Golem

Abstract

The term “golem” refers to several distinct, albeit overlapping, forms of reflection on artificial creation: Talmudic commentaries that compare Adam, the first human, to a golem at the stage prior to his body’s reception of a soul or breath; mystical rituals of the medieval period that describe the creation and animation of a clay anthropoid; modern literary folktales that portray the formation and uses of a clay servant and protector. The term “golem” appears only once in the Bible, in Psalm 139, used in the possessive form, “my golem” (golmi) and possibly indicating a formless entity or an embryo. The modern term “golem” stems from a corpus of narratives composed by Jewish and Christian European authors and recorded starting in the 17th century. The folkloric golem needs to be distinguished from the golem of Jewish mystical and philosophical texts, since these latter medieval works include ritual formulas and techniques for mystical activities, rather than narratives concerning Jewish creators and communities. Mystical writings on the golem often constitute commentaries on the ancient Sefer yetsira (The Book of Creation), a work that does not mention the golem but includes discussions of creation through the Hebrew alphabet. The modern golem has been commonly imagined as a clay figure with larger-than-human proportions and strength. Modern golem tales have also borrowed from ancient sources the motif of the golem’s muteness, which indicates that the clay creature does not possess human intelligence even when it understands orders. The golem’s animation has largely proceeded according to one of two methods: a rabbi engraves the Hebrew word for truth, emet, on its forehead, or else places in its mouth a parchment containing the ineffable Hebrew name for God, Ha-shem ha-meforash. Pursuant to animation, the golem traditionally works for the rabbi, functioning as a beadle, or, in 20th-century stories, as a protector of the ghetto from anti-Semitic attacks. Deanimation can take several forms as well: through the erasure of the letter aleph, emet becomes met (dead); the parchment with the ineffable name can be removed from the golem; a ritual can be performed, reversing the direction of animation and returning the clay figure to dust. In the Prague narratives that draw on the historical figure of the 16th-century Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the Maharal of Prague, the golem needs to rest on the Sabbath and when the rabbi forgets to remove the animating formula on the Sabbath eve the golem runs amok and begins to destroy the ghetto until it is subdued. Modern adaptations of the golem story, drawing on these different versions, have appeared across a wide range of cultures, languages, and media, including Czech, Danish, English, French, German, Hebrew, and Yiddish literature, theater, opera, cinema, comics, and television. The golem has inspired literary adaptations for children and young adults and has also become a figure in contemporary video games such as Minecraft and Assassin’s Creed.