1. What is a Golem? What forms the basis for their existence?
עשרים ושתים אותיות חקקן חצבן שקלן והמירן צרפן וצר בהם נפש כל כל היצור ונפש כל העתיד לצור: ...
כיצד שקלן והמירן אל"ף עם כלם וכלם עם אל"ף, בי"ת עם כלם וכלם עם בי"ת וחוזרת חלילה נמצא כל היצור וכל הדבור יוצא בשם אחד:
[God] hath formed, weighed, transmuted, composed, and created with these twenty-two letters every living being, and every soul yet uncreated... For He indeed showed the mode of combination of the letters, each with each, Aleph with all, and all with Aleph. Thus in combining all together in pairs are produced these two hundred and thirty-one gates of knowledge. And from Nothingness did He make something, and all forms of speech and every created thing, and from the empty void He made the solid earth, and from the non-existent He brought forth Life.
(ז) וַיִּ֩יצֶר֩ ה' אֱלֹקִ֜ים אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֗ם עָפָר֙ מִן־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה וַיִּפַּ֥ח בְּאַפָּ֖יו נִשְׁמַ֣ת חַיִּ֑ים וַֽיְהִ֥י הָֽאָדָ֖ם לְנֶ֥פֶשׁ חַיָּֽה׃
(7) God ה' formed the Human from the soil’s humus, blowing into his nostrils the breath of life: the Human became a living being.
Midrash Avkir
[God] made [Adam] as a Golem. And when He was about to cast a soul into him, He said, "If I set him down now, it will be said that he was my companion in the work of Creation; so I will leave him a Golem until I have created everything else." When He had created everything, the angels said to Him, "Aren't you going to make the man you spoke of?" He replied, "I made him long ago, only the soul is missing." Then He cast the soul into him and set him down and concentrated the whole world in him.
Rabbi Yoḥanan bar Ḥanina says: Daytime is twelve hours long, and the day Adam the first man was created was divided as follows: In the first hour of the day, his dust was gathered. In the second, an undefined figure [lit. Golem] was fashioned. In the third, his limbs were extended. In the fourth, a soul was cast into him. In the fifth, he stood on his legs. In the sixth, he called the creatures by the names he gave them. In the seventh, Eve was paired with him. In the eighth, they arose to the bed two, and descended four, i.e., Cain and Abel were immediately born. In the ninth, he was commanded not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. In the tenth, he sinned. In the eleventh, he was judged. In the twelfth, he was expelled and left the Garden of Eden, as it is stated: “But man abides not in honor; he is like the beasts that perish” (Psalms 49:13). Adam did not abide, i.e., sleep, in a place of honor for even one night.
(טו) לֹֽא־נִכְחַ֥ד עׇצְמִ֗י מִ֫מֶּ֥ךָּ אֲשֶׁר־עֻשֵּׂ֥יתִי בַסֵּ֑תֶר רֻ֝קַּ֗מְתִּי בְּֽתַחְתִּיּ֥וֹת אָֽרֶץ׃
(טז) גׇּלְמִ֤י ׀ רָ֘א֤וּ עֵינֶ֗יךָ וְעַֽל־סִפְרְךָ֮ כֻּלָּ֢ם יִכָּ֫תֵ֥בוּ יָמִ֥ים יֻצָּ֑רוּ (ולא) [וְל֖וֹ] אֶחָ֣ד בָּהֶֽם׃
(15) My frame was not concealed from You when I was shaped in a hidden place,
knit together in the recesses of the earth.
(16) Your eyes saw my unformed limbs;
they were all recorded in Your book;
in due time they were formed,
to the very last one of them.
Rava says: If the righteous wish to do so, they can create a world, as it is stated: “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God.” In other words, there is no distinction between God and a righteous person who has no sins, and just as God created the world, so can the righteous. Indeed, Rava created a man, a golem, using forces of sanctity. Rava sent his creation before Rabbi Zeira. Rabbi Zeira would speak to him but he would not reply. Rabbi Zeira said to him: You were created by one of the members of the group, one of the Sages. Return to your dust. The Gemara relates another fact substantiating the statement that the righteous could create a world if they so desired: Rav Ḥanina and Rav Oshaya would sit every Shabbat eve and engage in the study of Sefer Yetzira, and a third-born calf [igla tilta] would be created for them, and they would eat it in honor of Shabbat.
אָמַר רַב יְהוּדָה אָמַר רַב: יוֹדֵעַ הָיָה בְּצַלְאֵל לְצָרֵף אוֹתִיּוֹת שֶׁנִּבְרְאוּ בָּהֶן שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ.
Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: Bezalel knew how to join the letters with which heaven and earth were created.
Sefer Tagi, Rabbi Eleazar of Worms, d. 1238
In the future, the righteous will cause the resurrection of the dead, [like] Eliyahu, Elisha [and] Ezekiel as it is written "The seal will be changed into clay" (Job 38:14)... Why is it not written, "made" [instead of changed]? Because it [the verse] hints at the righteous who know how to create by means of the combination of letters, and they created a man by means of Sefer Yezirah, but he was not similar to the man created by God in His wisdom... this is the reason of the fact that if he will sin, [the Golem] will return to the dust.
Excerpt from the Siddur of Rabbi Naftali Zvi Herz, 1560
Speech was mentioned together with intelligence, since man has the knowledge to create a new creature by the means of Sefer Yezirah; but he cannot confer speech upon it, only God alone.
2. How are Golems made?
Commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah, Judah bar Barzillai (late-11th cent.)
[Abraham] sat alone and meditated on [the Sefer Yetzirah], but could understand nothing until a heavenly voice went forth and said to him: 'Are you trying to set yourself up as my equal? I am one and have created the Sefer Yezirah and studied it, but you by yourself cannot understand it. Therefore take a companion, and meditate on it together, and you will under stand it." Thereupon, Abraham went to his teacher Shem, the son of Noah, and sat with him for three years and they meditated on it until they knew how to create a world. And to this day, there is no one who can understand it alone, two scholars [are needed], and even they understand it only after three years, whereupon they can make everything their hearts desire.
According to Rabbi Eleazar of Worms (c. 1176-1238), creating a Golem involves the following steps:
- Studying the Sefer Yetzirah with a partner for three years,
- Gathering fresh mountain soil,
- Kneading the soil in running water,
- Forming the soil into the shape of a Golem,
- Reciting the 231 pairs of Hebrew letters with the five possible consonants (a, e, i, o, u) and names of God,
- Reciting the aleph bet in different orders produced different results (e.g. One direction creates a male Golem, another a female Golem).
- Each pair of letters corresponds to a part of the human body.
- These recitations should be done rapidly while circling the Golem.
For many Kabbalists, including Rabbi Eleazar, creating a Golem is a spiritual, mystical experience that does not culminate in the creation of a physical Golem capable of performing menial tasks.
3. Is Golem-making dangerous? How?
Hayyei ha-'Olam ha-Ba' (Life of the World to Come), Abraham Abulafia, d. 1291
And if the person who recites the letter errs, God save us, in his pronunciation of the letter that is appointed upon the limb that is in the head of the person who reads, that limb is separated [from its place] and changes its place, its nature being immediately transformed, another form being conferred to it [and] the person becoming injured, this being the reason that the name whw is sealed by the word mum [injury].
Explanation of the Four-Lettered Name (c. 1170-1250)
[Jeremiah] went to Sira his son and they together submerged themselves in the Sefer Yezirah for three years, to uphold that which is written: "Then they that feared the Lord spoke one with another . . . " (Malachi 3:16). At the end of three years, when they set about combining the alphabets by means of combination, grouping, and word formation, a man was created for them on whose forehead was written: YHVH elokim emet [The LORD God is truth]. But there was a knife in the hand of this created being, and he erased the alef of emet [truth], leaving only met [dead]. Jeremiah rent his garments and said, "Why have you erased the alef from emet?"
He replied, "I shall tell you a parable. To what may this be compared? An architect built many houses, cities, and courts, and no one could copy his style and no one understood his knowledge nor possessed his skill. Then two men forced themselves upon him. He taught them the secret of his trade, and they knew every aspect of the craft. When they had learned his trade and his secret and his skills, they began to argue with him until they broke away from him and became independent architects, charging a lower price for the same services. When people noticed this, they ceased to honor the craftsman and instead came to the newcomers and honored them and gave them commissions when they required to have something built. So too has God made you in His image, shape, and form. But now that you have created a man like Him, people will say: 'There is no God in the world other than these two!'"
Then Jeremiah said, "What solution is there?" He answered, "Write the alphabets with intense concentration backwards on the earth you have strewn. Only do not meditate with the intention of honor and restoration, but rather the complete opposite." So they did, and the being turned to dust and ashes before them. Then Jeremiah — peace be upon him — said, "Truly, one should study these matters only to know the power and omnipotence of the Creator of the universe, but not to practice them, for it is written: 'You shall not learn to do' (Deuteronomy 18:9)."
3. What is the Golem folktale?
From Der Golem (The Golem), Leopold Weisel, 1847
In the reign of Rudolph II among the Prague Jews lived a man named Bezalel Loew, known, because of his tall stature and great learning as high Rabbi Loew. This rabbi was highly skilled in all the arts and sciences, especially in the Kabbalah. By means of this art, he was able to bring to life figures, formed of clay or carved from wood, that, like real men, did what was assigned to them. Such self-made servants are worth much: they do not eat, they do not drink, and do not need wages; they work tirelessly, you can scold them and they give no answer. The Rabbi Loew had formed such a servant out of clay, laid the Shem in its mouth, and brought him to life with it. This constructed servant performed all the menial duties in the house throughout the week: chopping wood, carrying water, sweeping the streets, etc. But on the Sabbath he had to rest, therefore, the master took the Shem from his mouth and made him dead before the rest day arrived. But once it happened that the rabbi forgot to do this and misfortune followed. The magic servant became enraged, tore down the houses, threw rocks around, uprooted trees, and thrashed about horribly in the streets. People rushed to let the rabbi know about this, but the difficulty was great; it was already the Sabbath, and any work, whether creating or destroying, is strictly prohibited, so how to undo the magic? To the rabbi, his Golem was like the broom to the sorcerer's apprentice in Goethe's poem. Fortunately, no one had yet inaugurated the Sabbath in the Altneu-Synagogue, and since this is the oldest synagogue in Prague, everything depends on it, and there was still time to take the Shem from the wild fellow. The master ran, and tore the magic formula from the mouth of the Golem — the clay lump fell and crumbled to pieces. Terrified by this scene, the rabbi no longer wanted to make such a dangerous servant. Even today, pieces of the Golem can be seen in the attic of the Altneu-Synagogue.
From Zeitung für Einsiedler (Journal for Hermits), Jakob Grimm, 1808
But once, out of carelessness, someone allowed his Golem to become so tall that he could no longer reach his forehead. Then, out of fear, the master ordered the servant to take off his boots, thinking that he would bend down and that then the master could reach his forehead. This is what happened, and the first letter was successfully erased, but the whole load of clay fell on the Jew and crushed him.
4. What do modern Golems look like?
a. Golems in literature
From The Golem: The Story of a Legend, Elie Wiesel, 1983
What did [the Golem] look like? You would like a portrait. In your own mind, he looks like a monster. You imagine him excessively tall, strong, heavy, dragging his body like lead — some kind of human beast that nature put on earth to mock or frighten it. Well, let me tell you, you are mistaken... He was somewhat taller than the Maharal, who was very tall, and somewhat heavier... Strange, mysterious, he seemed to plow earth and heaven all at once... I should add that he was blessed with both intuition and intelligence... he radiated a force which overwhelmed you, moved you, flooded you with emotion... But even more striking was his shadow, which followed the Maharal's as if refusing to let go.
From Gedicht in Sieben Gesängen (Poem in Seven Cantos), L.A. Frankl, 1862
[As Shabbat commenced] then this one was seized as if by madness; his eyes rolled and burned like flaming wheels, his breath was visible and sparkled with wonderful colors, and he began a terrible destruction in the house.
From The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon, 2000
"Superman is… maybe… only an American Golem."
The shaping of a golem, to him, was a gesture of hope, offered against hope, in a time of desperation. It was the expression of a yearning that a few magic words and an artful hand might produce something — one poor, dumb, powerless thing — exempt from the crushing strictures, from the ills, cruelties, and inevitable failures of the greater Creation. It was the voicing of a vain wish, when you got down to it, to escape. To slip... free of the entangling chain of reality and the straightjacket of physical laws. [Is there any] more noble or necessary service in life?
b. Digitized Golems
From "The Golem of Prague & The Golem of Rehovoth," Gershom Scholem, 1965
We may safely say that Rabbi Loew was also the spiritual ancestor of two other departed Jews—I mean John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener—who contributed more than anyone else to the magic that has produced the modern Golem. It is the latest embodiment of this magic which we are privileged to dedicate today, the Golem of Rehovoth. And, indeed, the Golem of Rehovoth can well compete with the Golem of Prague...
The old Golem was based on a mystical combination of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which are the elements and building-stones of the world. The new Golem is based on a simpler, and at the same time more intricate, system. Instead of 22 elements, it knows only of two, the two numbers 0 and 1, constituting the binary system of representation. Everything can be translated, or transposed, into these two basic signs...
All my days I have been complaining that the Weizmann Institute has not mobilized the funds to build up the Institute for Experimental Demonology and Magic which I have for so long proposed to establish there. They preferred what they call Applied Mathematics and its sinister possibilities to my more direct magical approach. Little did they know, when they preferred Chaim Pekeris to me, what they were letting themselves in for. So I resign myself and say to the Golem and its creator: develop peacefully and don't destroy the world. Shalom.
From an Interview with Karel Capek, 1935
R.U.R. [Rossum's Universal Robots] is, in fact, my own rendering of the legend of the Golem in modern form. It came to mind, of course, only because a piece of it was already at hand. 'But, by heaven, for all that it's still my own Golem,' I said to myself, 'The robot is the Golem made flesh by mass production.'
Sources:
Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, 2000.
Norma Contrada, "Golem and Robot: A Search for Connections," 1995.
Edan Dekel and David Gantt Gurley, "How the Golem Came to Prague," 2013.
Joseph Dan, "The 'Iyyun Cycle" in The Early Kabbalah, 1986.
Terri Frongia, "Tales of Old Prague: Of Ghettos, Passover, and the Blood Libel," 1995.
David Honigsberg, "Rava's Golem," 1995.
Moshe Idel, Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid, 1990.
Gershom Scholem, "The Idea of the Golem" in On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism, 1965.
---, "The Golem of Prague & The Golem of Rehovoth" in The Messianic Idea in Judaism and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality, 1971.