Debunking Viral Claim About the Talmud and Minors
5 min read
You’ve probably heard about the Jewish Frankensteinian creature, but what is it, really?
The Hebrew word, golem, refers to a shapeless, unformed lump of clay, although—pun intended—it seems to have taken on a life of its own.
The Hebrew word, golem (גלם), refers to shapeless, unformed matter, like a lump of clay. According to the Talmud, a golem is also a body in human form, but without a soul or the ability to speak; like it says when describing God’s creation of man in Genesis 2:4-7, when Adam was a “golem,” not alive, and not yet considered human:
"Daytime is 12 hours: In the first hour, [man's] dust was gathered. In the second, he was made into an undefined shape (golem). In the third, his limbs were extended..."1
The Talmud relates that the Sages were able to create living beings2 using kaballistic tools, including mystical combinations of Hebrew letters. The Hebrew language—and in particular, speech—when used in a creative capacity is similar, so to speak, to the process God used to create the world, like it says at the beginning of the Torah: "And God said, 'Let there be light.'" (Genesis 1:3)
“Golem” is not an unusual term in Jewish writings, and appears in numerous places. For example, it is used in the book of Psalms (139:16), “You saw my unshaped form (גלמי ראו עיניך), in your book they were recorded.”
It is also found in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), 5:7, where it describes the “seven characteristics of a golem,” and contrasts them to the “seven characteristics of a sage (חכם).”
The Sefer Yetzirah, or the Book of Creation, an ancient text that deals with the Hebrew alphabet, letter permutations, and different names of God—and also explains some of the deeper mysteries of the creative process—offers cryptic clues as to how to create a Golem using various combinations of Hebrew letters and mystical names of God. Although, according to noted author and rabbi, Aryeh Kaplan, it could also be describing an advanced meditative technique:
“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 four-letter name of God], the initiate could form a very real mental image of a human being, limb by limb. This possibly could be used as an astral body, through which one could ascend to the spiritual realms.”3
According to legend, in the 16th century, Rabbi Judah ben Bezalel Loew, better known as the Maharal of Prague, created a Golem to patrol the city streets and protect the Jewish community. Different versions of the story claim the rabbi created the Golem either by engraving a name of God in the creature’s forehead, or writing a name of God on a piece of paper that was placed in its mouth. Either way, the Golem eventually got out of control and had to be killed. According to legend, its body was hidden in the attic of the old synagogue in Prague (the Altneuschul in the Jewish Quarter of Prague, Czech Republic). It’s rumored that Nazi soldiers entered the attic at the time of Germany’s occupation of Czechoslovakia during the Second World War, and never left.
The Altneuschul in the Jewish Quarter of Prague
YES
I need one to help with housework.
Is the story about the golem of Prague fact or fiction?
Great article.But I was not happy with the graphic in this. The golem is not malevolent. He is not anything.
He also doesn’t look like an ape.
Very interesting!