GOLEM

In Jewish folklore, a 'golem' (גולם, sometimes, as in Yiddish, pronounced ''goilem'') is an animated being created entirely from inanimate matter. In modern Hebrew the word ''golem'' literally means 'cocoon', but can also mean "fool", "silly", or even "stupid". The name appears to derive from the word ''gelem'' (גלם), which means "raw material".

Contents

History

Origins of the word

Earliest stories

Owning and activating golems

The classic narrative

The hubris theme

The golem in European culture

The Golem in the Czech Republic

In modern culture

Literature

External links

History

Origins of the word

The word ''golem'' is used in the Bible to refer to an embryonic or incomplete substance: Psalm 139:16 uses the word גלמי, meaning ''my unshaped form'' (in Hebrew, words are derived by adding vowels to triconsonantal roots, here, גלם). The Mishnah uses the term for an uncultivated person ("Seven characteristics are in an uncultivated person, and seven in a learned one", Pirkei Avoth 5:7). Similarly, golems are often used today in metaphor either as brainless lunks or as entities serving man under controlled conditions but hostile to him in others. Similarly, it is a Yiddish slang insult for someone who is clumsy or slow.

Earliest stories

The earliest stories of golems date to early Judaism. Adam is described in the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 38b) as initially created as a golem when his dust was "kneaded into a shapeless hunk". Like Adam, all golems are created from mud. They were a creation of those who were very holy and close to God. A very holy person was one who strove to approach God, and in that pursuit would gain some of God's wisdom and power. One of these powers was the creation of life. No matter how holy a person became, however, a being created by that person would be but a shadow of one created by God.
Early on, the notion developed that the main disability of the golem was its inability to speak. In Sanhedrin 65b, is the description of Raba creating a golem using the Sefer Yetzirah. He sent the golem to Rav Zeira; Rav Zeira spoke to the golem, but he did not answer. Said Rav Zeira, "I see that you were created by one of our colleagues; return to your dust." It is said that if a golem were made able to speak, that would give it a soul, and—because a golem cannot be made perfectly—that ability could make it very dangerous.

Owning and activating golems

Having a golem servant was seen as the ultimate symbol of wisdom and holiness, and there are many tales of golems connected to prominent rabbis throughout the Middle Ages.
Other attributes of the golem were gradually added over time. In many tales the Golem is inscribed with magic or religious words that keep it animated. Writing one of the names of God on its forehead, a slip of paper in its mouth, or enscribed on its body, or writing the word ''Emet'' (אמת, 'truth' in the Hebrew language) on its forehead are examples of such words. By erasing the first letter aleph in ''Emet'' to form ''Met'' (מת, 'dead' in Hebrew) the golem could be deactivated. Another way is by writing a specific incantation in the owner's blood on calfskin parchment, and placing it in the mouth. Removing the parchment will deactivate the golem. It is likely that this is the same incantation that the Rabbi recites in the classic narrative.

The classic narrative

The most famous golem narrative involves Rabbi Judah Loew the Maharal of Prague, a 16th century rabbi. He is reported to have created a golem to defend the Prague ghetto of Josefov from Anti-Semitic attacks. The story of the Golem first appeared in print in 1847 in a collection of Jewish tales entitled ''Galerie der Sippurim'', published by Wolf Pascheles of Prague. About sixty years later, a fictional account was published by Yudl Rosenberg (1909).
According to the legend, the Emperor made an edict proclaiming that the Jews in Prague were to be either expelled or killed (depending on the version of the story). A golem could be made of clay from the banks of the Vltava river in Prague. Following the prescribed rituals, the Rabbi built the Golem and made him come to life by reciting special incantations in Hebrew. The Rabbi's intention was to have the Golem protect the Jewish community from harm. As Rabbi Loew's Golem grew bigger, he also became more violent and started killing the Gentiles (non-Jews) and spreading fear. Some versions also add that the Golem turns on his creator and attacks either his creator alone or the creator and the Jews as well.
In the face of the strength demonstrated and violence perpetrated by the Golem, the Emperor begs Rabbi Loew to destroy the Golem, and in return he would promise that the persecution of and violence towards the Jews would stop. The Rabbi accepted this offer. To destroy the Golem, he rubbed out the first letter of the word "emet" or "aemaeth" (God's truth) from the golem's forehead to make the Hebrew word "met" or "maeth", meaning death. It was made clear to the Emperor that the Golem of Prague's remains would be stored in a coffin in the attic of the Altneuschul in Prague, and it can be summoned again if needed.
It is said that the body of Rabbi Loew's golem lies in the attic where the genizah of the Old-New Synagogue in Prague is kept. A rabbi visited the attic in the late 20th century, and came down "white and shaking". A legend is told of a Nazi agent during World War II ascending the attic and trying to stab the golem, but perishing instead. The attic is not open to the general public.
The existence of a golem is sometimes a mixed blessing. Golems are not intelligent - if commanded to perform a task, they will take the instructions perfectly literally.
In some incarnations of the legend of the Maharal's golem, the golem has powers that can aid it in its tasks. These include invisibility, a heated touch, and the ability to use the Maharal's walking stick to summon spirits from the dead. This last power was often crucial, as the golem could summon dead witnesses, which the medieval Prague courts would allow to testify.

The hubris theme

In all Jewish kabbalistic descriptions of Golems, they are incapable of disobeying the one who created them, but in one version of the story, Rabbi Eliyahu of Chelm created a Golem that grew bigger and bigger until the rabbi was unable to kill it without trickery, whereupon it fell over its creator and crushed him. The hubris theme in this version is similar to that in the stories of the monster of ''Frankenstein'' and of the broomstick in ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice''. It remains a standard feature of golems in popular culture.

The golem in European culture

In the late nineteenth century the golem was adopted by mainstream European society. Most notably Gustav Meyrink's 1915 novel ''Der Golem'' based on the tales of the golem created by Judah Low ben Bezalel. This book inspired a classic set of expressionistic silent movies, Paul Wegener's Golem series, of which especially '' (also released as ''The Golem'', 1920, USA 1921) is famous. Another famous treatment from the same era is H. Leivick's 1921 Yiddish-language "dramatic poem in eight sections" ''The Golem''. Also notable is Julien Duvivier's "Le Golem" (1936), a sequel to the Wegener film. Nobel prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer also wrote a version of the legend.
These tales saw a dramatic change, and some would argue a Christianization , of the golem. The golem became a creation of overambitious and overreaching mystics, who would inevitably be punished for their blasphemy, as in Mary Shelley's ''Frankenstein'' and the alchemical homunculus. The Homunculus appears occasionally in the folklore of Eastern Europe as a construct made from natural materials such as dirt, roots, insects, feces, and other substances. In these stories the creature is revived through incantation and acts as a vehicle for the astrally projected mind of a sorcerer.

The Golem in the Czech Republic

The Golem is a popular figure in the Czech Republic. There are several restaurants and other businesses named after him. Strongman René Richter goes by the nickname "Golem", and a Czech monster truck outfit calls itself the "Golem Team".
The Golem had a main role in the 1951 Czech movie Císařův pekař a pekařův císař (released in the US as ''The Emperor and the Golem'').

In modern culture

:''For more stories and characters named "Golem" see Golem (disambiguation) and ''
(1920)]]
The golem concept has found its way into a wide variety of books, comic books, films, television shows, and games. This use covers a wide range, from "golem" used as an umbrella term to refer to automata and simulacra made of anything from steel to flesh, via clay monsters called golems, to full adoptions of the golem ''mythos''.
These are some notable contemporary uses of the golem ''mythos'':

★ The Golem of Prague has appeared in stories across many media, including the novels ''The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay'', in which Josef Kavalier helps save the Golem of Prague from Nazi invasion, ''A Calculus of Angels'', ''Foucault's Pendulum'', ''He, She and It'', and Pete Hamill's ''Snow in August''.

★ Also inspired in part by the story of the Golem of Prague, Ted Chiang wrote a short story ''Seventy-Two Letters'' which explores the role of language in the creation of golems. The story won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History in 2000. It can be found in the collection ''Stories of Your Life and Others''.

★ The first trilogy of movies about Rabbi Judah Loew and his golem were ''Der Golem'' (1915), the ''Golem and the Dancing Girl'' (1917), and ''Der Golem, wie er in die welt kam'' (1920) Directed by Paul Wegener. Only the last film, which is a prequel, has survived, though stills exist of the earlier films. This Golem is the main subject of the British film "", Gold Star Productions Limited (1966), staring Roddy McDowell as Arthur Pimm, who evokes (brings to life) the Golem. "]]

★ Edward Einhorn's ''Golem Stories'' appearing in his book of plays entitled ''The Golem, Methuselah, and Shylock'' includes a golem that has the soul of a young man who was the fiance of the Rabbi's daughter.

★ In the computer game Diablo II, the necromancer character can summon four kinds of golems. The traditional clay golem, a blood golem which shares hit points and mana with its creator, an iron golem summoned from metal items, or a fire golem which inflicts fire damage on surrounding enemies.

Literature

Golem! Danger, Deliverance and Art, , Emily B., Bilski, The Jewish Museum, , ISBN 8-7334-0493-0
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism, , Geoffrey, Dennis, Llewellyn Worldwide, , ISBN 0-7387-0905-0
The Golem of Prague: A New Adaptation of the Documented Stories of the Golem of Prague, , Gershon, Winkler, Judaica Press, , ISBN 0-9108-1825-8
The Golem Remembered 1909-1980: Variations of a Jewish Legend, , Arnold L., Goldsmith, Wayne State University Press, , ISBN 0-8143-16832-8
Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid, , Mosche, Idel, State University of New York Press, , ISBN 0-7914-0160-X

★ Several works by Byron Sherwin

External links

★ Historical Figures from the Golem Legend

★ Background on the Golem Legends

★ Rava's Golem (essay in the Summer '96 issue of the ''Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts'')

★ The Golem

★ The Golem in Literature, Film, and Stage

★ Prague's Golem

★ The Golem Project - Automatic design and manufacture of robotic lifeforms
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