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JUDAISM DISCOVERED 38 MICHAEL HOFFMAN
from sea to sea." 11 It seems like an honorable act of character for a pope to
say that about a savant who founded a church whose bedrock maxim was
that the pope is the Antichrist. Pius IV, at least in this particular instance,
tried to search for what there was that was good in his bitter enemy, and that
is a trait we admire.
We will conclude this section with the observation that, of all the rabbis
we have encountered in the pages of history, we are most intrigued by
Aharon of Titiov (1740? - 1827), one of the shrewdest in all of Judaism; a
master of magic, masquerade, the false-face and the false-front. Everything
about him was shrouded in illusion. Of him we would state what Charles H.
Fort said of Cagliostro, that he was a personification of the inherent
trickiness of the material universe. The old proverb has it that one needs a
long spoon to dine with the devil. As Robert Littell writes, "You'll notice the
proverb doesn't suggest you shouldn't dine with the devil. 12 On the contrary,
it assumes you will one day be obliged to, and merely advises you to take a
sensible precaution." 13 If we could converse with Rav Aharon among his
talmidei at Staro Konstantinov (Old Constantine) in Ukraine, over a bottle of
schnapps, (using a long straw of course), there would be some questions we
would dearly wish to put to him.
11 Pope Pius IV (reigned 1559 - 1565).
12 Luke 7:36; 14:1.
13 Vicious Circle: A Novel of Complicity (2006).