Prague has always been considered a city of sorcerers, magicians, astrologers and alchemists. The most famous sorcerer of the Czech capital is Doctor Faust, praised by Goethe. However, enough has already been written about him. Meanwhile, among the inhabitants of Prague, there were less famous, but no less interesting characters. For example, the mysterious Rabbi Ben Bezalel and the famous sorcerer Zhito.
Yehuda Lev ben Bezalel lived in the 17th century and was well versed in various sciences. He studied not only Talmud and Kabbalah, but also mathematics and astrology, and thanks to his knowledge he could do amazing things. Once the king of Bohemia, Rudolph, wanted the rabbi to show him and his courtiers the biblical patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with their sons.
After some hesitation, Bezalel agreed. However, he warned that no one should laugh when the sacred shadows appeared. And indeed, in a deep niche where the magician was, figures began to appear one after another, in which everyone recognized Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the rest.
Shadows floated in front of the audience, and then seemed to dissolve into thin air. All were silent, holding their breath. But then the red-haired, freckled son of Jacob Nevfalim appeared. His sight made the king laugh, and he could not restrain himself. As soon as Rudolph laughed, the visions melted away, and all those present screamed in surprise and horror: the painted ceiling of the hall suddenly caved in and began to sink.
People wanted to rush to the exit, but could not budge, as if petrified. Then ben Bezalel, stepping out of the niche, stretched out his hands and recited some kind of spell. The ceiling stopped dropping, but it never came back up. No one else entered that room; the doors were locked forever.
The Austrian writer and mystic philosopher of the first half of the twentieth century Gustav Meyrink revived the legend of the clay Golem created by Ben Bezalel, linking it with the rites of initiation, magical initiation.
It is said that the “great rabbi” sculpted a human figure out of clay, performed a magic ritual over it, summoning the natural elements that govern the Universe to help, and then put a “shem” - a leaf with a mystical tetragram - into the mouth of a clay statue. And his creation came to life. The golem served Bezalel, did housework, and helped in the synagogue. This servant did not need food and drink, rest and sleep. He worked tirelessly all week.
But every Friday evening, on the eve of "Shabes" (the service in honor of the Sabbath holiday), the rabbi took the "shem" out of the Golem's mouth, and it again turned into a clay idol, freezing in the corner. However, as soon as Saturday passed, when, according to the Jewish faith, it was impossible to work, Bezalel again "revived" the doll with the help of the "shema".
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Once the rabbi, going to the synagogue for "shabes", forgot to pull the "shem" out of the mouth of his earthen servant. But as soon as he began to read a prayer, people came running to the prayer room and reported that the Golem was raging. Without finishing the psalm, Bezalel hurried home. There he found a complete destruction: broken dishes, broken furniture, things and books lying on the floor.
In the courtyard, the Golem was already killing domestic animals and a bird, uprooting trees from the ground. The rabbi walked towards his creation, staring at him and holding out his arms. The golem froze in place, and the owner pulled the magic "shem" out of his mouth. Immediately, the clay servant fell to the ground and remained motionless. Bezalel returned to the synagogue.
One of the most famous Prague medieval sorcerers is the "court" sorcerer of King Wenceslas - Zhito. Alois Irasek in his book Old Czech Legends writes that Zhito "… knew how to bewitch anyone and change his figure and face at will". For example, a sorcerer went to the royal palace in a dark cloth dress and suddenly he was wearing a silk caftan, colorful trousers and shoes with shiny buckles.
Zhitot liked to make fun of the courtiers. Once at dinner with the king, he made the king's jester's hands numb in front of everyone's eyes and turned first into horns and then into horse hooves. This amused everyone very much, except, of course, the poor jester himself. Finally, the king asked Zhito to restore the former appearance of the jester's upper limbs. The sorcerer began to make passes over his victim with his hands and read spells. The hooves turned into bovine and only then into human.
However, the author of the book "Mystical Prague" Vadim Burlak believes that in this case we are not talking about witchcraft at all, but about hypnosis. Zhito was not a magician, he just deftly knew how to fool people's heads, inspire them with something that actually does not exist.
TRINITY MARGARITA