ARTHUR A. COHEN
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removed , ancient buildings and monuments long ago refaced and
renovated . There is, however, one monument which Kafka must
have passed a thousand times and to which , nowhere in his writings,
can I find direct reference . Upon the Charles Bridge, several blocks
from the center of his days, "past statues of saints with their faint
glimmer of light" stands a crucifix haloed by golden letters in the
Hebrew alphabet proclaiming the
kedushah
(Holy , holy, holy is the
Lord of Hosts) . Beneath this strange and mysterious conjunction
appears the explanation .
In
1609, in penance for the desecration of
the crucifix by an accused Jew of Prague, the community of Israel
was obliged to erect above the slighted divinity its own prayer of
sanctification. The explanation appears to this day in three lan–
guages , Latin , German , and Czech . This is the triple throng of
Kafka's Prague.
