Golem Story as a Metaphor to Explain
the "Phantom Twin," (PT) Created During Early Childhood Conditioning
The Golem story is a dramatic tale of supernatural forces invoked to save an oppressed people, Golem offers a thought-provoking look at the consequences of creating a split in the psyche that develops powers beyond the human's ability to control it.
As a metaphor it shows the creation of the "Phantom Twin* in the psyche of children by their
caregivers. This takes place during early childhood and adolescence when the child succumbs to the dominating worldview of the parents and other authority figures. The child has little choice but
to adapt to and adopt the caregiver's 'normal1 concepts and rules, Early on in this relationship with the adults, the child's psyche splits into two personalities. One aspect remains as the
original child. The other, a phantom child, becomes a powerful force to protect the original child from feelings, pain and loss,
The original child, is the one we want the world to see - good, talented, the best, the chosen one, and the hero or the heroine. This child lives in fear of being found out, being accused of wrong behavior, making poor choices or being disconnected from it's perceived source of safety.
The other twin, the phantom child, is the one who was psychically split off from the original child. This occurred when the adult's behavior and language created confusion and emotional distress around the child's lifeline or connection to the caregiver. The phantom child exists to protect the original child from emotional and physical pain and loss,
The following glossary describes various aspect of the phantom child:
Golem: an artificial human endowed with life through ritual and language.
Phantom: something apparent to sense, but with no substantial existence - as a specter - something that haunts or perturbs the mind.
Shadow: partial darkness or obscurity within a part of space from which rays from a source of
light are cut off by an interposed opaque body; a reflected image; shelter from danger or observation; an imperfect and faint representation; an imitation of something; the dark figure cast upon a surface by a body intercepting the rays from a source of light; a shaded or darker portion of a picture; an attenuated form or a vestigial remnant; an inseparable companion or follower.
Shade: comparative darkness or obscurity owing to interception of the rays of light; relative obscurity or retirement; the shadows that gather as darkness comes on; used to signal the
similarity between a previously encountered person or situation and one at hand; something that intercepts or shelters from light, sun, or heat: as a device partially covering a lamp so as to reduce glare; a flexible screen usually mounted on a roller for regulating the light or the view
through a window.
Survival: the continuation of life or existence despite hardship, privation, affliction, suffering, distress, or loss.
Binary: involving a choice or condition of two alternatives
Persistent: to go on resolutely or stubbornly in spite of opposition, importunity, or warning; to remain unchanged or fixed in a specified character, condition, or position.
Twin: bom with one other or as a pair at one birth; made up of two similar, related, or connected members or parts; paired in a close or necessary relationship.
Persona: an individual's social fagade. mask or front; the role in life the individual is playing; the personality that a person (as an actor or politician) projects in public.
Phantom Twin
Golem-"Yossele" From the commentary of Rabbi Eliezar Rokeach on the Book of Formation.
"An initiate should not do it alone, but should
always be
accompanied by one or two colleagues."
"... must be made of
virgin soil, taken from a place where no man
has ever dug."
Original Twin
Comparison of the Creation of a 'Golem' and a Child's "Phantom Twin" (PT)
Child Conditioned Unconsciously
• Raising of child involves a
number of adults and authority
figures. They are unconscious of how their behavior splits the
child's psyche in two.
• Caregivers shun asking for
guidance and feedback.
* The infant child seen as an
animal that must be trained. • The child is tainted from birth
by the unfulfilled phantom twin
in the parent.
• Thoughtforms, projected by
parents and other authority
figures on the virgin child, cause a split in the child's
psyche.
• The infant phantom twin is
born.
• Child is disoriented, confused.
Persistently acts out to get attention. Result does not
satisfy inner emptiness, yet
behavior is repeated.
• Parents unconscious of the
effect their behavior has on the creation of the persistent
persona.
• Parents unaware of the effect their behavior has on the
"The soil must be kneaded with pure spring water, taken directly from the ground."
"If this water is placed in any kind of vessel, it
Child Conditioned Consciously
• Raising of child involves a
number of adults and authority
figures. They are conscious of how their behavior splits the
child's psyche in two.
• Caregivers seek guidance and
feedback from others. • The infant child is like
untainted, virgin soil.
• Thoughtforms, projected by
parents and other authority
figures on the virgin child are
consciously understood
• The infant phantom twin is
born
• Child learns to adapt and
persist within appropriate boundary & signals to get filled.
• Parents conscious of the effect
their behavior has on the creation of the persistent
persona.
• Parents aware of the effect their behavior has on the
can no longer be used."
"The people making the Golem must purify themselves totally before engaging in this activity, both
physically and
spiritually."
"While making the
Golem, they must
wear clean white
vestments..."
"One must not make
any mistake or error in the pronunciation..."
"nointerruption whatsoever may
occur..."
"... primarily not a
physical procedure, but rather, a highly
advanced meditative technique."
"By chanting the
appropriate letter
arrays together with
the letters of the
Tetragrammaton, the
initiate could form a
very real mental
image of a human
being, limb by limb..."
"Once the conceptual
Golem was
completed, this
spiritual potential
could be transferred to
a clay form and
actually animate it."
"This was the process through which a
physical Golem would be brought to life."
The Maharal
child's development, the PT creates a gap between it's
thoughtform and the real-child. Parent refers to child as if it was the PT.
child's development, they address the PT thoughtform
differently from the real-child. Parents differentiate between
child and PT.
• Parents must understand their
own PT so as not to project it
on the child.
• Parents understand their
hardwiring and projection.
• Parents understand they
cannot sustain clear boundaries and behaviors
alone. Must agree to receive
others feedback.
• Mistakes admitted to and
talked about openly in front of
the child.
• Stress, exhaustion, anger,
angst, negativity cause by addictive - compulsive
behavior can influence the learning environment.
• Parent goes voluntarily down
into their own psyche to understand self.
• Parents develop a philosophy
to live by and pass it on to the
child.
• Inclusive, paradoxical, diverse,
assumes good and non- projecting.
• Child leaves to fulfill their
hearts desire and soul
purpose.
• Lives by healthy model of
relationships.
• Parents rely on parent-child
bond, learned values and a
healthy relationship model to
bring the child to fulfillment.
• Parents teach the relationship
model they have learned. • Phantom twin naturally
• Child leaves home to find
what's missing.
• Hearts desire nor souls
purpose cannot surface. • Lives by hardwiring.
• Parent relies on school and
government systems to bring
child to fulfillment.
• Parents cannot give a
relationship model they have not learned.
• Phantom Twin turns on the
reportedly deanimated Yossele after he had fulfilled his purpose and locked his body in the attic of Prague's "Old-New Synagogue." It is a matter of record that the Maharal enacted a ban on anyone
entering the attic of the "Old-New
Synagogue" and it is widely believed that thebodyofYossele the Golem rests there to this day.
Winkler, Gershon. The Golem of Prague, The
Judaica Press, New
York, 1994.
Kaplan, Aryeh. Sefer
Yetsirah: The Book of
Creation, in Theory
and Practice. Samuel
Weiser Inc., York
Beach, 1990.
creator.
• Continues to act as overseer
all of the adult life.
seperates from it's creator, but
does not turn on it to distroy it. • Phantom Twin is no longer
needed to oversee the adults life and is given rest in a
accessable, yet safe place.
••
Golem
Notes on the relationship between the Golem and the Survival Child.
The Golem is created during early childhood from the natural conditioning (rules learned on how to get along with others and staying safe in general) and from 'normal" conditioning (parents and other authority figures hardwired conditioning imposed on the child).
meaning "something shapeless, an embryo," Incomplete, insect's cocoon, clod, a clumsy person and a fool, not fully created, hence a monster, an automation
is an artificial figure resembling a human being, often created from clay or mud, and endowed
with life by a rabbi drawing selected passages of the Torah
of a robot-like being consisting of matter artificially brought to life and capable of threatening
its creator.
the product of a legendary act of creation through language
something like 'unformed material'
which inspired fear in the heart of his master can be understood as a warning against the
unthinking use of magical powers, which become too much for us, making us lose control the mythical clay creature of human form made in Prague by Rabbi Judah Loew Ben Bezalel
to protect the Jews from a pogrom.
To complete the Golem and put life in it a piece of paper with the word "Truth" was put in its
mouth.
The Maharal created his Golem, named "Yossele," to help save the Jews of Prague from the
blood libel. (For those of you who do not know, the blood libel was the belief that Jews used
the blood of a Christian child during the Passover Seder.
This malicious libel was frequently invoked to explain the disappearance of a child, and it was not uncommon for a dead or murdered Christian child to be planted in a Jewish house, often
by a priest who would then "discover" this child and lead the masses on a murderous rampage through the ghetto, during which much Jewish property could be confiscated for the
church.)
The Maharal reportedly deanimated Yossele after he had fulfilled his purpose and locked his
body in the attic of Prague's "Old-New Synagogue." It is a matter of record that the Maharal enacted a ban on anyone entering the attic of the "Old-New Synagogue" and it is widely
believed that the body of Yossele the Golem rests there to this day.
How to Make a Golem
Instructions for making a Golem, from the commentary of Rabbi Eliezar Rokeach on the Book of
Formation.
How does one actually make a golem? Rashi (10th century) commenting on the Talmudic
account cited above explains that Rava made his Golem "by means of the Book of Formation"
and all the sources agree that this is how a Golem is made. The procedure is described by Rabbi
Aryeh Kaplan:
An initiate should not do it alone, but should always be accompanied by one or two colleagues. The Golem must be made of virgin soil, taken from a place where no man has ever dug. The soil must be kneaded with pure spring water, taken directly from the ground. If this water is placed in
any kind of vessel, it can no longer be used. The people making the Golem must purify themselves totally before engaging in this activity, both physically and spiritually. While making
the Golem, they must wear clean white vestments...One must not make any mistake or error in
the pronunciation...no interruption whatsoever may occur...
There is also evidence that creating a Golem was primarily not a physical procedure, but rather, a
highly advanced meditative technique. By chanting the appropriate letter arrays together with the letters of the Tetragrammaton, the initiate could form a very real mental image of a human being,
limb by limb...Once the conceptual Golem was completed, this spiritual potential could be transferred to a clay form and actually animate it. This was the process through which a physical
Golem would be brought to life. Golem References
Winkler, Gershon. The Golem of Prague. The Judaica Press, New York, 1994.
• Kaplan, Aryeh. Sefer Yetsirah: The Book of Creation, in Theory and Practice. Samuel Weiser
Inc., York Beach, 1990.
Golem is a dramatic tale of supernatural forces invoked to save an oppressed people. Golem offers a thought-provoking look at the consequences of unleashing power beyond human control - even with the best of intentions.
Shadow
With light, the shadow is the Chinese vin and vanq; shadows are often identified with a person's
soul, and they are considered "dark entities with a nature all of their own" (Biederman, 303). From a Jungian perspective, shadows are the unconscious layers of the personality that are integrated into the structure of the "experienced world" only through the process of individuation.
What is a golem?
The word golem derives from the Hebrew golem, meaning "something shapeless." In Yiddish,
this became goylem.
In Jewish folklore, a golem is an artificial figure resembling a human being, often created from
clay or mud, and endowed with life by a rabbi drawing selected passages of the Torah. The most famous golem story concerns the 16th century cabalist Rabbi Low of Prague, although golems
have also appear in various forms in works such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Karel Capek's R.U.R. (where the word "robot" comes from), Isaac Bashevis Singer's The Golem, and (more
recently) in Fox Television's The X Files and numerous speculative novels. Of course, a character named Golem also appeared in J.R.R. Tolkien's classic series, The Lord of the Rings,
although that character is essentially unrelated to traditional golems.
Golem
An excerpt from Biederman: "A mythical symbolic figure of a robot-like being consisting of matter
artificially brought to life and capable of threatening its creator. Whereas Frankenstein's monster (in Mary Shelley's novel of 1818) is supposedly put to get her from parts of human bodies, the
golem of Jewish myth is the product of a legendary act of creation through language. 'Golem' literally means something like 'unformed material', like Adam before his soul was breathed into him.[The legendary golem which inspired fear in the heart of his master]can be understood as a warning against the unthinking use of magical powers, which become too much for us, making us lose contol" (156).
Yiddish goy/em-Hebrew glem, a shapeless thing, an embryo.]
Golem
you don't remember having built that solemn golem;
and he would have you feel no guilt, though you did mold him.
he, much to his own surprise, still believes you,
although the maze of your own lies now deceives you.
perhaps the evil that you've done will outlive you;
but he will whisper to your bones, "i forgive you."
Copyright 1994 Edward Gaillard. All rights reserved.
If you want to re-distribute this piece, please ask me. You can mail me at: qaillard(5>panix.com
This classic film shot on location in pre-war Czechoslovakia, tells of the legendary Golem, a
popular medieval figure originating in Talmudic Legend. According to legend, the Golem was created to defend the Jews of Prague from a pogrom. A generation later, the Jewish community is again threatened and the Golem is once again called upon, this time to save their spiritual leader from execution.
The first computer built in Israel was aptly named "Golem" after the mythical clay creature of human form made in Prague by Rabbi Judah Loew Ben Bezalel to protect the Jews from a
pogrom. Golem means incomplete. The Hebrew for an insect's cocoon is "Golem". The name is a derivative of the root "GLM" meaning raw as in raw material. The Talmud considers Golem in various passages as a clod, a clumsy person and a fool. In short a Golem is a klutz. To complete the Golem and put life in it a piece of paper with the word "Truth" was put in its mouth. This is an amazing parable. The shaped clod, the hardware, received the software in the form of a written word. In time it became too powerful and independent. A danger to his master, the bucking Golem had to be destroyed. The destruction was achieved by putting a bug in the software. The first letter was removed from "EMETH" - truth and the result was "METH" - dead.
God is to Golem as man is to Machines? in Jewish legend, golem is an embryo Adam, shapeless and not fully created, hence a monster, an automation.
Mysterious Golem Leonard Nimoy Cassette
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Golem Of Prague Gershon Winkler Book
In the spring of 1580, the Great Rabbi of Prague, Yehudah Loevy ben Beralel (15 13-1 609) created a man out of clay (a golem) to protect the Jews from persecution. For four centuries, the
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THE GOLEM and How He Came Into the World
The Tradition of the Golem
The Jewish tradition of the Golem is a vast subject, on which entire books have been written.
Only a brief overview is attempted here; the reader is referred to the references cited below for further information. The creation of a golem by Rabbi Abba ben Rav Hamma ("Rava") is recorded
in the Talmud (4th century C.E.).
Rava created a man. He sent it before Rav Zera. He spoke to it, but it did not answer. He said,
"You must have been created by one of my colleagues. Return to dust." (Sanhedrin 65b)
The Talmud mentions this episode in passing, during a discussion of other topics. To the Sages
of the Talmud, the creation of a Golem was not in and of itself particularly remarkable. Anyone
who could cleave to God sufficiently would be able to perform such a feat. According to Jewish
tradition, many other holy Rabbis and Sages also created human and animal Golems, such as
Rabbis Channina and Hoshia, Ben Sira, Joseph's eleven brothers, and the Patriarch Abraham.
But by far the most famous Golem is the one created by Rabbi Yehudah Levi ben Betzalel of
Prague, known as "the Maharal".
This statue of the Golem of Prague stands at the entrance to the city's Jewish sector, (Photo from
"The Golem of Prague")
The Maharal created his Golem, named "Yossele," to help save the Jews of Prague from the
blood libel. (For those of you who do not know, the blood libel was the belief that Jews used the
blood of a Christian child during the Passover Seder. This malicious libel was frequently invoked
to explain the disappearance of a child, and it was not uncommon for a dead or murdered
Christian child to be planted in a Jewish house, often by a priest who would then "discover" this
child and lead the masses on a murderous rampage through the ghetto, during which much
Jewish property could be confiscated for the church.) Many stories are told about "The Golem of
Prague," The Maharal reportedly deanimated Yossele after he had fulfilled his purpose and
locked his body in the attic of Prague's "Old-New Synagogue." It is a matter of record that the
Maharal enacted a ban on anyone entering the attic of the "Old-New Synagogue" and it is widely
believed that the body of Yossele the Golem rests there to this day, The "Old-New Synagogue"
miraculously survived the destruction of synagogues by the Nazis, and its attic was not entered even by the Gestapo.
How to Make a Golem
Instructions for making a Golem, from the commentary of Rabbi Eliezar Rokeach on the Book of
Formation,
How does one actually make a golem? Rashi (10th century) commenting on the Talmudic
account cited above explains that Rava made his Golem "by means of the Book of Formation"
and all the sources agree that this is how a Golem is made. The procedure is described by Rabbi
Aryeh Kaplan:
An initiate should not do it alone, but should always be accompanied by one or two colleagues. The Golem must be made of virgin soil, taken from a place where no man has ever dug, The soil must be kneaded with pure spring water, taken directly from the ground. If this water is placed in
any kind of vessel, it can no longer be used. The people making the Golem must purify
themselves totally before engaging in this activity, both physically and spiritually. While making
the Golem, they must wear clean white vestments...One must not make any mistake or error in
the pronunciation...no interruption whatsoever may occur-
There is also evidence that creating a Golem was primarily not a physical procedure, but rather, a
highly advanced meditative technique. By chanting the appropriate letter arrays together with the letters of the Tetragrammaton, the initiate could form a very real mental image of a human being,
limb by limb,,,Once the conceptual Golem was completed, this spiritual potential could be
transferred to a clay form and actually animate it. This was the process through which a physical
Golem would be brought to life.
Golem References
Winkler, Gershon. The Golem of Prague. The Judaica Press, New York, 1994.
Kaplan, Aryeh. Sefer Yetsirah: The Book of Creation, in Theory and Practice. Samuel Weiser
Inc., York Beach, 1990.
Golem is the Hebrew word for shapeless man. According to Jewish legend, the renowned scholar and teacher Rabbi Loew used his powers to create a Golem from clay in order to protect his
people from persecution in the ghettos of 16th-century Prague. (This was the time of the Blood
Lie, when hostile gentiles claimed that Jews were mixing the blood of Christian children with the flour and water of matzo.) David Wisniewski's cut-paper collage illustrations-which earned him the Caldecott Medal in 1997-are the ideal medium for portraying the stark black-and-white forces of good and evil, pride and prejudice, as well as the gray area that emerges when the tormented
clay giant loses control of his anger. Echoing the tension and mood of Frankenstein, Wisniewski
sends the tragic giant back to the blood red earth that birthed him.
Golem is a dramatic tale of supernatural forces invoked to save an oppressed people. Golem
offers a thought-provoking look at the consequences of unleashing power beyond human control
— even with the best of intentions.
THE GOLEM HIDES
There is an ancient legend among the Jewish people, a
tale so bizarre it ought not be repeated too widely, for if it were to prove true-may God forbid it should-but if it were true, Sheol itself might disgorge much of its imprisoned prey.
It would be better to say no more.
But, unfortunately, someone has disclosed too much
already, and now we may but watch in horror the events which inevitably will follow...
First, however, before we divulge the situation at
large, let us go back in time and discuss what a Golem is...or was.
The story the rabbis tell is that long ago someone discovered how Adam was formed and tried to duplicate the work of creation by molding "clay" into a giant man and animating it by pronouncing the sacred name of the
Almighty. Satan then entered into this soul-less giant and gave it a kind of life. This giant was a "Golem."
In one legend the Jews record, the first one to make
a Golem was thought to have been Enoch, the first-born
son of Seth, whom Genesis says took Abel's place after
Cain had consumed him in his anger. This Enoch is not
the same as the 7th-bom Enoch whose words are quoted in
the epistle of Jude, but an earlier ancestor of the more
famous Enoch.
It would appear the original rabbinical speculation
had been about how long ago the first Golem could have
been made. Genesis says that when Enoch was born, "men
began to call upon the name of the LORD." Because the
sacred name is considered the key to animating a Golem,
it follows that no Golem could have been made prior to
the birth of Enoch, son of Seth.
But at the time of this Enoch's birth, there were, in
theory, only a handful of "men" alive: Adam, Seth, Enoch, Cain, and his first-born, Enosh. So who was calling upon
the name of the LORD? And why?
If it had been Seth, why wouldn't Genesis simply say so?
Why, the rabbis wondered, did the text not simply declare
that Adam and Seth began to call upon the sacred name when
Enoch was bom?
Now Enoch was just a baby, of course, and so he hardly could be the one referred to. The story that it was Enoch who made the first Golem, then, may be a confusion with the rabbinical observation that no Golem could have been made before Enoch's birth. Or it may be a confusion with Enosh, the son of Cain.
Enosh was of the same generation as Seth, Genesis does
not name the "men" who began calling upon the sacred name,
which allows for the possibility the "men" were Cain and
his son Enosh, Why would they try to manufacture a giant?
We suspect some sort of ancient genetic experimentation was being conducted because not only does Genesis later say
so, but virtually every other cultural tradition of mankind records myths and legends of similar nature. Every ethnic
memory retains a tale or two of mutant giants on the earth in past ages. Like the universal Flood stories, the giant stories are part of the common heritage of all humanity.
More than mere legend supports this idea, We have, for
example, great megalithic stone structures around the globe which seem to have been built oversize, as if for giants,
and whose massive building blocks would have challenged even the vaunted strength of giants to heft and position them. Their global remains match the global giant myths, and in many places the peoples insist the giants of their myths were indeed the builders of these structures.
There are also lots of giant bones and skeletons lying
about, not to mention modern reports of very large humanoid
creatures or "Bigfoot" type entities. It may shock people
to be told this, but one of the beliefs of the Nazis was
that they were descended from the Nepilim, the giants of
old. The goal of the Nazi breeding program was to rebuild
these old "Nephilim" genes, thereby producing a race of new
"supermen" equipped with great stature and supernatural and
occult powers. The Nazis believed killing the Jews was the
required blood-sacrifice needed to animate a new generation
of super-men with Luciferian powers.
The strong parallels between the Nazi creation of a race
of demonic super-men and the legends of the Golem should be
viewed as no accident. The Nazi SS leaders devoted a lot
of effort to studying precisely this kind of material,
All of which brings us back to Cain and Enosh. If there
is any truth to the legend, the Nazi model may provide the
clue that explains why the first Golem might have been made
after Enoch was born. The Nazis were planning to conquer
the world, gain dominion, and exterminate all the competing
races. Could Cain have had similar motives?
Genesis makes Cain to be the first-born, and therefore, the presumed heir to Adam's dominion. But after he kills Abel, Cain is exiled to the east toward the Mesopotamian
valley where Babel and Babylon would arise, and modem-day Iraq. As an exile, Cain would have dreamed of restoration. He would have wanted to return in triumph, succeeding Adam as ruler of mankind, Having killed Abel, he assumed there was no one to oppose him. But Seth was born, then Enoch. Cain began to realize he needed to compete by multiplying his descendents.
But Genesis records a curious phenomenon: Though Cain had a decided advantage of an extra generation head-start, he produced fewer generations than Seth did. There is a hint here that something was genetically wrong with Cain.
And the rabbis support it, Cain's offspring, they say, suffered from either giantism or dwarfism. Moreover, Cain
was said to have a horn growing out of his forehead. He had inherited this mutation from his father, an angel the
Jewish legends call "Samael"-the angel of Mars who later is called "Satan"-meaning the Accuser or Prosecutor, one who sat in judgment over mankind to condemn it to death.
The assumed scenario implied by all of this is that an
attempt was made to modify Cain's genetic inheritance in order to compete with Seth's line. Out of this grew the
legend of the Golem.
But there is another, more sinister, level to the myth
of the Golem. It was to serve as a physical body for the
indwelling of Satan. The Golem had no soul of its own to be "possessed" by Satan, which allowed it to be used in a
more complete and powerful manner than in a "possession."
In the old stories, the angel Samael had a magnificent
angelic body or "Mantle" which was removed or lost in his rebellion. He is condemned as Satan to "go on thy belly"
or his inner spiritual being, and to "eat dust all the
days of thy life" or devour human bodies-take possession of human hosts~in order to be active: A form of what is
now called reincarnation.
Could it be, then, that this fallen angelic creature
found itself without a body and coaxed his first-born son
and grandson into using occult means of fashioning him a
giant, replacement body? A Golem?
Jewish historians record the last supposedly genuine Golem was made in Prague in the sixteenth century, but was never destroyed. The giant hulk of this super "man" may yet be lurking in its dull esoteric slumber away in some dank stone chamber in the old city, a rusted-out old lock on a termite-ridden door all that stands between the sleeping Golem and an unsuspecting world.
But fallen angels have higher goals than Frankenstein creatures in forgotten European lofts. They have their
eye on choicer victims.
If you were seeking a body, a vessel to occupy for the grand finale of human history, would you settle for some
moldy sixteenth century Golem, or might you prefer a more princely portion: handsome, rich and powerful?
Former mighty ones cast from the high battlements of Heaven must surely select a succulent slice of Scottish laddie over even the best-preserved Medieval Golem.
And what if that Highlander were an "immortal" as the
old clan legends tell? Perhaps there's more to all these
ancient claims of "Mighty Men of old, the men of renown"
than we have dared suspect. Can a child be brought into
the world without a soul? Are the Nephilim genes still
with us? Does the blood of angels flow in our veins? Do
giants walk among us? Are our dreams haunted by the auld
din of warring seraphim?
Can a handsome young man truly be a Golem?
Does evil prefer beauty and glamour over ugliness? Is our naive habit of equating wickedness with warts leading us into deception? Perhaps the truth is too obvious:
The Golem hides.
Threshold
The threshold signifies the passage from one level to an other, usually from a lower, earthly plane
to a higher, spiritual one. It is the entrance to a new world, the boundary at which the natural
meets the supernatural. The term is often used to figuratively mark a moment of transition,
perhaps the entrance t o adulthood.
"Golem, in Jewish folk-lore, an image endowed with life as result of wonder-working words... The most famous Golem was that, made by Judah Low of Prague (1513-1609), known as Der Hone
Rabbi Low, one of the great figures in Jewish history, about whom many legends have been
woven. This golem was created by the rabbi at a time of great peril for the Jews, and served his
master as an intelligent agent. He exposed an accusation of ritual murder and succeeded in
apprehending those who had falsely spread it. The rabbi was said to have made the Golem at the
express order of divine voice which revealed to him the life-giving formula in dream; he
succeeded in the difficult task only with the aid of his two sons-in-law, both pious and learned
men. The Golem would execute every command of his master, perfoming every manner of
service for him and for the community. For fear that the Golem would profane the Sabbath, Rabbi
Low would remove the life-pinciple from him on Friday eve, leaving him a heap of clay during the
Sabbath. One Friday, Low forgot to withdraw the magic formula; there was danger that the Golem
might desecrate the Sabbath and become a menace to the city. The rabbi pursued him and finally
caught up with him just outside the Synagogue, whereupon the robot fell to pieces. Its remains are said to lie in the debris of the ancient
Prague (AltNeueSchul - We can also add that the first image of the Golem from one by great belarussian Dr. Skaryna from Polotsk). Elijah Vilna (1720-97) and
m Tob (1700-60), the founder of Hasidism, are said to have created Golems; a^n )orhiczn ( now - Belarussian city - Daragiczyn), in the province of Grodno, the
■ ; is said to have called into life a Golem that heated the stoves of the Jewish
mr i the Sabbath and perfomed other work for them on the day of rest. The Golem is
>ented as protecting the persecuted Jews when they are in despair of human aid.
Though endowed with almost all human faculties, the Golem can not speak. His function is to hear and to execute the commands of his master, which he does without either will or reason..
From Golem by Moshe Idel pp. 4-5
According to several medieval versions of the creation of the
anthropoid, this creature appears when the word 'emet, truth, is written on its forehead.[1] All these versions are from the high
Middle Ages and I am not acquainted with any ancient Jewish tradition related to this detail. Nevertheless, it seems that the fact that
this word appears on the forehead is of extreme importance for
establishing the antiquity of the source of the Golem legend. Let me start with the occurrence of the dictum "Truth has a locus
standi, whereas Falsehood had no foothod."[2] As pointed out by
Alexander Schreiber and Haim Scwartzbaum, this statement is reminiscent
of a tradition found in Phaedrus' fable on Prometheus and Dolus,
entitled De Veritas et Mendacio.[3] According to this ancient fable,
Prometheus has formed Truth, and anthropoid female, out of fine
clay. This figure was copied by his apprentice, Dolus, the Cunning.
However, the later did not have enough material to finish the copy
of Truth, and his figure remained without feet. After the two statues
had been baked and life had been breathed into them, Truth was able
to walk, whereas the copy did not; this is the reason why it was
concieved as Mendacity, the name of the imperfect copy; it has no
feet.[4] It is pertinent to recall that Prometheus is, according to Greek mythology, the titan who created the first man,[5] and the
creation of "Truth" is presumably part of his endeavor to establish a better society guided by truth.
The similarity between the Jewish dictum and the Greek description of
mendacity is striking: the conception of falsehood as lacking feet is sufficient in order to assume a certain relationship between to
two discussions. However, the scholars who have pointed out the
surprising affinity between these texts, have ignored the similarity between the context of occurrence of the dictum in the respective
discussions: in the Greek fable it is connected to to fabrication
of an artificial entity, in the medieval Hebrew sources Truth is
inscribed on the forehead of an anthropoid, which apparently was
supposed to walk, at least according to the Talmudic passage. Thus,
two aspects of the Greek fable can be found in sepearte contexts
in different Hebrew sources, one ancient and the other medieval;
these sources have, nevertheless, something in common, for they
deal with the word 'emet. Consequently, I would like to propose
an hypothesis regarding the occurrence of the two elements in Jewish sources: a tradition similar to that inherited by Phaedrus, apparently
of Greek extraction, and presumably predating the composition of the
fable in Rome in the first century C.E., was known by Palestinian
Jewish masters. The fact that only a part of it, that dealing with
mendacity, was integrated in ancient Jewish material, may indicate
that the entire story was already known to Jews in ancient times,
though the part connect to the Truth was not written down, for unknown reasons. Prometheus' creation of the Truth out of clay and
his breathing life into it might have reminded some Jews of the
creation of man out of dust and the induction of life by God, a
fact which possibly facilitated the absorption of this tradition
in Jewish sources.[6]
Excerpt from Moshe Idel's Golem. 1. See below ch. 5, par. 8 and n. 58
2. BT Shabbat, fol. 104a. Additional occurrences, in the
versions of the Alphabet of R. 'Aquiva' were indicated
by Haim Schwarzbaum, Studies in Jewish and World Folklore
(Berlin, 1968), p. 379. See also Liebes,"Christian Influences," . 60 n.55
3. Alexander Schreiber, "Die Luege hat keine Fuesse, zu den antikent Zusammenhaengen de Aggada," Acta Antiqua, vol. 9 (1961) pp. 305-306. Schwarzbaum, ibid., pp. 378-379.
4. Ben Edwin Perry, Babrius and Phaedrus, (London-Cambridge, Mass, Harvard Univ. Press, 1965), pp. 376-379. On the similarity between the description of Prometheus as "figulus" and the conception of God as a potter in Isa. 29:16; see Ernest R. Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, trans. W.R. Trask (London, 1953) p. 544. See also below, ch. 3, n. 29. Compare also to R. Eleazar of Worms, Sefer ha-Hokhmah, p.18
5. Ovid, Metamorphoses 1-2. Summary of the myth
6. In some other cases as well it is plausible that Prometheus-
myths influences ancient Jewish legends; see e.g. Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrasch, vol. 5 pp. XLVIIIXLIX
There are some interesting parallels between the Jewish tradition of the artificial creation of an anthropoid and other traditions.Simon Magus was reported in the Clementime Recognitiones as
boasting that he "can render statues animated, so that those who see them suppose that they are
men."[i] The pinacle of his achievements was the creation of a boy by manipulating the air: 'Once upon a time, I, by my power, turning air into water,
and water again into blood, and solidifying it into flesh,
formed a new human creature -a boy- and produced a much
nobler work than God the Creator. For He created a man
from the earth, but I from air - a far more difficult
matter; and again I unmade him and restored him in to air,
but not until I had placed his picture and image in my
bedchamber, as a proof and memorial of my work.' Then we
understood that he spake concerning that boy, whose soul,
after he had been slain by violence,[2] he made
use of those services which he requires.[3]
The background for this attainment is the attempt to emulate God, obviously creation is a
powerful magical act - and creation of life the most powerful of all. Simon used the soul of the boy to undertake certain magical operations. The violent death of the boy is mentioned and it seems that there is some relationship between such a death and the magical use of the soul. According to some medieval texts, if someone is killed when thinking about a certain issue, his soul will continue to think, and act, according to the specific thought in the moment of his death.[4]
The matter used by Simon is air, which was further transformed into a body by several
transformations, this process in itself can be seen as a manifestation of alchemy. Ultimatly Simon restored the body to air. It is important to note that this body should not be seen as the soul, as
the soul was still under the power of the magician. This tradition seems to point to the Jewish
tradition where the Zelem, (which is identical with the term Golem), is seen as an etheral body.
Now, as Moshe Idel said in his book Golem. Golem refers in medieval Hebrew both to a magically
created body out of dust, and in other contexts, to the spiritual body that differs from the soul, and
is formed out of the air of Paradise[5J.
Moshe Idel hyposthesises an archaric Jewish tradition, dealing with the creation of a man, as
exposed by Simon, used the term Golem. In this sense, Golem referred to the physical form of
the body. The elements of this body could include dust, air or other stuffs. After a while, a split
occurred in the way this term was used in Hebrew; in some circles it referred to the creation of a
man from dust, in others, the term meant also the bodily form, but it was connect to the structure
of the body as represented by the word Zelem, the etheral body. Whether or not new data will
substantiate this claim remains to be seen, however some scholars have already remarked that
there is an affinity between the Pseudo=Clementine texts and Jewish material, including Sefer
Yetzirah.
1. The Recognitions of Clement, Book 2, ch. 9, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids,
Michigan, 1951), p.99. Compare also ibid. Book 3, chapter 57, p.126; The Clementine Homilies, Homily 2, chapters 32,34, p.235; Homily 4, ch. 4, p.252. See also Butler, The Myth of the Magus (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1980) pp.80-82; Fossum, The Name of God and the Angel of the Lord, pp 113-113 and Scholem, "The Idea of the Golem," p. 172.
2. A violent death was concieved as a way to prepare the soul of the murdered person to
accomplish magical acts. Yohanan Alemanno mentioned the view of some magicians who indicated that by killing someone condemned to a death penalty, when the murdered individual
thought about a certain issue, his soul would continue to perform that issue, a fact that was used
to manipulate dead. Cf. Sha'ar ha-Hesheq, fol. 43a, idem, Collectanaea, Ms. Oxford 2234, fol.
15a
3. Ante-Nicene Fathers Book 2, Ch. 15, p. 101. Compare also The Clementine Homilies, Homily
2, ch. 26, pp. 233-234
4. Probably the most famous example of this in literature is in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Act 3,
Scene 3. Where Hamlet does not kill the King when he has the chance, because he is praying.
Instead Hamlet decides to wait until the King is drunk, or swearing.
5. It seems that perhaps "dust" can be seen as a metaphor for an etheral matter - whereas air is
more in line with the conception of the astral.
The Golem
From: Jeffrey Smith (f901030k@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us)
About the Golem:
There is nothing directly alchemical about the Golem. The "Maharal", Rabbi Judah Loew of
Prague, was a notable rabbi and Kabbalist whom legend credited with creation of a Golem for the sake of defending the Jews of Prague against a blood libel and pogrom . I forget the dates; it may
have been during the time of Rudolf, but I am not sure. One version of the legend states that the Golem, once deactivated, was placed in the attic of the "Altneuschul", the principal synagogue of Prague. This, to the best of my memory (which is not working too well this morning), survived the
Nazis, and can be visited today.
The means of creating a Golem come out of the Sefer Yetzirah school, and traditions about them
reach back to Talmudic times and possibly earlier.
The principal methods involve combinational meditation of the Hebrew alphabet and magical use
of the Name of God. The Golem of Prague is merely the most recent, and famous because it
attracted the attention of several writers and film makers in the ear ly part of this century.
Tachat haRachamim. Jeffrey Smith
From: rec@rca.ac.uk (Robin E. Cousins)
On 19.7.95 Jeffrey Smith wrote:
'There is nothing directly alchemical about the Golem'
The creation of a Golem is a process comparable to alchemy. It is likewise a spiritual quest. The creation of the Golem was (is) a mystical experience, a ritual representing the creation of Adam
Kadmon, the principal man.
The instructions (the most precise were by Eleazar of Worms (1160-1230)) leave no space for the Golem to exist in the physical world, but using the alphabetic combinations with the IHVH (231
permutations, but 462 in all to create from and return to dust) would no doubt induce a change of consciousness. There is a strict order, which would result in a very formal recitation, both magical
and meditative.
It is possible that the mystical experience could be a vision of the Golem in the form of the
operator's doppelganger - a reflection and hence a lower form of him/herself. The double would allow the magician to perceive and so discover the evil forces wit hin himself; exorcise them; and
evolve further along the road to redemption. It is a kind of self-purification process. The magician, as the creator, is in the superior position - the doppelganger is now the Lower Self, which can be redeemed by accepting faults, absorbing them, and correcting the imbalance. With self- examination it could be said that one's own Golem is created and confronted.
The spiritual path towards the higher initiation of the Soul will take the seeker through various initiations, resulting in the purification of the self and knowledge of the True Self or Holy Guardian
Angel - and from there to the Higher Planes. Each stag e will have its Golem. Even with
elementary rituals, such as a Middle Pillar exercise, or say a sephirothic meditation, a Golem is created and redeemed. The purification process has commenced and a step taken, however
small, towards the union with the spi rit, where the Golem is no more. No wonder more than one lifetime is necessary!
On a wider scale the Golem is said to be the symbol of the collective soul of the Jewish people, whose progress supposedly reflects the state of humanity. In this respect the Golem can be seen
as a reflection of the whole of humanity. It becomes the embod iment of the current condition of the world. It embraces the individual, communities, nations, nature, and the whole ecology of the
planet. The Golem stands before humanity, its creator, asking for redemption. This vision of the world should present to ma nkind the good, the evil, and the means by which the world can be
improved or released from its present state. If only.
Incidentally, if one wants to believe in Rabbi Loew's Golem, the fact that somebody crawled into the attic of the Staronova Skola and saw nothing (according to one guidebook) should not be a
disappointment. There was an exhibition organised by the Goethe Institute the other year devoted to old manuscripts and prayer books culled from the lofts of synagogues in Germany and legend
says that the Golem was hidden under such a heap. Judging from the photos, most of the mss had rotted over the centuries to du st and debris often knee-deep, so the Golem would just
become indistinguishable from the muck, which was probably swept away during some officious bout of spring-cleaning. Rabbi Loew died in 1609, so he was concurrent with Rudolf and Dee.
Robin C.
From: Jeffrey Smith
Robin has spoken some good thoughts about the concept of the Golem. One of the motifs that
has not been touched on in this thread, which is of some importance in the tradition, is the
Golem's inability to speak.
The faculty of speech (and by extension, reason, free will, and consciousness) is the gift of God
to humanity. Says Scripture: "Your eyes saw my unshaped flesh" (Tehillim 139), in which the last
phrase translates the Hebrew word GoLeMI, to describe the process of God creating man
(whether the text is applicable to every individual, or, as per the traditional view, quotes the words
of Adam to God.) We ourselves are golemim and golemahot until God comes along and makes
us fully human, making us living s ouls by breathing in the "breath of life."
For those really interested in the matter, Moshe Idel wrote a book covering the entire tradition, entitled quite reasonably "Golem". I have yet to read it, but he is a reliable and perceptive writer
who is not always in tune with the standard academic p arty line.
Tachat haRachamim. Jeffrey Smith
Rava's Golem
Abba Ben Rav Hamma (299-353 C.E.) was a rich merchant of Mehoza, a city on the Tigris located near the Malkha River. Better known as Rava, he was on close terms with the Persian
royal house. Together with Rav Abaye (d c. 338 C.E.), Rava was one of the central pillars of
Babylonian Talmudic learning. The discourses of these two scholars and commentaries which elaborate upon their theories are still taught today.
To those who study the Kabbalah, Rava is also known for his delvings into the Sefer Yetzirah and his use of its teachings to create a golem. The Sefer Yetzirah is, perhaps, the most important
work of Jewish mysticism. This text is said to contain the secrets of the creative processes by which God brought the universe into being. Tradition holds that the Sefer Yetzirah was written by the patriarch Abraham and that he used the methods found within the text to create souls
(Genesis 12:5).
Yet even Abraham, as righteous as he was, did not study the mysteries of this work alone. A late
Midrashic text written by R. Yehuda Barceloni states that Abraham, along with his teacher Shem, the son of Noah,".. . meditated on the Sefer Yetzirah until they knew how to create a world."
Both Rava and Abraham, students of the Divine creative process, were constrained by the
injunction, as recorded by Barceloni:". . . take a companion, and meditate on it together, and you will understand it." Rava studied and meditated for three years with Rabbi Zera, at the end of
which they produced a calf and then immediately forgot the knowledge which they had learned. After three additional years, they managed the same feat.
Rava, however, seems to have progressed to a point at which he could utilize the concepts found in Sefer Yetzirah on his own, without help from Rabbi Zera. No less an authority than the Talmud
states that "Rava created a man and sent him to R. Zera. The rabbi spoke to him but he did not answer. Then he said: 'You are from the pietists. Return to your dust.'" (B, Sanhedrin, 65b) The Talmud does not go into detail as to how Rava accomplished this feat, but Rashi states in his commentary that it was through study of Sefer Yetzirah.Note 1 This is the only instance in the Talmud which refers directly to the creation of a humanoid Golem.
That the Talmud is silent on the technique used in the creation of the golem is interesting. It is as if the creation of a golem were something so unremarkable that further discussion were
unnecessary. Rava's golem is unique in Kabbalistic literature in that it was created by the meditations of one man, without harm befalling him, and not by two or more as in other cases
which are explored below. Note 2
Within the mystical texts relating to the creation of golems two themes consistently reappear. The
first theme is that two or more practitioners, working together, are needed to create a golem, and
there are many instances of this occurring. For example, every Friday Rabbis Hanina and Hoshia
studied Sefer Yetzirah to create a prime calf which they ate as their Sabbath dinner (B Sanhedrin
67b). Rabbi Schlomo ben Aderet, known as The Rashba, held that it was significant that this was
done on Friday, the day in which mammals were originally created (Genesis 1:24).Note3
In many cases the completion of the study of Sefer Yetzirah was marked by the ritual of creating a golem. The golem was not used for any purpose other than to demonstrate that the Sefer Yetzirah had been mastered, and the golem was de-constructed upon its completion. Rabbi
Loew, the Maharal of Prague, by contrast, together with his son-in- law, R. Isaaac ha-Kohen and his disciple, Rabbi Ya'aqov Sason ha- Levi created a golem and successfully saved the Jews of
Prague from blood libel. This is a rare instance of a golem being created with a specific purpose other than proof of mastery of the Sefer Yetzirah.
Golems can be created using many different methods, according to the sources. Some state that it is accomplished through combinations of letters. These combinations are called "gates," the number of gates differing according to the various Kabbalistic schools, and ranging in number from 231 to as many as 271, depending upon how the letters are to be combined-Note 4 Other schools taught that a golem was created through the utterance of the Divine Names. The Talmud records that there are 12, 42, and even 72 letter names of God which might have been used for this purpose. Note 5 Many schools, such as the Hasidim, held that the Hebrew word 'emef [truth] should be inscribed upon the forehead of the golem. Among a number of methods of de constructing a golem, a common one was the erasure of aleph, the first letter of 'emef. This leaves the word met [dead] which destroys the golem.
The use of gates and the pronunciation of the Divine names are both magic of the highest sort.
Magical practices are forbidden in the Hebrew Bible, but the Talmud allows "activities like those of Rabbi Hanina and Rabbi Hoshia" (B Sanhedrin, 67B). It is because the magic involved is of a
holy nature (there being nothing holier than the name of God) that the issue of purity repeatedly arises. Those who participate must be ritually clean, the robes they wear must be pure white, the
clay and the water used must be pure, the room clean.
The purity of the materials is important, but not as critical as the purity of purpose of those who
would explore the secrets of the Sefer Yetzirah. This is because the creation of a golem can be
dangerous to the creator. Therefore, the second theme which is stressed is the purity of purpose with which the task must be approached. A golem cannot be created for the purpose of evil
(having no human soul, any sin the golem commits is a sin of the creator, not the creation). With the exception of Rava's solitary achievement, solo attempts at golem creation call into question
the practitioner's purity of purpose and, inevitably, bring harm to that person. It is also dangerous
to use a golem for simple, mundane tasks, as will be seen.
The intent, in most cases, is to attain a greater understanding of the creative process. In some
cases, such as Rabbi Loew's famous golem, the intent is the protection of a community.
Sometimes a golem is even used in order to avoid a transgression.Note 6 No matter how pure
the purpose, however, the creation itself could not be perfect. In Tractate Sanhedrin 65B we read
that Rava himself said, "if the righteous wished, they could create a world, for it is written, 'your
iniquities have been a barrier between you and your God."' The imperfection in all golem accounts save one is the muteness of the golem. It is because of this imperfection that Rav Zera
was able to distinguish Rava's golem for what it was and to dismiss it as he did. The Maharal commented in his Chidushei Agados that when Rava
would purify himself and meditate on Sefer Yetzirah, concentrating intensely on the different Names of God, he would thereby cleave very closely to God and be able at such
moments to create a person. But this person would have no power of speech for that far was Rava's energy not able to extend itself... For he was a human being himself; and how would it then be possible for him to create a complete person just like himself? (II:
166).
A golem will always be somewhat less than human.
Over two hundred years before the Maharal was born, the great Spanish mystic, Abraham
Abulafia, also commented on the concept of purity of purpose. Abulafia held that nothing was
actually created when a golem was formed, believing that the creation of a golem was a meditative exercise, not a physical one. Even so, he wrote in Hayyei ha-'Olam ha-Ba' that those who pursue"... the lore of the name in order to operate thereby corporeal issues. .. even if he
express by his mouth or things in his heart that he recites the name for the glory of God, it is not so and. .. this man is wicked and a sinner, who defiles the name of God." (Folio 80a-80b)
Abulafia's words are strong reminders that it is not enough to say or feel that the task undertaken is a holy one. The purity of purpose must be "soul deep." Therefore, it does not matter whether a
golem is to be used for evil purposes. Anything less than a perfect purpose is not enough. Abulafia was one of the mystics who taught that a golem is created through the pronunciation of the Divine Name. He used the 72-letter name of God in his school of meditation, each syllable
corresponding to a particular limb or organ in the golem. To highlight the dangers of this exercise, he further wrote that the practitioner must be careful not to mispronounce anything. If so, harm
will befall not the creation but the creator.Note 7
Various tales demonstrate the danger to the creator when purity of purpose is questionable.
Furthermore, the vast majority of these accounts tell of golems created by individuals, thus
highlighting the importance of pure purpose in combination with a partner. The Talmud says that "two scholars sharpen each other's minds in the study of the law" (B Shabbat 63a). The tractate
goes on to further state that the scholars will not prosper nor rise to greatness "if their studies are not sincerely motivated" and that this is also so "if they become conceited [because of their
knowledge]."
A tale of the misuse of a golem is told by Jakob Grimm in his Journal for Hermits, written in 1808.
Here, the golem is used as nothing more than a house servant:
[E]very day he gains weight and becomes somewhat larger and stronger than all the others in the house, regardless of how little he was to begin with. But one man's golem
once grew so tall, and he heedlessly let him keep on growing so long that he could no
longer reach his forehead. In terror he ordered the servant to take off his boots, thinking that when he bent down he could reach his forehead. So it happened, and the first letter
was successfully erased, but the whole heap of clay fell on the Jew and crushed him.
Even one as great as the Maharal was an inadvertent victim when his golem was used for a mundane task. Though he had left instructions with his wife, Perele, that Yoselle the Mute was to be left alone, she took it upon herself to put him to work. She showed him how to draw water and
pour it into a barrel, then left him to complete the job without further supervision. Yoselle returned time and again to the barrel, never stopping, even after the barrel began to overflow. Still he
continued, until the Maharal's house was flooded. Upon arriving home, R. Loew put a stop to Yossele's work and told Perele that she should never again use Yossele for household tasks.
Though Perele did not create the golem herself, she still intended to use it for mundane work. Here again, the lack of purity of purpose causes disaster.
If the above story seems familiar, it is most likely due to the variation which appears in the classic animated film, Fantasia. In "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment, Mickey Mouse creates a
"golem" by animating a broom to do his work for him (much as Perele used Yossele to lighten her own chores). After showing the broom how to draw water and pour it into a barrel, Mickey falls
asleep, only to waken to an impending flood. Breaking the broom into pieces only exacerbates the situation and soon the sorcerer's workshop is in danger of being inundated by an army of
water-toting brooms. The sorcerer returns just in time and, like Rabbi Loew, puts a stop to the proceedings. As the scene concludes, the viewer is sure that Mickey has learned a valuable lesson and will think twice before casting that particular spell again. This scene mFantasia combines both of the most dangerous elements of golem creation. Mickey creates his golem
single-handedly and intends to use his creation so that he can escape an arduous chore -- hardly what would be considered a pure purpose.
Nowhere are the dangers of creation more poignantly elaborated on than in Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein. The parallels between Victor's creation and the golem are apparent in such things
as their size, strength, and lack of speech, although Victor's creation does have the ability to learn
language and speaks eloquently to Victor upon meeting him on the Mer de Glace.
Grimm's Journal for Hermits was written only eight years before Frankenstein was published. It is
well-known that Shelley was inspired to write her tale after trading German ghost stories at the
home of Byron. It is certainly possible that the stories included tales of golems, which were
popular at that time. Note 8 If Frankenstein is read with an eye towards Kabbalistic parallels, the
impending tragedy can be anticipated. For, in the Kabbalistic sense, Victor Frankenstein desires
to create for all the wrong reasons: "my enquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its
highest sense, the physical secrets of the world (86)." Certainly, these are not the words of
someone who wishes to understand the means by which God is able to create. Nor as these,
which soon follow: "soon my mind was filled with one thought, one conception, one purpose. . . .1
will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries
of creation (96)." According to this Kabbalistic view, very few are qualified to understand the
"deepest mysteries of creation." He who would discover these profound mysteries for reasons of
pride and to prove to others — and not just to himself - that creation can be understood, is not
ready to embark on a course of meditation, study and discovery.
Victor's prideful ambition is revealed as his overriding motivation when he states that "a new
species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent creatures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should
deserve theirs" (104). Compare these words with those spoken by the golem created by
Jeremiah and his son, Ben Sirah, in an account attributed to Judah ben Bathyra. Upon its
creation, the golem had upon its forehead the phrase "YHVH Elohim "Emet" [God is truth]. With a
knife he erased the aleph to leave the phrase "YHVH Elohim Met" [God is dead] saying that "God
has made you [Jeremiah and Ben Sirah] in His image and in His shape and form. But now that
you have created a man. .. people will say: There is no God beside these two!" After following
the instructions given by the golem and de-constructing it, Jeremiah proclaims that "we should
study these things only in order to know the power and omnipotence of the Creator.. . but not in
order really to practice them." (manuscript, Halberstam 44 folio 7b; quoted from Scholem,
Kabbalah, 80). Note 9
Knowledge alone is not what Victor has in mind. He wants his creation to thank, adore, bless and,
perhaps, worship him in his rightful place as its Creator. This attitude is precisely the opposite of that of one who studies Sefer Yetzirah with pure intent. The knowledge it contains is nothing if not
humbling. It took Rava and Zera three years of study to be able to create a calf, while the world itself was created in a mere fragment of that time. Yet Victor admits "[my] imagination was too
much exalted by my first success to permit me to doubt my ability to give life to an animal as
complex and wonderful as man" (101). It is only after he succeeds that he realizes the unholy
nature of what he has done. Much later he states that "During my first experiment, a kind of
enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me to the horror of my employment" (209).
Instead of de-constructing his creation he flees and thereby proves the truth of the Kabbalistic
warning harm befalls the creator, not the creation. While Victor does not suffer physical harm at
the hands of his creation, he is affected by his constant self-incrimination and his horror at what
he has done. Additionally, and most tragically, he loses everybody whom he holds dear William,
Justine, Cerval and Elizabeth as a direct result his act of creation. Ultimately, his failed efforts to
destroy the creature, an act he realizes should have been performed years earlier, kill him.
His creation acknowledges his own part of this. Speaking over the corpse of Victor Frankenstein the creature admits that it is he "who irretrievably destroyed thee by destroying all thou lovedst"
(261). Furthermore, the ties between Frankenstein and golem literature are strengthened when the creature refers to himself as Victor's Adam. The writers of the Talmud held that Adam was
actually a golem when he was first formed. As stated in B. Sanhedrin 38b during the process of
his creation, "in the second hour, [Adam] became a golem... During the third hour, his limbs
were stretched out. In the fourth hour, the soul was cast into him..."
At the end of his life, Victor's last words to Walton show that he has truly come to the realization
that his motivation to create was not a proper one. Victor tells Walton to "Seek happiness in
tranquillity and avoid ambition. (260)." Victor Frankenstein thus realizes too late that what he has accomplished in his "fit of enthusiastic madness" is an unholy act. It is only later, looking back, that he voices a thought which echoes the Kabbalistic and Talmudic precepts which have been
passed down for generations.
A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquillity. I do not think that the pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule. If the study to which you apply
yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then their study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting of the human mind (103).
Had Victor dug deeper during his studies of Agrippa, Magnus and Paracelsus, he might have realized early on that what he sought to undertake could only bring him ill. It is interesting to
speculate upon how matters might have differed had he heard a heavenly voice, as Jeremiah had, instructing him to "take a companion." Perhaps he then would have turned his attention, as Rava did, towards attaining a more perfect understanding of the wonders of God's, not Nature's,
creative process.
Notes
1. During a presentation on the subject of golems, in which I participated with my own study
partner, Michael Weisberg, an audience member suggested that Rava's golem might have been akin to a "lab prank" which Rava sent to R. Zera to demonstrate his individual mastery ofSefer
Yetzirah. Though not an entirely satisfactory explanation, to date I have heard none better to
explain why Rava created his golem without the help of R. Zera. Return
2. See Moshe Idel for a more detailed discussion of Solomon ibn Gabriel's golem, also created
single-handedly. According to Idel states that ibn Gabriel was not a magician but a technician.
(233-34)Retum
3. It is interesting to note that these two rabbis were able to create a calf every Friday without
forgetting the knowledge, while Rava and R. Zera had to study for three years to be able to do so and three additional years to create their second calf. Return
4. The gates were formed by combining every letter of the Hebrew alphabet to every other letter. The analogy in the Roman alphabet would be to begin with AB, AC, AD, AE, and so on, until
reaching ZV, ZW, ZX, ZY. In most systems of gates, letters are not combined with themselves. Return
5. See Adin Steinsaltz's The Essential Talmud for further comments on the Divine Names. (213-
14) Return
6. The Kabbalists speculated that the calf that Abraham served to his angelic guests was created
through the use of Sefer Yetzirah. This would place the calf beyond the law and make it parve
[neutral]. In this way, Abraham would avoid the sin of serving milk with meat. Return 7. Abulafia stated that, if a syllable were mispronounced, the organ or limb to which it
corresponded would be displaced upon or within the body of the creator. Return
8. Specifically, stories of destructive golems were prevalent in Shelley's time, such as Johann
Schmidt's report that golems ". . . inflict great damage upon the person of their master. . ."
(Feuriger Drachen Gifft und WutigerOtten Gall [1682]; quoted from Winkler 72). Return
9. R. Isaac ben Samuel of Acre, a Kabbalist of the early 13th century stated that Jeremiah and
Ben Sirah "attained a divine perfection [so as] to create. . . a speaking, intellective being."
(Sassoon manuscript 919, p. 217; Cambridge manuscript, Genizah, TS, K12.4 p.22; quoted from Idel, 177). Return
References
Idel, Moshe. Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions On the Artificial Anthropoid. NY: SUNYP, 1990
Kaplan, Aryeh. Sefer Yetzirah in Theory and Practice. NY: Samuel Weiser., 1990
Scholem, Gershom. Kabbalah. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House Jerusalem Ltd., 1974
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. London: Penguin Books, 1985
Steinsaltz, Adin. The Essential Talmud. NY: Bantam, 1976
Winkler, Gershon. The Golem of Prague. NY: The Judaica P, 1980
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RICHARD TEITELBAUM GOLEM
The concept of the golem is an ancient one, stretching from its Biblical source, as Adam's "unformed substance" (before receiving a soul) to its later incarnations as an artificial
man, and as the modern day robot. I was struck then by the parallel with my own attempts to develop an intelligent, interactive artifical "pianist", and also by the golem as a symbol
for the promises and dangers of our technological society.
Rabbi Lowe, who is said to have created his golem on the banks of the Moldau in the spring
of 1580 to aid and protect the community from danger, but, growing too strong, it ran amuck
and had to be destroyed. As such, the legend has seemed an increasingly fitting metaphor of
the dangers of unchecked power of various sorts - not only technological and military, but
also political and social - as the recent history in that part of the world has confirmed.
Traditionally, a golem was an artificial man made of clay and brought to life by the incantation of magic formulas derived from the Kabbalistic manipulations of the Hebrew
alphabet, In my piece, I have digitally sampled the sound of the river banks in the voices of the spring peepers, and also certain Hebrew letters and texts, based on the ancient kabbalistic Book of Creation. Through the use of MIDI control, these formulas and texts can be "played" on keyboards (as well as triggered by vocal control), such that playing different melodic patterns will, in the words of the Book of Creation, "ordain them, hew them, combine them, weigh them, and interchange them." Live audio signal processing, FM, and speech synthesis all from ingredients in a complex, interactive system in which the performers process and control each other's inputs. When, to this witches brew, feedback is added through a circuit that "listens" and responds to itself, the golem comes alive and begins to act with a mind of it's own.
In this performance, the golem will be represented by several interactive systems embodying artificial intelligence techniques: In one, a computer controlled interactive player piano "listens" and responds to live music played on acoustic instruments, other keyboards and the human voice. In another, the movement of images projected from a MIDI-controlled interactive video laser disk responds to the musicians live performances in real-time. These images include extensive excerpts from the German expressionist classic Der Golem (1920) by Paul Wegener, scenes from the old Jewish Ghetto in Prague and other specially prepared material.
BACKGROUND ON THE GOLEM LEGENDS
Kay E. Vandergrift
In order to understand Golem by David Wisniewski it is useful to read some of the research and
writings about this very old legend and the issues connected to it. The story has connections to Jewish mysticism while also possessing a long thread in fictional literature. The excerpts provided
below help to frame your understanding of this legend and the additional readings serve to fill out any gaps remaining.
ON JEWISH MYSTICISM
Cabala (Hebrew, "received tradition"), generically, Jewish mysticism in all its forms;
specifically, the esoteric theosophy that crystallized in 13th-century Spain and Provence,
France, around Sefer ha-zohar (The Book of Splendor), referred to as the Zohar, and
generated all later mystical movements in Judaism, See Mysticism; Theosophy, The
earliest known form of Jewish mysticism dates from the first centuries AD and is a variant
on the prevailing Hellenistic astral mysticism, in which the adept, through meditation and
the use of magic formulas, journeys ecstatically through and beyond the seven astral
spheres. In the Jewish version, the adept seeks an ecstatic version of God's throne, the chariot (merkava) beheld by Ezekiel (see Ezekiel 1).
The Medieval Period
Medieval Spanish Cabala, the most important form of Jewish mysticism, is less concerned with ecstatic experience than with esoteric knowledge about the nature of the divine world and its hidden connections with the world of creation. Medieval Cabala is a theosophical system that draws on Neoplatonism and Gnosticism and is expressed in symbolic language. The system is most fully articulated in the Zohar, written between
1280 and 1286 by the Spanish Cabalist Moses de Leon, but attributed to the 2nd-century rabbi Simeon bar Yohai. The Zohar depicts the Godhead as a dynamic flow of force
composed of numerous aspects. Above and beyond all human contemplation is God as he is in himself, the unknowable, immutable En Sof (Infinite), Other aspects or attributes,
knowable through God's relation to the created world, emanate (see Emanation) from En Sof in a configuration often sefirot (realms or planes), through which the divine power further radiates to create the cosmos, Zoharic theosophy concentrates on the nature and interaction of the ten sefirot as symbols of the inner life and processes of the Godhead. Because the sefirot are also archetypes for everything in the world of creation, an understanding of their workings can illuminate the inner workings of the cosmos and of history. The Zohar thereby provides a cosmic-symbolic interpretation of Judaism and of the history of Israel in which the Torah and commandments, as well as Israel's life in exile, become symbols for events and processes in the inner life of God, Thus interpreted, the proper observance of the commandments assumes a cosmic significance.
From: Richard S. Sarason. "Cabala," Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia. Deluxe Edition, c. 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation, Disc 1.
ON THE GOLEM AS PROTECTOR
In Jewish legend, an image or form that is given life through a magical formula. A golem frequently took the form of a robot, or automaton. In the Hebrew Bible (see Psalms
139:16) and in the Talmud, the term refers to an unformed substance. Its present meaning developed during the Middle Ages, when legends arose of wise men who could instill life in effigies by the use of a charm. The creatures were sometimes believed to offer special protection to Jews. The best-known of the golem stories concerned a Rabbi Low of 16th-century Prague, who was said to have created a golem that he used as his servant.
From: Entry on "Golem" in Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia Deluxe Edition, c. 1993- 1996 Microsoft Corporation, Disc 1.
ON THE NATURE OF THE GOLEM
In the development of the later legend of the golem there are three outstanding points: (1) The legend is connected with earlier tales of the resurrection of the dead by putting the name of God in their mouths or on their arm, and by removing the parchment containing the name in reverse and thus causing their death. Such legends were widespread in Italy from the tenth century (in MegillarAhima'az). (2) It is related to ideas current in non- Jewish circles concerning the creation of an alchemical man (the "homunculus" of Paracelsus), (3) The golem, who is the servant of his creator, developed dangerous natural powers; he grows from day to day, and in order to keep him from overpowering the members of the household he must be restored to his dust by removing or erasing the §l§f from his forehead. Here, the idea of the golem is joined by the new motive of the unrestrained power of the elements which can bring about destruction and havoc. Legends of this sort appeared first in connection with Elijah, rabbi of Chelm (d. 1583).
From: "Golem" entry in the Encyclopedia Judaica. Volume 7. Jerusalem, Israel: Keter Publishing House, 1971, pp. 754-755.
VARIANT ON THE GOLEM LEGEND
A variant of the Golem legend gives another explanation for the Maharal's [Rabbi Loew] decision to return the clay monster to the dust lie came from,[sic] Although the creature was mighty in strength, supernatural in prescience, and ever alert in following the orders of his Cabalistic creator, so that he saved the Jews of Prague from many a calamity, nonetheless, his creator decided to "unmake" him because he had grown afraid of the creature he had created, for the Golem, waxing drunk with the immense power he was
wielding, menaced the entire Jewish community, even trying to bend the Maharal to his will, which had now turned evil and destructive, Thereupon, using the secret gematria of Cabalistic formulas for the second time, the Maharal returned the clay hulk of his creature to its original inanimate condition by withdrawing from its mouth the Shem, the life-
creating, ineffable Name of God that he had placed there when first he made him.
From: "The Golem," in The Book of Jewish Knowledge. Nathan Ausubel. On The First Electronic Jewish Bookshelf, Scanrom Publishers, 1994,Cd-Rom.
LITERARY ASPECTS OF THE LEGEND OF THE GOLEM
The Legends concerning the golem, especially in their later forms, served as a favorite literary subject, at first in German literature-of both Jews and non-Jews-in the 19th
century, and afterward in modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature. To the domain of belles lettres also belongs the book Nifla'ot Maharal im ha-Golem ("The Miraculous Deeds of
Rabbi Loew with the Golem"; 1909), which was published by Judith Rosenberg as an
early manuscript but actually was not written until after the blood libels of the 1890s. The connection between the golem and the struggle against ritual murder accusations is
entirely a modern literary invention. In this literature questions are discussed which had no place in the popular legends (e.g., the golem's love for a woman), or symbolic
interpretations of the meaning of the golem were raised (the unredeemed, unformed man; the Jewish people; the working class aspiring for its liberation).
Interest in the golem legend among writers, artists, and musicians became evident in the early 20th century. The golem was also invariably the benevolent robot of the later
Prague tradition and captured the imagination of writers active in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and German,,,, The outstanding work about the golem was the novel entitled Der Golem (1915; Eng. 1928) by the Bavarian writer Gustav Meyrink (1868-
1932), who spent many years in Prague. Meyrink's book, notable for its detailed description and nightmare atmosphere, was a terrifying allegory about man's reduction to an automaton by the pressures of modern society.
From: "Golem" entry in the Encyclopedia Judaica. Volume 7. Jerusalem, Israel: Keter Publishing House, 1971, pp. 754-755.
This dissertation examines the ways in which contemporary Jewish American authors rewrite traditional Jewish narratives to both reflect and revise current conceptions of the self and the Jew. Far from denying a connection to Jewish tradition, these authors instead shift the focus, articulating a Jewishness that has less to do with their conception of a specifically revealed will of God than with their desire to integrate inherited stories with those emerging from contemporary Jewish life. I argue that the texts being granted authority have changed, expanded to include narratives of collective memory that stand outside of the sacred canon but nevertheless retain both causal and normative roles in the construction of contemporary Jewish identity.
[Grauer] contends that by reworking the Jewish legend of the golem to allow for female creation, Cynthia Ozick (in "Puttermesser and Xanthippe") and Marge Piercy (in He, She and It) speak to perceived gender inequities within Judaism while still maintaining that traditional narratives can fruitfully inform contemporary female identity.
From: Grauer, Tresa Lynn. One and the Same Openness: Narrative and Tradition in
Contemporary Jewish American Literature. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1995, abstract page.
ON MEDIA AND THE GOLEM LEGEND
This is a poster for Paul Wehener's lighthearted 1917 film, "The Golem and the Dancer"-an authentic myth that worked loose from its religious moorings to serve a variety of symbolic functions.
In an article by John Gross entitled "The Golem-As Medieval Hero, Frankenstein Monster and
Proto-Computer," he reviews "Golem! Danger, Deliverance and Art," an exhibition at the Jewish Museum in April 1988 in New York City displaying memorable images of the German filmmaker Paul Wegener along with many others.
"Between 1914 and 1920 Wegener made three movies on the golem theme: first "The
Golem," set in 29th century, then "The Golem and the Dancer," a lighthearted fantasy, and finally "The Golem: How He Came into the World," which goes back to the 16th
century and the story of Rabbi Loew, Only the last of the three has survived. It can be seen on video at the Jewish Museum, and it makes an extremely pwerful impression. The
golem, played by Wegener himself, is a complelling figure, with his stiff movements and squared-off haricut (remininscent, as Emily Bilski [curator of the exhibit] says, of figures in
Egyptian art, though it also makes him look rather like a medieval serf.)
"There are golems and golems. A third version, very different from eithr Wegener's or Steiner-Prag's can be found in a verse play, "The Golem," published in New York in 1921 by the Yiddish poet H, Leivick, According to Leivick's stage directions, he visualized the golem as a giant with a black curly beard, a dull stare and a fixed smile that was somehow on the verge of tears. (One of the artists who translated this conception into pictorical terms was the celebrated stage designer Boris Aronson; in the late 1920's he devised some striking sets and costumes for a production of the play that unfortunately never materialized.) For Levick, the golem was a false savior, who promised deliverance but deliverd violence: by the sound of it, the play is heavy with Jewish foreboding. And by the mid-1930's there was a sense of looming calamity in Czechoslovak portrayals of the golem, too-in the fine painting by the surrealist Frantisek Hudecek, for instance, which shows men (or androids) being hammered into life in some kind of infernal smithy."
From The New York Times, Sunday December 4,1988, p.41.
ON RITUAL MURDER OR THE BLOOD LIBEL LEGEND
Among the prime candidates for placement under the rubric of the folklore of evil, I would rank at or very near the top of the list the so-called blood libel legend. Other phrases
designating this vicious legend include blood accusations and ritual murder (accusation). These terms are used almost interchangeably but there are several scholars who have
sought to distinguish between ritual murder and blood libel, arguing that ritual murder refers to a sacrificial murder in general whereas the blood libel entails specific use of the blood of the victim. In the case of alleged Jewish ritual murder, the blood motivation is
nearly always present which presumably accounts for the equally common occurrence of both ritual murder and blood libel as labels.
The blood libel legend is not only the basis of ongoing festivals, but it has also been memorialized in church decoration. Legends proclaiming the Jewish "ritual murder" of Christian children or the profanation or desecration of holy wafers are celebrated in various European towns in such artistic forms as tapestries or stained glass church windows. For example, there are such windows or pictures or tapestries ornamenting the choir of the Saint Michael-Saint Gudule Cathedral in Brussels, a ceiling fresco in the small Tyrol village of Judenstein, paintings in a church sanctuary in the Vienna suburb of Korneuberg, and a stained glass window in a Paris church chapel.
It would be one thing if this classic bit of anti-Semitic folklore existed only in ballad or
legend form, but the sad truth is that what has been so often described in legend and literature is also alleged to have occurred in life, There have not been tens, but hundreds
of actual cases of blood libel tried in various courts in various countries. The map of Western and Eastern Europe and the Near East is profusely dotted with sites where ritual
murders were said to have occurred.
The sad truth about the blood libel legend is not so much that it was created-the need for such a psychological projection on the part of Christians is evident enough-but that it was believed to be true and accepted as such and that the lives of many individual Jews were adversely affected by some bloodthirsty Christians who believed or pretended to believe in the historicity of the blood libel legend.
From: Alan Dundes. "The Ritual Murder or Blood Libel Legend: A Study of Anti-Semitic Victimization through Projective Inversion," in The Blood Libel Legend: A Casebook in Anti-Semitic Folklore. Edited by Alan Dundes, pp. 337, 339, 341, 360.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ABOUT AND ADULT VERSIONS OF, THE GOLEM
Alexander, Tamar. "A Legend of the Blood Libel in Jerusalem: A Study of a Process of Folk-Tale
Adaptation," International Folklore Review: Folklore Studies From Overseas. Volume 5 (1987):60- 74.
Allison, Alida, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? The Golem as Family Member in Jewish Children's Literature," Lion and the Unicom. Volume 14, No. 2 (December 1990): 92-97.
Anthony, Piers. Golem in the Gears. New York: Ballantine, 1986.
Bilski, Emily D. Golem! Danger, Deliverance, and Art, Foreword by Isaac Bashevis Singer, with
essays by Moshe Idel and Elfi Ledig.New York: Jewish Museum, 1988.
Bloch, Hayim, The Golem; Legends of the Ghetto of Prague. Translated from the German by
Harry Schneiderman, With prefatory note by Hans Ludwig Held, Blauvelt, NY: Rudolf Steiner
Publications, 1972.
Borges, Jorge Luis. The Golem. New York: Grove Press, 1967.
Dundes, Alan, Ed. The Blood Libel Legend: A Casebook in Anti-Semitic Folklore. Madison, Wl:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1991.
Goldsmith, Arnold L. The Golem Remembered, 1909-1980: Variations of a Jewish Legend.
Detroit, Ml: Wayne State University Press, 1981.
Goldsmith, Arnold. "Elie Wiesel, Rabbi Judah Lowe, and the Golem of Prague," Studies in
American Jewish Literature. Volume 5 (1986): 15-28.
Hamill, Pete, Snow in August: A Novel, Boston, MA: Little Brown, 1997,
Haraway, Donna. "A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology and Socialist Feminism in the 1980's" in Feminism/Postmodernism. Linda Nicholson, Ed., New York: Routledge, 1990, pp. 190-
233.
Idel, Moshe. Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990.
Jacoby, Jay, Selected Resources for the Study of the Legends of the Golem and Lilith,
[microform} Charlotte NC: J. Jacoby, 1984. [Nineteenth Annual Convention, Association of Jewish
Libraries, June 24-27, 1984, Atlanta, Georgia.]
Jacoby, Jay, "The Golem in Jewish Literature," Judaica Librarianship, Volume 1, No, 2 (Spring
1984):100-04.
Krause, Maureen T., Ed. "Rabbi Loew and His Legacy: The Golem in Literature and Film."
SERIES: Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts; v, 7, nos. 2 and 3, Tallahassee, FL: Florida State
University, 1996.
Meyrink, Gustav. The Golem. Translated by Mike Mitchell and with an introduction and
chronology by Robert Irwin. Sawtry, Cambs: Dedalus; Riverside, CA: Ariadne, 1995.
Piercy, Marge. He, She, and It. New York: Knopf, 1991.
Plank, Robert. "The Golem and the Robot." Literature and Psychology, vol. 15 (1965).
Posner, Marcia W. 'The Golem in Art: An Interview with Beverly Brodsky, Creator of Her Own
Golem," Judaica Librarianship. Volume 1, No. 2 (Spring 1984): 104-06.
Ripellino, Angelo Maria. Magic Prague. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994.
Rowen, Norma. 'The Making of Frankenstein's Monster: Post-Golem, Pre-Robot," in Nicholas
Ruddick, Ed. State of the Fantastic: Studies in the Theory and Practice of Fantastic Literature and
Film, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992, pp. 169-77.
Rubens, A. Alfred. A History of Jewish Costume. New York: Crown, 1973.
Schaffer, Carl. "Leivick's The Golem and the Golem Legend," in Patrick D. Murphy, Ed. Staging
the Impossible: The Fantastic Mode in Modem Drama. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992,
pp. 137-49.
Scholem, Gershom Gerhard. On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism. [Zur Kabbala und ihrer
Symbolik.] Translated by Ralph Manheim ; Forward by Bernard McGinn. New York: Schocken
Books, 1996.
Sherwin, Byron L. The Golem Legend: Origins and Implications. Lanham, MD: University Press of
America, 1985.
Thieberger, Bedrich, The Great Rabbi Loew of Prague: His Life and Work and the Legend of the Golem. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1955.
Teitelbaum, Richard. Golem. Sound Recording: An Interactive Opera. New York: Tzadik, 1995.
Trachtenberg, Joshua, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion, New York:
Atheneum, 1970.
Wechsberg, Joseph. New York: Macmillan, 1971.
Wiener, Norbert. God and Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion. Cambridge, MA: M I T Press, 1988.
Winkler, Gershon. The Golem of Prague: A New Adaptation of the Documented Stories of the Golem of Prague, Introductory Overview by Gershon Winkler, illustrated by Yochanan Jones,
New York : Judaica Press, 1980.
Winkler, Gershon, The Sacred Stones: The Return of the Golem: A Mystical Novel. Illus. by Yosef
Dershowitz. New York: Judaica Press, 1991.
Adam, Golem, Robot - A Dialogue between Ken Goldberg and Ovid Jacob
This arose out of a correspondence between Ken and I February 1995, Ken's text is based on a talk he gave at USC Hillel Faculty lunch with Tamara Eskenazi, Professor of Biblical Studies, Hebrew Union College, on 15 February, 1995.
Ken:
I must begin by asking your indulgence for I am trained primarily as a scientist and am venturing
outside my usual area. My aim is to reconsider the archetype of The Creature in Western literature and thought by examining the linkage between Adam, Golem and Robot.
Adam
The well-known story of Adam and Eve is told in chapter 2 and 3 of Genesis. Initially Adam and
Eve live in a state of innocent bliss in the Garden. G-d tells them that they can eat from any tree with the pointed exception of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The serpent suggests to Eve that eating from this Tree will open her eyes and make her wise. After she and Adam cast
aside caution and eat, G-d appears and they hide. He asks why are they wearing fig leaves and
Eve confesses, blaming the serpent. Then Adam confesses, blaming Eve, "the woman You gave
me": in effect blaming G-d. G-d responds with a threefold punishment: • Woman will experience pain during childbirth.
• Man will no longer be pampered but must work by the sweat of his brow. • Both will become mortal, anticipating that life is finite.
Me:
Joseph Campbell points out that before the Biblical myth of creation, there were other competing
myths in that region, with different interpretations of the Garden, the Tree and the Serpent. His Occidental Mythologies has some of this. Check out also some of my thoughts The Tree, The
Ladder. The Chariot and the Self
One interesting thing I want to mention is that tho' we "lost" the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge after we were expelled from the Garden, subsequently Kabbalists figured out a way to "get back in"! Thus, Moses Cordovero, in his Garden of Pomegranates _ (Pardes Rimonim) in the 1500's explores this - see Scholem's Kabbalah for more details. I think that pomegranate refers to
female genitals, so it is perhaps some type of kabbalistic sex magick, tho' I am speculating now.
Anyway, the point is that the Tree was not totally "lost". K:
When we consider these conditions, Pain, Work and the recognition of Mortality, we realize that
they define the condition of being an adult. In effect, the consequences of their act of disobedience (rebellion) facilitates their maturing into full human beings. Their expression of free
will transforms them from passive innocence to responsible leaders.
And what about G-d's reaction? Is He Really so angry? Or might He be secretly pleased by the
inevitable consequence of his creations, (see the essay, "Did They Fall or Were They Pushed?") In light of this reading, I propose the following thesis:
The event wherein the creator loses control of the creature is a necessary step towards the development of the creature.
(Certainly this reading of Creation story runs counter to the traditional Christian view of
"Fall/Original Sin" advocated by St. Augustine and Milton ("Paradise Lost"). But this reading is
somewhat consistent with Jewish readings of the story, which do not agonize over the events in
the garden.) Me:
A very interesting thesis and an interesting point regarding "evil." Indeed, in Kabbalah, "evil" has
its place. The complications which come with loss of control seem part of the process, as you
point out.
K:
Golem:
Let us turn our attention to the next component of this linkage, the "Golem." I used this term as a
shorthand to refer to a story that arises, with variations, in many cultures' mythology and folklore:
Prometheus, Icarus, Faust, the Sorcerer's Apprentice, Frankenstein, the Hasidictale of the
Golem. The archetype generally describes a human who creates a creature that comes to life.
Initially the creator takes great pride and delight in the creature, until at some point the creature
takes a life of its own and runs amok, and in the end the creator pays the consequences for this
act of hubris. (Interestingly, it is rarely a woman who plays this role; for a feminist perspective on
this subject, see Donna Harawav's Cyborg Manifesto, as well as Jenny Cool's essay on it.)
Me:
There is also a book by Gustav Meyrink, "Der Golem," published in 1925 or so. There is an
English translation of this, and I also have a Romanian translation I got in 1991. Plus, of course, the great 1925 Expressionist German film by that title as well.
K:
Each variant of this story has the same basic message: it is a mistake to overreach, especially in
the realm of science: Don't mess with Mother Nature! During the Middle Ages this edict was
enforced by the Church: only the mystical and secretive alchemists persisted in trying to create
homunculi: artificial men. As a vivid example, recall the horror of the Manhattan physicists when
they witnessed the awesome potential of their creation. By then it had gotten away from them and
some, in particular Oppenheimer, suffered a Promethean downfall.
Although the consequences may be severe, I'd like to postulate that:
The event wherein the creator loses control of the creature is a necessary step toward the development of the creature.
Me: I have a different take on this: in the story of the Golem, the Rabbi brought the Creature to
life only when it was a clear need, to defend the Prague Jewish community from expulsion. It was
meant to be a short-lived measure, which it is in Meyrink's version. So is tempering the Hashem -
- like power of creation, but in a very circumscribed way.
The physicists, on the other hand, did not seem to have as much understanding (and
compassion), compared with Rabbi Loew, of the dimensions involved in building such an
awesome instrument of destruction as the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer, one of the few in the
group who did worry about the implications of the atomic bomb work, realizes some of the
implications, but too late to affect the decision of whether to drop the bomb, or where to do that. The creators have lost control of the creature , the bomb, but this has had grave consequences.
Maybe necessary, but grave nonetheless. Perhaps the lessons we might learn from this is to temper our learning with compassion and wisdom, otherwise we will destroy ourselves.
Before I leave the subject of the Golem I would like to reconsider the particulars of the Jewish
version of this story. After the Golem saves the small Jewish community from the consequences
of a accusation of a blood libel, Rabbi Loew asks the creature to fetch water from the well. The
Rabbi goes upstairs to sleep and awakens to discover that the entire house is filled with water!
The Golem continues dutifully fetch water until the Rabbi tricks it into leaning close enough that
the Rabbi can erase the first letter inscribed on its forehead, thus changing Emet (Truth, or Life)
to Met (Death), whereupon the Golem turns into a lifeless mass of clay which crushes the Rabbi
to death. Again, harsh consequences for the creator. As a Computer Scientist I note that the
rabbi's fatal error was to forget to specify what we call a "termination condition". The Golem went
into an infinite loop due to a programming error!
This may suggest a subtle point: the loss of control is often traced back to some 'mistake' on the
part of the creator. Consider the case of the Cornell graduate student Robert Morris, who in 1990
experimented with a program that could replicate itself over the Internet. After such viruses
(technically, worms) are detected, one way to prevent further spread is to 'inoculate' an uninfected machine so that it appears to be infected. To counter such defenses, Morris added a
feature to his program that would, with some small probability, re-infect a machine which appeared to be already infected. Morris set that probability at 5% not anticipating the exponential
spread of his program. It soon replicated to that point where many computers on the Internet were jammed with thousands of copies of this program. Morris was arrested and expelled from
Cornell. Although many embarrassed system operators advocated chaining Morris to a rock and
arranging for an eagle to eat out his liver every day, he is reportedly now working quietly for the NSA.
Me: I do think it is hubris, the hubris of rationality, which believes it will be able to foresee all the
possible contingencies and prepare for them all. yet, it is only a part of the whole mind. It usually works along linear modes of thinking, and misses non-linear or synergetic effects, like Robert
Morris did. I feel this is a source of many difficulties.
K:
Robot
This brings us to the final component of the linkage, the Robot. I'd like to differentiate it from the
Golem by defining the Robot as a purely mechanical and logical creature who's animation does
not derive from spiritual, magical, or alchemical sources as is the case with the Golem.
Furthermore, I will characterize the motivation behind creating a Robot as pragmatic: to do work,
in contrast to the motivation behind creating a Golem, which is to some degree to demonstrate
virtuosity. Me:
But I would also like to point out that the Golem is "Emet", alive! The Robot is not. Even
Frankenstein's monster is made of flesh from other (formerly) living creature.
K:
In contrast, let us consider the origin of the term "robot" in Karel Capek's 1923 play, 'R.U.R.,
Rossum's Universal Robots.' "Robot" derives from the Slavic word for 'work'. Consider the
consonant German German "arbeit", which appeared as a grim example of Nazi humor on the
gates of Auschwitz - "Arbeit Macht Frei", Work will me you free. The etymology of this word
suggests that the robot is a utilitarian creature whose primary purpose is to serve its human
master. This role is emphasized in Asimov's science fiction stories. The contemporary science of
Robotics also emphasizes the utilitarian, although it carries a persistent thread on interest in
virtuosic demonstrations of modern automata.
Me:
By the way, Capek was from Prague. I wondered if he is Jewish, and familiar with the Golem
story? Anyway, I like you connecting "rabotai" in Czech and "arbeit" in German. K: Is the goal of Robotics to create obedient slaves?
Me:
That is an excellent question. I take it from the subsequent discussion that you think so.
K:
This raises some subtle issues. Certainly we want robots that do what they are told. But to lessen
the burden of programming (and the consequences of making software errors!), we want to
provide the robot with some ability to make decisions: to act "intelligently". But this capability
opens a Pandora's box: once we give the robot some latitude, we may not be able to anticipate
all logical consequences. In Artificial Intelligence, success is often declared at the moment when
the program or robot is capable of surprising its creator.
In the 1950's a computer scientist named Samuels wrote a program to play checkers that was
able to evolve its decision tables based on past games. Eventually it was able to beat Samuels
regularly! Similarly, a team of grad students at Carnegie Mellon University developed a chess- playing program that also evolved based on past games. It soon outstripped its developers and beat a few chess masters. The grad students were hired by IBM which is putting its corporate resources behind the development of Deep Blue, which will take on the world champion Gary
Kasparov
In closing I would like to return to my thesis:
The event wherein the creator loses control of the creature is a necessary step toward the development of the creature.
I would like to argue that in all the cases we have considered, from Adam to Golem to Robot,
although conventional wisdom warns against hubris and views rebellion or loss of control as a
downfall, it seems plausible to read the event instead as a step forward and upward. Although the
creator inevitably suffers, the truly inspired creator suffers willingly.
Come on, leap cheerfully, even if it means a lighthearted leap, so long as it is decisive. If
you are capable of being a man, then danger and the harsh judgement of existence on your thoughtlessness will help you become one. - S. Kirkegaard, The Present Age.
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