The Golem: Jews Coping with Perilous Times

     Angry, anti-Semitic mobs shriek throughout the ghettos of the Eastern European city of Prague.  Many carry torches, others sling heavy clubs to take out their latest rage against the convenient target for any and all of life's difficulties: the Jews.  Certainly, by this time in 1590, the Children of Israel had learned to be resilient.  Whether it was from the Egyptians, the Greeks, or the Romans, the Jews had developed coping mechanisms to deal will the chronic persecutions.
     There are various stories that describe how Rabbi Low Ben Bezalel fashioned the Golem out of pure water and clay extracted from a newly dug pit.  The ponderous creature was brought to life by inserting a paper in the mouth with the sacred word "Shem."  It would then prowl the ghettos, guarding the people from frequent pogroms.  It would even carry out household tasks when needed.  It was the Rabbi's custom to deactivate the  Golem at sundown each Friday for the sabbath. Unfortunately, the Rabbi failed to remember one Friday to remove the Shem.  The creature ran amok, destroying all in its wake until the Rabbi managed to wrench the slip of paper out of the Golem's mouth.  Out of fear, it was never reactivated and still remains as a lifeless lump of clay in the lowest basement of the great synagogue in Prague.  Imagine a story of it being unleashed on the Nazis during Krystallnacht or during the Holocaust!
     In Hebrew the word "Golem" implies a crude, raw, unfinished being.  In the Talmud there are earlier references to Golems before the time of Rabbi Bezalel.  There is even the suggestion that the initial creation of the first man, Adam, out of the earth was essentially a Golem.

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