stonework and high towers. I would love to poke around the museums and gardens on its premises-- I hear you can get a tour of the torture chamber!-- but that will have to wait for another trip.

It was quite a chilly evening, despite being mid-June. The wind was really whipping on the bridge, so we settled down at a cafe with heat lamps to sip wine on the river. After some time, I mosied on from my colleagues since I was meeting other people for dinner. We did well for two hours. We saw a lot, but didn't try to pack in so much that we were rushed and missed the details.