Who is the Golem: history, description and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

The answer to the question of who the Golem is can be formulated quite simply - it is a creation of clay, endowed with magical powers. Most often, Golems were made to take revenge on offenders. This is the leading character of Jewish mythology. However, there are many interesting legends and facts that we offer to get acquainted with.

Who could create Golems?

The legend of the Golem says that only a rabbi, a spiritually rich and enlightened person, can create it. Moreover, they should be driven not by the desire to punish their own enemies, but by the desire to protect the entire Jewish people from persecutors and oppressors. The creator's thoughts must be absolutely pure, only in this case his clay creation will gain its superhuman power.

Origin of the word

What is a Golem will be discussed in detail below. And the word itself originates from “gelem”, which in Hebrew means “raw material without processing”, “clay”. There is another version of the appearance of the word - from "shapeless".

History

The golem originally appeared in Prague, in the 16th century, whenThe Jewish people lived in very difficult conditions. The Germans and Czechs who inhabited the Czech capital oppressed him with all their might. Jews did not have the right to settle outside their ghetto, they often lived in poverty and cramped conditions.

Tired of looking with pain at the torments of his own people, Chief Rabbi Leo turned to heaven with a prayer, seeking intercession from the all-powerful God. And he heard the answer: he must conduct a secret ritual, create a Golem from clay and entrust him with reprisals against enemies.

The lion and his closest minions did everything they were told: they fashioned a human-like figure out of clay, revived it with the help of secret knowledge. The golem looked very much like a human, but differed in several ways:

• had no gift for words;
• distinguished by amazing physical strength;
• had a brownish skin tone.

The monster successfully destroyed the enemies that kept the Jewish ghetto at bay, and served as the protector of its creators for 13 years.

Therefore, understanding who the Golem is, it can be noted that it is the protector of the Jewish people, created by the rabbi and his friends and animated by the power of magical knowledge.

Ritual

Let's consider how exactly the revival of the clay idol took place. Rabbi Leo was helped by his faithful henchmen:

• Son-in-law Yitzhak ben Simeon, symbolizing the fire element.
• Rabbi's student, Jacob ben Chayim Sasson, who embodied the element of water in the magic ritual.

The rabbi himself embodied the air, and their creation - the Golem - the elementland.

Previously, all participants in the ritual underwent a purification procedure, the essence of which has not reached us.

The golem, a mythical creature breathed into life, was created like this:

• First, while continuously reciting psalms, the men fashioned a clay figure, placing it face up.
• Then they positioned themselves at his feet, gazing up at his lifeless face.
• At the command of Leo, Yitzhak walked around the idol seven times, moving from right to left, and uttered a secret phrase, after which the Golem turned red, the word of grief in a bright flame.
• Then, Yakov also walked around the idol 7 times, who was entrusted with pronouncing another text, at the end of this part of the ritual, the fiery luster disappeared, and liquid flowed over the figure. The Golem has hair and nails.
• Further, the rabbi himself walked around his creation and put parchment in his mouth. According to another version - Shem, the secret name of God.

After that, the idol came to life. They gave him clothes so that he would not differ from a person, and explained the task - to protect the Jewish people.

Features of appearance and behavior

Golem is a humanoid idol, most often made of clay, animated thanks to secret knowledge. Therefore, he looked like a rough copy of a person. The most famous Prague Golem received clothes and therefore did not differ much from people. It was not in vain that Rabbi Leo brought him to his house and passed him off as a mute, who happened to be met on the street. This creature did not differ in external attractiveness, rather it resembled a mutilated person.approximately 30 years old.

According to the legend, to make a figure of a clay monster should not be higher than the height of a child of 10 years old, because the Golem grows very quickly. At the same time, he does not need food, he is able to perform any physical work.

The clay idol did not possess any magical abilities besides its superpower. The fact that the Golem, having gone out of obedience, begins to destroy everything in its path, testifies to the evil inherent in its very nature.

Destruction of the first Golem

The lion kept his creation under control for many years, putting him to sleep during his visits to the synagogue. But one day, the aged rabbi forgot to do this, so the monster broke out of his house and began to destroy everything in its path. The frightened Jew put his creation to sleep forever, and the people again found themselves without protection.

The lifeless body of the clay protector was placed in the attic of the synagogue, and for many years no one dared to look there. However, in the 20s of the last century, a journalist, wanting to debunk the Jewish legend, managed to get into this place and saw that there were no traces of a clay man there.

The destruction of the Golem is explained differently:

• The second version of the legend says that the "rebellion" of the giant was pacified, but he did his job, the persecution of the Jews stopped, so Rabbi Leo ordered the Golem to go to bed in the attic of the synagogue, where he destroyed it.
• There is also a more romantic version. The golem, living among people, gradually began to gain intelligence and realize itself. He developed feelings forbeautiful Miriam, daughter of a rabbi. The girl had fun, calling him her betrothed, and the clay man accompanied her everywhere, awkwardly destroying everything in its path. The father asked Miriam to immobilize the Golem, and he turned to dust.

Each explanation of the death of the Golem is interesting in its own way and deserves the right to exist.

Other hypotheses

There is a slightly different version of who the Golem is. The legend tells that the “black man” (as the clay idol is sometimes called) did the most difficult work for his creators. Having fulfilled his duty, he turned to ashes. It was first created by the Prague rabbi Maharal.

This legend is of later origin, dating back to the 17th century.

Modern views

Having considered who the Golem is, we will find out how our contemporaries treat him. Despite the highly implausible plot of the legend, many Prague Jews still believe that a clay monster once protected their people. It is believed that every 33 years it comes back to life and disappears again.

Varieties of Golems

The clay idol - the protector of the Jewish people - is not the only version of what a Golem is. At various times, several variations of this monster are found in mystical texts:

• Water. Crafted from shaped liquid, often sentient.
• Stone. Appearance is similar to a revived stone block.
• Fiery. Lives in volcanoes, possesses magicalabilities.
• Earth. It resembles a hill, prefers to settle on the plains. Is less aggressive than all the previous ones.

These types of idols are less popular than the clay giant.

Image in Literature

The character Golem was often used by writers in their works:

• Austrian Gustav Meyrink created the novel "The Golem", which brought him fame. The legend itself is mentioned only briefly, but the plot is based on the dreams of the main character, the nameless narrator.
• Arthur Holicher's play of the same name was released in 1908.
• Stanisław Lem, Polish writer and philosopher, published the story "Golem 16".
• The clay man is mentioned in the Strugatsky brothers' "Monday begins on Saturday"
• Umberto Eco's novel "Foucault's Pendulum" also has a Golem figure.

This character of Jewish mythology often appears in the works of modern science fiction writers as a powerful weapon.

Interesting facts about the Golem

Having considered what a Golem is, we offer you to get acquainted with a selection of interesting facts about this mythical creature:

• In the city of Poznan, a monument was erected to him. The sculpture is located on the alley of Karol Marcinkowski. This is a rather unusual monument with a height of more than 2 meters, depicting a human figure in motion. Thanks to the use of a special material, the monument glows in the dark.
• The character of mythology, the Golem, became the hero of one of the episodes of the science fiction series "Secretmaterials". While investigating a mysterious murder of teenagers, Mulder and Scully meet Jews who have preserved ancient knowledge and began to use it for retribution.
• The analogy with the hero of Jewish myths was also used by Quentin Tarantino in his film "Inglourious Basterds".
• According to the legends, the Golem never got sick, had no will of its own, and was obliged to blindly obey its creator.
• The image of a stone idol is used not only in literature and cinema, but also in anime and computer games.
• The famous Frankenstein's monster can also be considered a kind of Golem, but not clay, but parts of human bodies were taken as the material for its creation. It was not mystical power that could call him to life, but science.

With all its being, the artificial creation expressed that man is not able to replace God and, with all his efforts, can only create a soulless creature, not endowed with reason and will. An analogy can be traced - the Lord created Adam from clay and managed to breathe life into him. People use this material to create soulless idols, capable of action, but devoid of compassion. The fate of the Golem is tragic in many respects: created by the will of an occultist, albeit with the best of intentions, he was sent to perform difficult tasks, after which he was destroyed. It never occurred to anyone to somehow brighten up his fate or show sympathy.