(The following is Excerpted from Chayim Bloch, The Golem: Legends of the Ghetto of Prague, Harry Schneiderman, tr. (Vienna: John N. Vernay, 1925), pp. 65--69.)In 1580, Rabbi Judah Loew spoke to G-d and asked him for advice on how to defend the Jews of Prague against the worst defamation in history, the terrible "Blood Libel" and he received the following instructions:
Ato Bra Golem Devuk Hakhomer V'tigzar Zedim Chevel Torfe YisroelMake a GOLEM out of Clay
RABBI LOEW ARRANGED THESE WORDS in accordance with the Zirufim (formulas) laid down in the Sefer Yezirah (Book of Creation), with the result that he was filled with the conviction that he would be able, with the help of the letters revealed to him from Heaven, to make a living body out of clay.
He sent for his son-in-law, Isaac ben Simson, who was a Kohen (priest), and for his pupil, Jacob ben Chayim Sasson, who was a Levi (Levite), and confided to them the mysterious manner in which he hoped to be able to make the Golem.
Rabbi Loew said: "I wish to make a Golem, and I bespeak your collaboration because for this creative act the four elements, Aysch, Mayim, Ruach, Aphar (fire, water, air, and earth) are necessary. Thou, Isaac, art the element of fire; thou, Jakob, art the element of water; I, myself, am air; working together, we shall make out of the fourth element, earth, a Golem."
Rabbi Loew, thereupon, gave them the minutest instructions how they must before all, through deep, earnest penitence, sanctify and purify themselves, in order to be prepared for the exalted work of creating a being of stone. He also pointed out to them the danger in which the three of them might be placed if, by reason of incomplete inner sanctification, the attempt would fail, for they would have used the Holy name in vain, or desecrated it.
On the second day of the month of Adar, after midnight, the three men betook themselves to the Mikveh (the ritual bath of the Jews), immersed themselves this time with special reverence, then repaired to Rabbi Loew's house where they chanted the Hazoth, the midnight lament for Jerusalem, and in deepest devotion recited the appropriate Psalms. They then took out the Sefer Yezirah, from which Rabbi Loew read several chapters aloud. Finally, they wended their way to the outskirts of the city, to the banks of the Moldau. There, they sought and found a clay-bed and at once set to work....
By torch-light and amidst the chanting of Psalms, the work was begun with feverish haste.
They formed out of clay the figure of a person, three ells in length, and with all members. And the Golem lay before them with his face turned towards heaven.
The three men then placed themselves at its feet, so that they could gaze fully into its face.
It lay there like a dead body, without any movement.
Then, Rabbi Loew bade the Kohen walk seven times around the clay body, from right to left, confiding to him the Zirufim (charms) which he was to recite while doing this.
When this was done, the clay body became red, like fire.
Then Rabbi Loew bade the Levite walk the same number of times, from left to right, and taught him also the formulas suitable to his element. As he completed his task, the fire-redness was extinguished, and water flowed through the clay body; hair sprouted on its head, and nails appeared on the fingers and toes.
Then Rabbi Loew himself walked once around the figure, placed in its mouth a piece of parchment inscribed with the Schem (the name of God); and, bowing to the East and the West, the South and the North, all three recited together: "And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7)
And the three elements, Fire, Water, and Air, brought it about that the fourth element, Earth, became living. The Golem opened his eyes and looked, astonished, about him.
And Rabbi Loew said to him: "Stand up!" And he stood up.
Then they dressed him in the garments of a Shammes (sexton) and he was soon, to all appearances, an ordinary person; only the faculty of speech was lacking to him, for those words which Heaven had confided to him did not possess the power to control those Zirufim which could have endowed the Golem with speech. And that was really an advantage. God knows what could have happened if a Golem had been given the faculty of speech also!
At daybreak, four men went homeward.
On the way, Rabbi Loew thus addressed the Golem: "Know thou that we have formed thee from a clod of earth. It will be thy task to protect the Jews from persecution. Thou shalt be called Joseph and thou shalt lodge in the home of the Rabbi. Thou, Joseph, must obey my commands, when and whither I may send thee--in fire and water; or if I command you to jump from the housetop, or if I send thee to the bed of the sea!"
Joseph nodded in token of assent.
Thus began the adventures of Joseph the Golem that continued until 1593, when it was deemed that his usefulness was over and he was transformed back into a clod of clay.
The story of the Golem is a story about good and evil. The story takes place in sixteenth-century Prague, the Jewish Ghetto of Eastern Europe where Jews were being attacked following the Blood Libel, a rumor that Jews were making their Passover matzot from the blood of Christian children. To protect the Jews, Rabbi Loew decided to invoke the Golem, a giant made of clay.
After he created this creature made of clay, the rabbi placed the word "emet" (meaning "truth") on the Golem's forehead. And, every night the Golem would leave the Ghetto and catch those making these false accusations of the "blood libel" and deliver them to the authorities. But, as the Golem grows bigger and becomes more violent, he kills many of his enemies and the safety is promised to the rabbi if he will destroy his Golem The Golem tries to remain a man of clay, but the rabbi removes the first letter from his forehead, changing "emet" to "met" (meaning "death") and the Golem collapses back into a mound of clay.
[The Golem has been compared to King Kong and to Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, which undoubtedly had an influence on those stories.]The belief was that such a golem could serve to protect the Jewish people in times of great trouble. Somewhere a golem may be "waiting to be brought back to life... or perhaps he is here now?"
And, as legend has it, the golem, which looks and acts like a person but has superhuman powers, is born through the recitation of a kabbalistic formula. One such golem, created by Rabbi Judah Leow (1513-1609), was said to have saved the Jews in Prague from a pogroms (massacres of Jews).