Fern Flower
Published on February 18, 2021

Golem

Regions of expansion

Czech Republic 1
Czech Republic

Description

Golem (ft. גולם) - a character of Jewish mythology, a being of one of the main elements, or a combination of them, enlivened by Kabbalistic magicians with the help of secret knowledge. The name comes from the word gel (Hebrew :ללם), meaning "raw, raw material" or simply clay.

This is a clay giant, which, according to legend, was created by the righteous Rabbi Leo to protect the Jewish people. By the most common one that occurred in According to the Jewish folk legend of the artificial man ("golem"), the creature is created from clay to perform various" black " jobs, difficult assignments that are important to the Jewish community, and mainly to prevent blood libel by timely intervention and exposure. After completing its task, the golem turns into dust. Escaping from the control of a person, the creature shows blind self-will (it can trample its creator, etc.).

It is indicated that the old chronicles give a fairly detailed recipe for creating a Golem. But it is indicated that one or more details are omitted, as well as the full text required for the animation:

To perform the magic ritual, it was necessary to wait for a certain position of the stars, then wait another seven days and find a suitable clay. The creation must necessarily involve four elements: earth (clay), water (in which the clay was soaked), air (to drain the clay) and fire (to burn).
The exact date and time of the creation of the Golem is indicated: according to the Jewish calendar, it was the 20th day of the month of Adar 5340, 4 hours after midnight (March 1580). The creation of the Golem took place in the districts of Huhle, Branik, or Koshirze, i.e. on the bank of the Vltava River, not far from the city gates of the then Prague.
Having fashioned the Golem out of clay, Rabbi Levi walked around it seven times counterclockwise and read the formula from the 2nd verse of the 7th chapter of the book of Genesis, which refers to the creation of man, then said the same thing, but in the opposite direction. In order to breathe life into the dead matter, at the beginning of dawn, the rabbi put into the Golem's mouth the so — called shem-shem-ha-m-forash (The Name of the Unnamed, or Tetragrammaton), which can be calculated with high wisdom. Rabbi Levi's Shem consisted, as it should, of exactly 72 words.

Golem in popular culture