Golem

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Artist Rendition of a Golem

In Jewish folklore, a golem is an animated being which is crafted from inanimate material. In Hebrew, the word golem denotes "fool", "silly", "stupid", or "dumb". It literally means "cocoon". The name appears to derive from the word gelem, which means raw material.

In Jewish tradition, the golem is most widely known as an artificial creature, created by magic to serve its creator. In Talmudic legend, Adam is called a golem, meaning "body without a soul" for the first twelve hours of his existence.

Golems are mystical creatures created out of clay and dust, in the form of a man, subservient to its creator, though it can become uncontrollable. Tradition says that golems can be created only by Rabbis or wizards, rarely by the common man.

Golems follow the instructions of their master without question, extremely strong and practically indestructible. They are good at carrying out menial tasks and make great town defense systems. Golems are traditionally incapable of speech, genderless, and they have no soul, being the creation of man and not of God.

1 History
2 Earliest Stories
3 Owning and Activating Golems
4 Classic Narrative
5 External Links
6 Relevant discussion threads on AboveTopSecret.com

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History

The word golem is used in the Bible to refer to an embryonic or incomplete substance. The Mishnah uses the term for an uncultivated person.

Today, Golems are used primarily in metaphor either as brainless lunks or as entities serving man under controlled conditions but enemies in others. It is a Yiddish slang insult for someone who is clumsy or slow.

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Earliest Stories

The earliest stories of golems date to early Judaism. The Talmud describes Adam as initially being created as a golem when his dust was transformed into a shapeless hunk. Traditionally, all golems are created from mud, being the creation of those who are very holy and close to God. No matter how holy a person became, the being they created would always be but a shadow of one created by God.

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Owning and Activating Golems

Having a golem servant was seen as the ultimate symbol of wisdom and holiness. In many tales, the Golem is inscribed with magic or religious words that keep it animated. Writing the word Emet on its forehead would activate it, while erasing the first letter, leaving the word Met (or dead) on the forehead would deactivate the golem.

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Classic Narrative

The most famous golem tale involves Rabbi Judah Loew of the Maharal of Prague, a 16th century rabbi. He reportedly created a golem to defend the Prague ghetto of Josefov from anti-semitic attacks.

Following the prescribed rituals, the Rabbi built the golem and made him come to life by reciting special incantations in Hebrew. As the golem grew bigger, it also grew more violent and started killing people, spreading fear. Rabbi Loew was promised that the violence against the Jews would stop if the golem was destroyed. To destroy the golem, he rubbed out the first letter of the word emet from the golem's forehead to make the Hebrew word met, meaning death.

According to legend, the Golem of Prague's remains are stored in a coffin in the attic of the Old New Synagogue Altneuschul in Prague, and it can be summoned again if needed.

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