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Golem and Gollums

© Mary C. Legg

If you walk through Josefov in Prague, undoubtedly, you shall bump into a golem. Ask about golem, and a guide will tell you that the Maharal put his remains in the attic of the Staronova synagogue. If you go around on Pariszka, you can see the ladder. To go there is forbidden.

In the 16th century, Jews and Judaism were under Christian persecution, expulsed from countries and frequently suferring from the effectiveness of the Inquisition. Rabbi Loew, known as the Maharal, made a visit to Leopold II. Bishop Thadeusz made life difficult for Prague Jews. To protect his people, the Maharal made a golem.

Golem http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/golem.html (golem and r Loew)

The concept of golem is traced back to the beginnings of time in Bereshit or Genesis 1:27 where God announces to make man in his image. First the Garden was created with plants and animals, and then man placed into it; but man was made from the dust of the earth and a bit of water and then God breathed life into its nostrils.

If man is made in the image of God, then man also has the power and ingenuity to create, as God began creation, but didn't finish it. He left man with the creative faculty to continue the process. But man has his own will and ideas about the world around him, which caused a minor rebellion to choose his own path. He has the power to create and destroy, which includes making a golem of his own.

Making a Golem http://pnews.org/bio/2golem.shtml (how to make a golem)

The origin of the golem story is very old, starting somewhere around the 3d century. The Sefer Yetzirah contains the secret knowledge of the creation of the universe and how to make a golem, but the will must be pure or the golem will become destructive.

Rava's Golem http://www.sff.net/people/d.honigsberg/r... (an essay discussing the creation of golems and Sefer Yetzirah)

This eliminates any success for Shelley's golem, Frankenstein, as it was made with an impure intent. There are different stories regarding the Maharal's golem. Some say that it ended up flooding the home of the rabbi, adapted in Walt Disney's Fantasia in the clip of the Socerer's Apprentice; while others say that the Maharal's wife did not like to see anyone sitting around doing nothing, and so put it to work cleaning the house—a purely selfish motive, thus destroying it.

The Golem: background and summary http://www.umich.edu/~engb415/literature... (golem and the water - socerer's apprentice)

Rabbi Loew and the Golem of Prague