Whoever saves a single life saves the entire world . . .
In 1592, as the Catholic Church and the Protestants battle for
control of the soul of Europe, Prague is a relatively safe harbor in
the religious storm. Ruled by Emperor Rudolph II, the city is a refuge
for Jews who live within the gated walls of its ghetto. But their lives
are jeopardized when a young Christian girl is found with her throat
slashed in a Jewish shop on the eve of Passover. Charged with blood
libel, the shopkeeper and his family are arrested. All that stands in
the way of a rabid Christian mob is a clever Talmudic scholar, newly
arrived from Poland, named Benyamin Ben-Akiva. Pleading the
shopkeeper's innocence to the city's sheriff, Benyamin is given three
days to bring the true killer to justice.
But the search will not be easy. Hampered by rabbinic law, and with
no allies or connections, Benyamin has only his wits, knowledge, and
faith to guide him on his quest—a trail that weaves from the city's
teeming streets to the quiet of a shul, from the forbidden back rooms
of a ghetto brothel to the emperor's lavish palace.
The Talmud says many things in life depend on mazl, luck.
Fortunately, Benyamin is blessed, for an unlikely group of heroes will
risk their own lives to help him discover the truth: Anya, a Christian
butcher's daughter; the renowned reformist rabbi Judah Loew; a wise
herbal healer known as Kassandra the Bohemian; and even the emperor
himself.
Who would most profit from the girl's murder—and from having the
entire ghetto sealed off? Is the killer a Christian indebted to the
girl's apothecary father? Or a messianic Jew bent on the destruction of
his people to precipitate the Messiah's coming? The desperate search
for answers is complicated by the arrival of a new Holy Inquisitor
determined to root out witchcraft and heresy, and reclaim the fractious
Bohemian territory for Rome. With time running out, Benyamin must dare
the impossible—and commit the unthinkable—to save the Jews of Prague .
. . and his own life.
Infused with history and spiritual insight, rich in atmosphere and color, The Fifth Servant
vividly re-creates sixteenth-century Prague—a bustling city where
superstition, ignorance, and hatred clash with curiosity, knowledge,
and tolerance; a world in which innocent lives are swept away by
political and religious struggles, and righteous men and women
sacrifice everything in the name of justice and truth.
