Clay golem. Mythological Encyclopedia: Bestiary: Golem - Golem

The film is based on Peter Ackroyd's novel The Trial of Elizabeth Cree (1994), also known as Dan Lino and the Limehouse Golem.
Alan Rickman was originally supposed to play John Kildare, but the actor had to abandon the job due to his deteriorating health.
Sports commentator Jake Sansone played his first film role in this film.
The film was shot in West Yorkshire and Manchester.
Dan Lino's stage backdrop features William Blake's "The Ghost of the Flea."
The famous philosopher Karl Marx actually lived in London at that time. As a Jew and a disseminator of socialist ideas, he was persecuted by the police and was even suspected for some time of the murders committed by Jack the Ripper. In addition to Marx, other historical figures in the film include comedian Dan Leno and writer George Gissing.
Previously, Douglas Booth and Sam Reid starred together in the film The Riot Club (2014).
The film is dedicated to the memory of Alan Rickman, who died of pancreatic cancer on January 14, 2016.

More facts (+5)

Plot

Beware, the text may contain spoilers!

Performance at the London Music Hall. Leading comedian Dan Leno announces to the audience: Let's start from the end.

Elizabeth Cree enters her husband's bedroom in the morning; reporter and playwright John Cree is dead. A constable arriving at the scene discovers ashes from the burnt papers of the deceased in the fireplace. He did not leave a suicide note. Maid Evelyn finds a bottle of poison in the kitchen. John's wife usually brought the medicine to him before bed. In the evening the couple quarreled noisily. Elizabeth is arrested and is suspected of murdering her husband.

Music hall show. On stage is Dan Leno in a woman's dress and wig. Music hall favorite little Lizzie is accused of poisoning her husband. But the city was afraid of the golem from Limehouse. Who was he? Who else did he want to destroy? The Golem struck the day before her arrest.

Limehouse, London, 1880. Scotland Yard inspectors Roberts and Kildare travel to the crime scene. Five people were reported dead: the shopkeeper Mr. Gerard, his wife Mary, a maid and two children. There was already a murder at this address about 70 years ago. The inspectors' carriage is besieged by a crowd of reporters. Is this the work of a golem? When will the killer be caught? Inspector Roberts withdraws himself from the scandalous case, the investigation will be led by Kildare. The house is full of onlookers. The bodies of the dead are a terrible sight, everything around is covered in blood. The writing is on the wall: to be a passive spectator is to share the blame with the criminal.

Kildare takes on a constable as his assistant. There are rumors about the inspector: he is not the type to get married. Perhaps for this reason, he has been working in the theft and fraud department for many years, and this is the first time he has been assigned to investigate a murder. Kildare is trying to find logic in the actions of the maniac, whom everyone calls a golem. Yesterday, a shopkeeper's family was stabbed to death, a week ago, a prostitute, and even earlier, an elderly scientist, Solomon Weil. The killer left the old man's severed penis as a bookmark in a book on Jewish folklore on the page with the legend of the golem. That's why the press awarded the maniac this nickname. Kildare believes that the killer clearly likes this, he is trying to leave some kind of message. The inspector asks the constable to go to the library. Kildare is confident that he is a scapegoat for Scotland Yard; unlike Inspector Roberts, he will be easily sacrificed. Roberts' reputation will be preserved, and the people will get the blood they so crave.

The inscription on the wall in the late shopkeeper's bedroom is a quote from Thomas De Quincey's book "Murder as One of the Fine Arts." Kildare discovers that in the margins of its pages the golem has left diary entries in which he describes all his crimes. The detective asks who last took this book. The librarian claims that the reading room's attendance register contains entries about visitors, but it is impossible to determine who took which book. On September 24 (the date of the last diary entry), four men visited the reading room: Dan Leno, Karl Marx, George Gissing and John Cree. The detective instructs the constable to obtain handwriting samples of all these people.

Kildare visits the courtroom where Elizabeth Cree's trial is taking place. The accused claims that shortly before his death, her husband was in a depressed state; the play he wrote, “Crossroads of Trouble,” failed. The judge doubts Elizabeth's sincerity, because she is an actress. Now she plays the role of a lady. But Lizzie was an illegitimate child, born in a disadvantaged area of London. As a girl, she sewed sails and spent a lot of time on the docks with the men to whom she brought her goods. Spectators in the courtroom laugh at the dirty hints addressed to the accused. Elizabeth claims to have been a pious and innocent child. Mother was overly strict with Lizzie. She severely punished her daughter when she suspected that she was allowing men to commit indecency with her (since then, Elizabeth has feared and disgusted everything related to sex). The judge interrupts Elizabeth's frank story and calls a break.

John Cree's former employer was unable to provide a sample of his handwriting; reporters' manuscripts are not kept. Kildare reads the golem's entry from September 5, when the first victim, a prostitute, was killed. He portrays John Cree as the killer. The inspector even finds some logic in the maniac's actions. He imagines himself as a kind of creator, as in De Quincey’s book. The murder of a prostitute, according to the criminal, was a modest, private rehearsal. He cut out the eyes of his victim because he was afraid that his silhouette could be imprinted in them.

Kildare visits Elizabeth Cree's prison cell. She says that the great comedian Dan Leno often touched on the topic of injustice towards women in his shows. But the line between comedy and tragedy is too thin. Kildare claims that he would not blame Elizabeth for poisoning her husband; she might have had good reasons for doing so. She denies her guilt. Kildare says John Cree is a suspect in a series of brutal murders. If his handwriting matches the one found in the book, Elizabeth's claim that John committed suicide will be heeded and she could be released. Elizabeth says she missed her chance to become an actress. Kildare will also lose its only chance to solve the sensational murders. John burned his papers; it would be impossible to prove that he was a golem. Elizabeth tells the inspector about how her life unfolded in her youth. Her mother died early, Lizzie grew up in the music hall. Dan Leno became her mentor and patron. And her first love was books.

Elizabeth is also asked about her relationship with Leno during the trial. The prosecution recalls that Dan Leno was recently interrogated in the Golem case, but the actor was released due to insufficient evidence.

Kildare manages to find out that the dress of the murdered prostitute was previously Leno's stage costume. A year before, the actor sold it to a shopkeeper, to whom he sold second-hand items. The shopkeeper and his family also fell victim to the golem. But Dan Leno was released after questioning.

Kildare pays another visit to the prison. He tells Elizabeth Cree that the golem is still dangerous to her. The woman faces death and could be hanged. Elizabeth tells how she met her future husband. John Cree came to the music hall to interview the actors of the troupe. One of the leading actresses, Eleanor, drew attention to the attractive gentleman. But he was fascinated by young Lizzie, about whom Leno said that she had real talent. At that time, Lizzie did not perform on stage; she was an errand girl in the troupe. Dwarf Victor began making obscene jokes about her during dinner. Lizzie complained to John. In the morning, Victor was found dead. Leno decided to dedicate the evening show to the memory of Victor. Lizzie appeared on stage for the first time. Her act was a success with the public. The girl performed in a sailor costume. Dan himself often dressed up as a woman for the show, but he asked why Lizzie chose such a stage image. She replied that in this way she intended to scare men away from her.

Inspector Kildare and the constable meet with Karl Marx. He claims that the killings of the golem are ritual in nature. A maniac destroys the symbols of London. Kildare asks Marks to provide him with a handwriting sample. Marx agrees to write the dictated phrase. According to Kildare, the philosopher and sociologist may have committed the murder of a prostitute in order to attract attention to his ideas. But when the text of the diary talks about the murder of a Jew, the inspector realizes that it is absurd to suspect Marx of this. He couldn't do it.

Evelyn is being interrogated in the courtroom. She claims that relations between the Cree spouses were strained, and on the eve of the murder they had a noisy quarrel. Evelyn heard John say, “You devil, this is your doing.” This amounts to a death sentence for Elizabeth.

Kildare tries to convince Elizabeth that she should state that Evelyn's testimony was dictated by feelings of jealousy. She says that she never interfered with the relationship between John and Evelyn. Elizabeth agreed to marry John only because she was counting on the main role in his play. It was a marriage of convenience, although Dan Leno tried his best to dissuade her from it. Lizzie's stage career was at its peak at that time, and John, as an aspiring playwright, was also interested in her.

Inspector Kildare and the constable are looking for the last suspect in the golem case - George Gissing. He is discovered in Limehouse, in an underground opium den. Gissing works here, writes novels about the life of the urban poor. Kildare believes that a scientist who married a fallen woman may well turn out to be the murderer of an old Jew. He dictates to Gessing the text from the golem's diary. The handwriting doesn't match. But Kildare discovers a location in the records of the real killer that he had previously overlooked. Golem bought cufflinks from a second-hand store. The inspector checks the shopkeeper's journal dated September 10, there are two familiar names there - Cree and Leno. Now Kildare is inclined to consider Dan Leno a golem.

Kildare and the constable attend a new music hall show called Bluebeard. After the show, they pay a visit to Leno's dressing room. The actor did not buy cufflinks, as evidenced by statements from his accounts. On the specified day, he purchased a woman's hat. Referring to his busy schedule, Leno refuses to provide the inspector with a handwriting sample; he promises to come to Scotland Yard tomorrow for this. But while the actor is taking off his makeup, he can answer questions about John Cree. Leno says that he saw the deceased on the evening when his play premiered. The performance was a failure. The theater is currently owned by Leno, who became director after the death of the previous manager, whom everyone called Uncle. Kildare asks why Elizabeth doesn't want to call her late husband a murderer. The inspector is also interested in the details of Victor's death. Leno believes that Uncle's death has more to do with the case under investigation.

Kildare asks questions about Elizabeth's Uncle. She says that the manager persuaded her to take pornographic photographs. Many actresses have done this. Lizzie indignantly rejected the indecent proposal. The uncle took the girl by force and took her virginity. Lizzie told John everything. He, in order to restore her honor, proposed to Elizabeth, she became his wife. Three days after this, Uncle died. Kildare believes John killed him. Elizabeth claims she doesn't need help and doesn't deserve to be saved. After the marriage, John began to demand from Lizzie intimate relationships. She found it so unbearable that she hired Evelyn as a maid. Elizabeth paid the actress twice as much as she earned in the theater. The terms of their agreement included that Evelyn would perform marital duties in her place.

Elizabeth was waiting for the play to be written in which she was promised the main role. But it turned out that John did not even start writing it. Elizabeth came to the reading room, where her husband was supposedly working on a play, and gave him a scandal. He decided that the reason for his wife’s dissatisfaction was a feeling of jealousy towards Evelyn. John has started writing a new play, and there is no role for Elizabeth in it. After all, now she is a lady, she has no place on stage. Elizabeth staged “Crossroads of Troubles” herself, without her husband’s permission. The performance was booed by the audience. There was a noisy quarrel between the spouses near the theater. Evelyn was on John's side, Dan was defending Elizabeth. Furious, John left alone. Kildare says that the golem killed the shopkeeper's family that evening. The inspector persuades Elizabeth to admit that she poisoned her husband because she was afraid for her life. In this case, the jury may feel sorry for her. Elizabeth says she doesn't need anyone's pity.

The jury returns a verdict: guilty. Elizabeth Cree will be hanged tomorrow morning at ten o'clock. Kildare does not lose hope of saving Elizabeth. He wants to prove that John Cree was the killer. Elizabeth wants the inspector to expose the golem. She says Dan Leno still has a copy of the play Crossroads of Evil. But Kildare can't compare the handwriting - Leno only has the printed version. The original manuscript is in the library, which will not open until the morning.

Kildare manages to rush to the execution site at the last minute. He seeks a delay of execution for an hour in order to convince the judge to change his decision during this time. The inspector asks Elizabeth to write a receipt stating that her late husband was a murderer. The woman writes: I am the golem. Kildare is horrified to discover that Elizabeth's handwriting is identical to the one used in the maniac's notes. Elizabeth committed all these terrible crimes.

Kildare is shocked. He burns Elizabeth's confession. The woman was executed. John Kree is considered by everyone to be a golem. Londoners rejoice: the terrible crimes have finally been solved. Inspector Kildare gets promoted. In the evening, they go with the constable to the music hall. There's a new show here. It is dedicated to Lizzie's life. Dan Leno decides to start the story from the end, that is, with the execution of Elizabeth. Starring Eleanor. The actress dies during the performance (no one checked the props for safety). Leno decides the show must go on. The public, as always, is out for blood. The great comedian himself will play Lizzie. This would be the triumph she wanted.

According to mythology, a golem is a creature artificially created by people to serve themselves. They were used as laborers, but long and harsh exploitation could end sadly for the owner. This creature is not intelligent, but over time it becomes aware of itself. In legends, such creatures often rebel against their masters.

Description of creatures

The word "golem" is translated as "clay" in ancient Hebrew scriptures. In an early form of Yiddish, this word came to mean “idol,” “stupid, naive person,” “clumsy.” In this meaning, the name of the mythological creature passed into Hebrew.

The first mentions of golems are found in the treatises of Kabbalists. In Jewish mythology, this was the name given to clay humanoid creatures into which followers of the occult sciences breathed life.

In addition to clay, stone and metal were used to create these servants. Such creatures were more often used for battles and protecting cities, while clay golems did all the dirty work.

Characteristic appearance and the abilities of creatures varies depending on culture. Despite this, the classic Jewish golem has a clear description.

Appearance of a Judaic golem

The creatures resembled humans, but there were some differences. These included:

weakly defined facial features, lack of nose and ears;
powerful body, long Strong arms that hang down to the ground;
short, crooked legs.

Jewish Golem Abilities

Kabbalists claim that artificial people have incredible strength, thanks to which they are able to lift bulls and destroy buildings. Some golems had the rudiments of intelligence, others had complete control over their speech.

Clay giants were invulnerable to magic. Also, the weapon did not cause damage to them - in place of the severed limbs, the creatures grew new ones.

How to create a golem

There are several recipes for creating artificial people.

According to cabalistic sciences, to make a golem you need to follow the following algorithm:

For the body of the creature, unbaked red clay collected from the sources of the river is used.
A figurine of a child 8-10 years old is sculpted from the material.
The Hebrew word "Amet" which means "Truth" is inscribed on the forehead.

After casting the spell, the golem will begin to come to life. Within a few days it grows 5-6 times.

The creature has the mind of a small child and is completely subordinate to the magician. According to legends, after several years of life, creatures gradually learn and can rebel against the creator. The reason for the release of the golems is the crossing out of the magic word.

A maddened giant in a rage is capable of destroying an entire city. It can be destroyed only by erasing the first letter of the word so that the remaining ones form “met”. This word means "killing" in Hebrew.

The process of making a golem is similar to the birth of a person by the will of God. Unlike Adam, man-made giants do not have souls. Their unsightly appearance, clumsiness and limited thinking also indicate imperfection human creation compared to the Lord.

Mention in legends

The Jewish golem is mentioned in two myths. Both legends raise themes of imperfection of artificially created people and society's rejection of outwardly ugly creatures.

Prague Golem

According to this legend, at the beginning of the 17th century. the risk of a blood libel against Prague Jews increased. Christian residents of Prague accused the Jews of using the blood of Gentiles for sacrifices.

To protect the city from pogroms, a rabbi named Yehuda Lev ben Bezalel decided to create a magical protector. At dawn, the Maharal and two assistants came to the banks of the Vlatva River and sculpted a man 1.5 m tall from red clay.

Rabbi Lev brought the creation to life with the help of secret name God. He drew it on paper and put it in the figure's mouth.

The Prague Golem looked like an ugly middle-aged man. He couldn't speak or eat. Over time, the creature acquired an inhuman appetite. The golem ate all the food that was given to it, regardless of its taste and freshness.

The clay creature also began to demonstrate the beginnings of intelligence. The golem began to ask its creator the following questions:

Who is Golem?
Who is the Golem's mother and father?
Why create a Golem?
Golem doesn't want to be alone.

Loneliness prompted the ugly creature to reach out to people in the hope of their responsiveness. Possessing the consciousness of a child, the golem tried to play with the children, but they fled in horror from the giant.

There are two versions about why the clay man rebelled against his master.

The first version of the golem riot

Every day the creature performed the most difficult and unpleasant work, and at night it guarded Jewish houses. On Friday evening, Lev pulled sacred words from the mouth of a subordinate in order to attend the synagogue on Saturday. One day the rabbi forgot to remove the paper and the golem rebelled against its creator. Enraged, the creature smashed houses and chased residents. The Jews were saved from death only by the slowness of the creature.

With great difficulty, Leo was able to take the sacred words from the monster’s mouth. The rabbi took his creation to the attic of the synagogue and surrounded it with Jewish spells. At the beginning of the 19th century. A Polish journalist made his way into the attic of this church, but he did not find the giant’s body.

Second version of the creation riot

Other sources tell of a more romantic ending to the legend. Over time, in addition to gaining consciousness, the golem began to experience feelings. Having once seen Lev's daughter Miriam, the creature fell in love with the girl. Miriam herself did not reciprocate the soulless clay creature.

The artificial man followed the rabbi's daughter everywhere in the hope of reciprocity and did not allow the words of the spell to be taken out of his mouth. Then Lev asked Miriam to seduce the creature and pull the paper out of its mouth. The girl fulfilled her father's order.

Since then, there has been a Czech belief that once every 33 years on the day of the solstice, a creature comes to life to protect the capital. On this day unmarried girls They try not to leave the house so as not to become brides of the golem.

Golem Jeremiah

The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah also tried to create a creature to protect God's people. He molded a man out of clay and inscribed the words “God is truth” on his head.

The revived creature suddenly took the knife from the prophet and carved another phrase on its face: “God is dead.” This act made it clear to Jeremiah that creatures animated by magic would not be able to protect the Jews from the forces of Evil. In horror, vice destroyed his creation and for a long time begged forgiveness from the Lord for his insolence.

Golems in other cultures

Legends about creatures created by people to serve are found in every mythology. Golems do not always have a human likeness, but what they have in common with the Jewish creation is loyalty to their owner and revival by magic.

Elementals

These creatures are the closest “relatives” of the classic golem. What distinguishes them from the clay man is self-awareness.

Elementals are lower spirits that an experienced magician can call into a certain shell. These creatures faithfully serve their master in the hope of gaining freedom. Elementals are classified by element:

Earthy. In some sources, this creature is a copy of a golem. The creature has a humanoid appearance, has intelligence and carries out all the orders of its creator. Earth elementals were used to protect cities from foreign armies and bad weather. Their slowness is compensated by their enormous strength.
Fiery. More often it is a clot of pure fire. In Arabic legends, fire elementals include a subspecies of genies - ifrits. These creatures can retain their appearance after the mage's spell expires.
Water. These creatures were used to protect against monsters of the sea or tides. Water elementals also created wells and oases.
Air. Outwardly, these creatures resembled a cluster of clouds. They were used to hide the army. Also, according to legend, air elementals could summon lightning.

These creatures also have invulnerability to magic in common with the golem. Some of the elementals rebelled against the creator magician, demanding freedom and respect.

Greek mythology

In Greece, the topic of artificially created people widely concerns the blacksmith god Hephaestus. Instead of clay, he used bronze and gold, creating intelligent iron helpers for himself.

Talos

According to ancient Greek mythology, Talos is a bronze warrior given to Europe by Zeus to protect the lands from foreigners. This creature lived on the island of Crete.

The bronze giant threw stones at the approaching ships. If the travelers managed to land on the shore, Talos drowned them with fire and sword.

According to one legend, the creation of the Gods was destroyed by Medea, the wife of Jason. She gave the giant a sleeping potion and pulled the nail out of his heel. Talos leaked ichor, which replaced his blood.

Another source says that the bronze golem was killed by a hero named Peant. He hit the creature's heel with an arrow from Hercules' bow.

Galatea

In Greek culture, there is a myth about a beautiful sculpture created by Pygmalion. The Creator fell in love with the marble girl and desired her. He dressed Galatea in beautiful clothes and gave her jewelry.

Maddened by the lifelessness of his love, Pygmalion prayed to the gods of Olympus to send him a similar girl. Taking pity on the mortal, Aphrodite, the goddess of Love, revived the sculptor’s creation.

Other mentions of golems

Myths from other European countries also tell of artificially created servants. Among them are:

Gullinbursti. Huge golden boar in Scandinavian mythology. It was created by the dwarves in a dispute with Loki.
Iron hare. In the mythology of the northern peoples, this golem was created by witches to steal milk from village residents.
Torgeir's bull. A creature created by an Icelandic magician from the skin and hooves of a bull. The spirit served the sorcerers and took revenge on their offenders, ruining villages.
Sprinkle. A child carved from a log. In Belarusian folklore, such a creature was left behind by witches in place of stolen children.
Tupilak. Golem created by Greenlandic sorcerers. In Eskimo culture, this creature is used for revenge against foreigners.
Frankenstein's monster. An animated person, assembled from the dead flesh of other people. In character and behavior it is analogous to the Jewish golem.

According to one hypothesis, “golem” comes from the word gel(Hebrew גלם), meaning “unprocessed, raw material” or simply clay. The root GLM is found in the Tanakh (Ps.) in the word galmi(Hebrew ‏גלמי‏‎), meaning “my raw form.” Already in early Yiddish the word goylem acquired the figurative meaning of “idol”, “stupid and clumsy person”, “blockhead”, which migrated into modern Hebrew.

Another option for the origin of the word: the word itself came from the area of the Persian Empire, from eastern legends (Urdu گولیمار ‎ , Indian and other oriental languages). Example: Pakistan. GOLI (bullet) and MAR (fire), the word is Golimar (the process of firing clay).

Legend

Golem is a clay giant, which, according to legend, was created by the righteous Rabbi Lev to protect the Jewish people.

A very common Jewish folk legend originating in Prague about an artificial man (“golem”) created from clay to perform various “menial” jobs, difficult assignments of importance to the Jewish community, and mainly to prevent blood libel through timely intervention and exposure .

Having completed its task, the golem turns to dust. Popular legend attributes the creation of the golem to the famous Talmudist and Kabbalist - the Chief Rabbi of Prague, Maharal Yehuda Ben Bezalel, who revived the idol by putting the so-called. Shem, or Tetragrammaton. The golem is supposedly reborn to a new life every 33 years. This legend dates back to the beginning of the 17th century. Other golems are also known, created according to folk tradition by various authoritative rabbis - innovators of religious thought. So, for example, already in some texts of the “Great Key of Solomon”, written in the 16th century, there are methods for creating a “stone”, which is created from clay, blood and other impurities, this lump is given the shape of a person and the parody phrase “let there be man” is proclaimed. .

In this legend, folk fantasy seems to justify resistance to social evil with some, albeit timid, violence: in the image of a golem, the idea of an intensified struggle against evil, transgressing the boundaries of religious law, seems to be legalized; It is not for nothing that the golem, according to legend, exceeds its “powers”, declares its will, which contradicts the will of its “creator”: an artificial person does what, according to the law, is “indecent” or even criminal for a naturally living person.

In popular culture

Prague reproduction of the Golem

The image of the golem is widely reflected in the culture of various eras. In particular, golems appear in the following works:

Literature

Western European literature

The golem motif was introduced into Western European literature by the romantics (Arnim, “Isabella of Egypt”; reminiscences of this motif can be pointed out in Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus”, in Hoffmann and Heine); for them, the golem is an exotic (German romance perceives the exoticism of the ghetto very keenly) version of their favorite motif of duality. In modern literature, two significant works on this topic are known: in German - a novel by Gustav Meyrink and in Jewish - a dramatic poem by G. Leivik.

In Thomas Mann's novel Joseph and His Brothers, Jacob, having believed in the death of his beloved son Joseph, in his madness of suffering, discusses with the chief slave Eliezer a plan to recreate Joseph by creating a golem.

Meyrink's "Golem" is essentially a social satire on messianism. He is a symbol of the mass soul, gripped in every generation by some kind of “psychic epidemic” - a painfully passionate and vague thirst for liberation. The Golem excites the masses with its tragic appearance: it periodically rushes towards a vague, incomprehensible goal, but, like the Golem, it becomes a “clay image”, a victim of its impulses. “Golem” is a book in which ancient Kabbalistic images and the mystical background of everyday life acquire an ominous reality. Man, according to Meyrink, is more and more mechanized by the brutal struggle for existence, by all the consequences of the capitalist system, and he is as doomed as a golem. This deeply pessimistic work should be seen as an artistic reaction to the “liberation ideas” of the imperialist massacre on the part of the middle and petty bourgeoisie.

Russian folktale

The tale of the Clay Guy and the Snow Maiden is very similar to the legend of the golem.

Russian literature

In Russian literature, one can note Oleg Yuryev’s novel “The New Golem, or the War of Old Men and Children,” in which the golem myth is used for poisonous civilizational satire: the novel, among other things, examines three versions of the story of the Golem, allegedly kidnapped by the Nazis (in order to create a “universal soldier") from the attic of the Old New Synagogue in Prague. The hero of the novel, the “St. Petersburg Khazarian” Yuli Goldstein, encounters traces of the Golem (and himself) in America, and in St. Petersburg, and in Zhidovskaya Uzhlabina - Judenshlucht, a town on the Czech-German border, where during the war tests of the “golem” were carried out weapons." Also, the science fiction writers of the Strugatsky brothers in the story “Monday Begins on Saturday” contain a mention of Ben Bezalel and the Golem.

The writer and publicist Maxim Kalashnikov often resorts to the image of the Golem (as a comparison).

Theater

On November 23, 2006, the premiere of the musical “Golem” took place at the Dum u Hybern theater palace in Prague. The musical play was written by Karel Svoboda, Zdenek Zelenka and Lou Fananek Hagen and directed by Philip Renck. The musical is performed in Czech and has English subtitles.

Cinema

The legend of the Golem became the plot basis for several feature films. Among them, the most famous are the films “Golem” () and “Golem: How He Came into the World” () - the latter, retelling the legend of the creation and first rebellion of the Golem, is considered a classic film embodiment of this plot. Largely thanks to the expressive performance of the role of the Golem by Paul Wegener, the image of the clay man animated by magic became widely known, although it was later supplanted by the similar image of the Monster created by Frankenstein. In 1935, the film Golem was directed by Julien Duvivier.
In the USSR in the 1950s, a witty and spectacular Czech film “The Emperor's Baker” (Czech. Císařův pekař, pekařův císař, , directed by Martin Fritsch), where the golem also appears and plays an important role in the development of the plot.
IN English film 1966's It! (It!) Roddy McDowall's hero uses a golem brought to the London Museum from Prague for personal gain. With the help of the golem's unlimited physical capabilities, he destroyed buildings, killed unwanted people in his life, and even tried to woo the girl he loved unrequitedly. The hero managed to revive and subjugate the golem to his will when he placed an ancient scroll, kept in a hiding place in the body of the idol, under his tongue. The golem, however, unlike the classical story, although it did not always follow the orders of its owner, was faithful to him to the end.
In the Russian series “Beyond Wolves II. Keys to the Abyss”, filmed by Sergei Rusakovich in 2004, there is an arc “Operation Golem” about the legendary golem (mythical protector of the people).
In Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, the Golem analogy was applied by Hitler to a detachment of American Jews who killed Reich fighters and disappeared without a trace, causing panic among the soldiers.
In the series "Sherlock", filmed in 2010 about Sherlock Holmes in a modern way, the myth of the Golem was used and compared with a thug-killer who “squeezed” the life out of people with his bare hands.
In the series “Supernatural” in episode 13 of season 8, a golem is shown that was created by a Jew in the fight against Nazi necromancers.
A similar plot is used in episode 15 “Kaddish” of the 4th season of the series “The X-Files”, where a Jewish girl and her father create a golem to take revenge on the neo-Nazis who killed her fiancé.
In the series “Ray Donovan” in episode 5 of season 1 there was a mention of the Golem; the hero Elliot Gould (Ezra Goodman) compares the hero Jon Voight (Mickey Donovan) with a mythical character.
In the series “Grimm” in episode 4 of season 4, a Jewish rabbi creates a golem from red clay to protect his relatives.

Cartoon and animation

The legend of the Golem formed the basis of the episode "The True Face of the Monster" of the animated series "Extreme Ghostbusters".
The idea of a golem as a "fighting robot" was used in the full-length anime "Slayers Great" (a spin-off of the anime series "

whom God created from clay.

According to one hypothesis, “golem” comes from the word gel(Hebrew גלם‎), meaning “unprocessed, raw material” or simply clay. The root GLM is found in the Tanakh (Ps.) in the word galmi(Hebrew: גלמי‎), meaning “my raw form.” Already in early Yiddish the word goylem acquired the figurative meaning of “idol”, “stupid and clumsy person”, “blockhead”, which migrated into modern Hebrew.

According to another hypothesis, the word comes from the ancient Hebrew galam - he rolled up, wrapped up.

Another option for the origin of the word: the word itself came from the area of the Persian Empire, from eastern legends (Urdu گولیمار , Indian and other oriental languages). Example: Pakistan. GOLI (bullet) and MAR (fire), the word is Golimar (the process of firing clay). In connection with the hobby in Europe since the end of the 17th century with oriental legends and fairy tales and their processing.

Legend

Golem is a clay giant, which, according to legend, was created by the righteous Rabbi Lev to protect the Jewish people.

Having completed its task, the golem turns to dust. Popular legend attributes the creation of the golem to the famous Talmudist and Kabbalist - the Chief Rabbi of Prague, Maharal Yehuda Ben Bezalel. The golem is supposedly reborn to a new life every 33 years. This legend dates back to the beginning of the 17th century. Other golems are also known, created according to folk tradition by various authoritative rabbis - innovators of religious thought. In this legend, folk fantasy seems to justify resistance to social evil with some, albeit timid, violence: in the image of a golem, the idea of an intensified struggle against evil, transgressing the boundaries of religious law, seems to be legalized; It is not for nothing that the golem, according to legend, exceeds its “powers”, declares its will, which contradicts the will of its “creator”: an artificial person does what, according to the law, is “indecent” or even criminal for a naturally living person.

Reflection in culture

Literature

Western European literature

The golem motif was introduced into Western European literature by the romantics (Arnim, “Isabella of Egypt”; reminiscences of this motif can be indicated in Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus” by Hoffmann and Heine); for them, the golem is an exotic (German romance perceives the exoticism of the ghetto very keenly) version of their favorite motif of duality. Two significant works on this topic are known in modern literature: in German - the novel by Gustav Meyrink, and in Jewish - the drama of Leivik.

Meyrink's "Golem" is essentially a social satire on messianism. He is a symbol of the mass soul, gripped in every generation by some kind of “psychic epidemic” - a painfully passionate and vague thirst for liberation. The Golem excites the masses with its tragic appearance: it periodically rushes towards a vague, incomprehensible goal, but, like the “Golem”, it becomes a “clay image”, a victim of its impulses. Man, according to Meyrink, is more and more mechanized by the brutal struggle for existence, by all the consequences of the capitalist system, and he is as doomed as a golem. This deeply pessimistic work should be seen as an artistic reaction to the “liberation ideas” of the imperialist massacre on the part of the middle and petty bourgeoisie.

The legend of the clay monster created in Prague at the end of the 14th century was retold for children by Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Russian literature

The writer and publicist Maxim Kalashnikov often resorts to the image of the Golem (as a comparison).

Poetry

The Jewish poet Leivik interprets the golem in more depth. For him, the golem is a symbol of the awakening masses of the people, their revolutionary, still unconscious, but powerful element, striving to finally break with the traditions of the past; she does not succeed, but she rises above her leader, opposes her personal will to him, and strives to subjugate him to herself. The philosophical depth of the image is expressed in the fact that the creation, saturated with social potential, continues and wants to live its own life and competes with its creator. Leivik in his “Golem” went beyond the boundaries of the legend, expanded it, capturing in it menacing premonitions of impending social catastrophes, identifying him with the masses who no longer want to be a tool of the powerful and possessed.

Cinema

The legend of the Golem became the plot basis for several feature films. Among them, the most famous are the films “Golem” () and “Golem: How He Came into the World” () - the latter, retelling the legend of the creation and first rebellion of the Golem, is considered a classic film embodiment of this plot. Largely thanks to the expressive performance of the role of the Golem by Paul Wegener, the image of a clay man animated by magic became widely known, although it was later supplanted by the similar image of the Monster created by Frankenstein. In 1936, the film Golem was directed by Julien Duvivier.

The legend of the Golem formed the basis of the episode "Kaddish" of the 4th season of the series The X-Files.

In the USSR in the 1950s, a witty and spectacular Czech film “The Emperor's Baker” (Czech. Císařův pekař, pekařův císař, , directed by Martin Fritsch), where the golem also appears and plays an important role in the development of the plot.

In the 1966 English film It! (It!) Roddy McDowall's hero uses a golem brought to the London Museum from Prague for personal gain. With the help of the golem's unlimited physical capabilities, he destroyed buildings, killed unwanted people in his life, and even tried to woo the girl he loved unrequitedly. The hero managed to revive and subjugate the golem to his will when he placed an ancient scroll, kept in a hiding place in the body of the idol, under his tongue. The golem, however, unlike the classical story, although it did not always follow the orders of its owner, was faithful to him to the end.

In the Russian series “Beyond Wolves II. Keys to the Abyss,” filmed by Sergei Rusakov in 2004. Autumn 1947. More than a year has passed since the day when Senka Krivoy’s gang was destroyed. However, people begin to die again in the Coal Line and its surroundings. The police are horrified to discover that the fingerprints on the next murder weapon match the fingerprints of the deceased Senka. Against the backdrop of developments, attempts are being made by Soviet scientists to create a new golem as a weapon of a new generation.

The idea of a golem as a "combat robot" was used in the full-length anime "Slayers Great" (a spin-off of the anime series "Slayers").

Golem Alice was summoned by Shelley Cromwell using chalked words and chalked seals in the anime To Aru Majutsu no Index from episode 20 of season 1 onwards.

Episode 26 of the Japanese anime "Soul Eater" was dedicated to golems, their creation and properties. The action took place in the village of Loev (Czech Republic), where the creators of golems lived (the name of the village is most likely fictitious).

Categories:

Characters from Borges's Book of Fictional Creatures
Movie characters
Kabbalah
Prague culture
Fictional weapon
Golem
Jewish mythology

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Man is designed in such a way that he has always wanted to become like God - to also become a Creator, Creator. In principle, this is probably inherent in the very nature of man, for it is said that God created us in his own image and likeness. holy books ah, like the Bible, the Koran talks about this in great detail.

For example, in the 32nd sura “Petition” it is said that Allah created Adam from clay: “He is the One who knows the hidden and the obvious, the great, the merciful, who made beautiful all the things that he created, and for the first time created man from clay" (32:6-7).

Apparently, this is why man strived all the way to create his own kind, in addition to the natural path - reproduction. In a later version, this is Pinocchio (in the Russian version - Pinocchio), in an even later version - all sorts of humanoid robots, the creation of a person from a test tube, cloning, etc. But here we have not invented anything new, because creation artificial person from earth, clay is found in the anthropogonic myths of many peoples, for example, Egyptian, Sumerian-Akkadian; in particular, there is an Akkadian legend about the creation of people from clay figurines, and they were created in pairs, and life was infused into them through umbilical cords - almost as it should be by nature. The same is said in other sources. But it’s simply unrealistic to consider them all, so let’s focus on one representative from ancient myths - the Golem.

Golem is a character in Jewish mythology. A man made of inanimate matter - clay, revived by Kabbalists with the help secret knowledge, - all by the same analogy with Adam, whom God created from clay.

The word "golem" comes from the Old Hebrew word "gelem", meaning "unprocessed, raw material", or simply "clay". The root -GLM- is found in the Tanakh in the Old Hebrew word "galmi", meaning "my raw form." Then, in old Yiddish, the word “goylem” acquired a figurative meaning: “idol,” “stupid and clumsy person,” “blockhead,” which migrated into modern Hebrew.

Jewish myths found their unexpected continuation in the very widespread Jewish folk legend about an artificial man created from clay to perform various “menial” jobs, difficult assignments that are important for the Jewish community, and, mainly, to prevent the blood libel through timely intervention and exposure. Further, according to legend, the Golem, having completed its task, turns to dust. Popular legend attributes the creation of the Golem to the famous Talmudist and Kabbalist - the Chief Rabbi of Prague, Maharal Yehuda Ben Bezalel or Rabbi Lev (Leib), a man, by the way, quite real, born at the beginning of the 16th century. This legend dates back to the beginning of the 17th century. It was expounded in the novel “Golem” by Gustav Meyrink.

Other golems are also known, created according to folk tradition by various authoritative rabbis - innovators of religious thought. It is also believed that the Golem is reborn to a new life every thirty-three years.

Later, the Golem theme was often used in poetry and fiction, and in theatrical plays, and in films, and even in computer games. One of the very first films is the 1920 film "The Golem: How He Came into the World." The then stars Paul Wegener and Lida Salmonova shone in it.

But how was it created - according to the legend of old Prague? This happened back in 1580. Jews, as you know, settled in Prague in large numbers - in the so-called. In the Jewish city (at that time Josefov), they lived quietly, did not bother anyone, on the contrary, they only helped. Among them were jewelers, doctors, moneylenders (bankers) and representatives of other useful professions. However, from time to time the church persecuted them, but everything somehow calmed down. And so one clergyman named Tadeusz, an ardent opponent of the Jews, once again tried to disturb peace and harmony and provoke new superstitious accusations against the Jews. Rabbi Lev then proposed to the Prague cardinal to organize a scientific spiritual debate. The greatest interest was raised by the questions of whether Jews use the blood of Christians when celebrating Passover (Easter) and whether Jews are guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Rabbi Lev convincingly proved that according to the Talmud, the consumption of any blood, including animals, is strictly prohibited for Jews. On the question of the guilt of the Jews in the death of Christ, Rabbi Lev stated that Christ died on the cross in order to atone for the sins of mankind. This happened with the help of the Jews, because God decided so. Christians, on the contrary, should be grateful to the Jews, because otherwise Christianity might not have arisen.

Then Rabbi Lev in a dream asked God Yahweh a question by what means to begin the fight against the evil enemy. And God sent him an answer, clearly alphabetized: Ata Bra Golem Dewuk Hachomer Wrtigzar Zedim Chewel Torfe Jisrael, which meant “Create a Golem from clay and destroy the vulgar rabble that devours the Jews.”

Rabbi Lev, being a very strong Kabbalist, interpreted the “sent” combination of words in such a way that he could, using the number of letters revealed to him by Heaven, create from earth - clay - Living being. He called his son-in-law Isaac ben Simeon and his student, Levi Jacob ben Hayim Sasson, and told them the secret about the possibility of creating the Golem, but explained that he could not cope alone: “I require your help because four elements are needed to create it: you , Isaac, you will be the element of fire, you, Jacob, will be the element of water, I myself will be the element of air, together we will create a Golem from the fourth element - earth." He explained to them in detail that first they had to undergo sanctification and purification in order to prepare for the great work of creating an artificial man, and he taught them how to do this. (How exactly it was necessary to “sanctify” and “cleanse” is not directly related to history.)

When the two “volunteers” went through all the rituals and were ready, the fateful “Day X” arrived, which was also calculated using Kabbalistic knowledge. The work took place by torchlight and reading psalms. All three together sculpted a figure of a man out of clay and laid it face up. Then they stood at his feet so as to look him straight in the face. Rabbi Lev ordered Isaac to walk around the clay body seven times from right to left, after teaching him the sacred word from the book Sefer Yetzira, with which one can revive the Golem. Isaac walked around and spoke the sacred words. After this, the clay body became fiery red. Isaac, as we remember, personified the element of fire.

Then Rabbi Lev also ordered Levi Jacob to walk around the body from right to left seven times, also telling him the words specific to his element. When he completed his task, the fiery red color disappeared, and water flowed into the clay body; Hair emerged from the skin, and nails began to grow on the fingers and toes. Jacob thus fulfilled his destiny, acting as the element of water.

Here Rabbi Lev himself walked around the clay body, put a shem (a Kabbalistic combination of letters of the name of God) written on parchment into its mouth and, bowing to the east and west, south and north, all three simultaneously uttered the words: “And he breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul." So, thanks to the three elements (fire, water and air), the fourth element - earth - came to life. The golem opened his eyes.

Seeing this, Rabbi Lev said to him: “Get to your feet!” The golem stood up. Then they put on the clothes of a shamez, and soon he looked like normal person. Only he lacked the gift of speech. But later it turned out that it was even better. At dawn, all four went home.

While they were walking, Rabbi Lev decided to enlighten his brainchild, who he was and why he came into this world, and said: “Know that we created you from a lump of earth. Your task is to protect the Jews from persecution, you will be called Joseph, and you will spend the night in the rabbinate. You, Joseph, must obey my orders, wherever and whenever I send you - even through thick and thin; you must obey my orders, if I order you to jump from the roof and if I send you to the bottom of the sea." Josef nodded his head in agreement. Rabbi Lev brought “Joseph” home and told his family that he had met a mute stranger on the street, and since he felt sorry for him, he accepted him as a servant of the rabbinate. However, at home he forbade using the Golem for personal needs.

Seven years have passed. All these years, “Joseph” carried out all the orders of Rabbi Lev, and carried out them well. Further in the legend, the fallen Torah appears. It so happened that on the Day of Atonement in 1587, in the Old New Synagogue where Rabbi Lev was praying, the head of the community dropped the Torah while putting it in the box after the afternoon reading. The event caused complete horror among all the assembled members of the community, since from time immemorial such an event was considered almost the most bad omen. Rabbi Lev was also excited and immediately ordered everyone present to begin fasting the next day. On Monday, he asked God in a dream what sin was causing this bad event. This time God did not give him a clear answer, “dictating” only individual letters, which Rabbi Lev could not interpret. Then he wrote them down on a piece of paper and gave them to the Golem, instructing him to find the answer from them.

The golem, looking at the piece of paper, immediately took it out bookcase one prayer book opened it and showed the chapter that was read from the Torah on the day of humility. The letters shown in Rabbi Lev's dream were an abbreviation of the commandment "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife."

Seeing this, Rabbi Lev realized that the head of the community who had dropped the Torah was having an extramarital affair, which is why the Torah slipped out of his hands. He called the head of the community to his place and confidentially told him about the words from the dream. He, crying, confessed his sin, that he was indeed the lover of a married woman, and asked the rabbi to order him to repent. But Rabbi Lev went even further, dissolving the marriage of an unfaithful wife and her husband according to the laws of Moses.

Then the Golem carried out many other assignments, but one day he became furious. It happened on the eve of Shabbat. Rabbi Lev introduced the custom of giving the Golem on Friday afternoons a kind of daily plan for the Sabbath, because on Shabbat he wanted to communicate with him only as a last resort. As a rule, Rabbi Lev told him not to do anything else on Shabbat except stand at his post and be careful. But one Friday, Rabbi Lev forgot after lunch to give the Golem his plan for the next day.

Thus, for the first time, Golem was left without a task. As soon as Friday came to an end and everyone was preparing for Shabbat (the Shabbat for Jews begins not on Saturday morning, but on Friday evening), the Golem began to run like mad through the Jewish quarter, hitting and destroying everything around, and nothing could resist him. a powerful destructive force - he was so enraged and frightened by the fact that he had been forgotten and had nothing to do. Seeing the Golem's rampage, people ran away shouting: "Josef has gone mad!" A terrible panic immediately arose, and soon the news of this reached the Old New Synagogue, where Rabbi Lev was praying. He ran out and, not seeing the Golem, nevertheless shouted towards the street: “Joseph, stop!”

And then people saw that the Golem immediately stopped dead in his tracks, overcoming the power of his rage. Rabbi Lev was told where the Golem stood, the rabbi approached him and whispered in his ear: “Go home and go to bed.” And the Golem obeyed him like a child. Rabbi Lev then returned to the synagogue and ordered the Shabbat song to be sung again. The excited rabbi asked all witnesses not to report anything about this story to the authorities, since he was very afraid of the closure of the synagogue for the blasphemous experiment in creating an artificial person. Since that Friday, it never happened that he forgot to give the Golem a task the next day, knowing that the Golem was capable of devastating all of Prague if it was not calmed in time.

After this, the Golem behaved obediently, still successfully defending the Jews if the need arose, but some time passed and the community was no longer threatened with malicious slander - Emperor Rudolf II promised that there would be no more Christian attacks on Jews - and the existence of an assistant became unnecessary.

Then Rabbi Lev called Isaac and Jacob to him and said to them: “Now the Golem has become superfluous, since we no longer need to fear evil accusations. Therefore, we must destroy it.” Everything had to happen secretly. This was at the beginning of 1593.

On the appointed day, Rabbi Lev ordered the Golem not to spend the night in the rabbinate this time, but to move his bed to the attic of the Old New Synagogue and spend the night there. At two o'clock in the morning Isaac and Jacob came to Rabbi Lev, and he asked them if a dead person, i.e. the non-living, which the Golem is supposed to be, is, like other dead things, an object of pollution. This was a very important question, since otherwise the priest could not have participated in the destruction of the Golem, but Rabbi Lev decided that this question should be answered in the negative. In other words, if Gollem was originally non-living, then the priest will not have the sin of murder.

Having come to this decision, all three went up with the servant to the attic of the synagogue and began to destroy the Golem. They did everything exactly the opposite of what they did that night when they created man from clay, i.e. if on the night of creation they stood at the feet of the Golem, opposite his head, now they stood at his head and looked at his feet. Kabbalistic words were also read backwards.

After all the procedures, the Golem again became just a lump of clay. Rabbi Lev then called his servant, Avraham Chaim, and ordered him to strip the Golem down to his shirt. He ordered the clothes to be burned quietly. The frozen Golem was then covered with old clothes and the remains of books, stored according to Jewish custom in the attic of the synagogue.

In the morning, people in the Jewish quarter were told that Joseph had disappeared from the city during the night. Only a few people knew the truth. Rabbi Lev ordered a strict ban on entering the attic of the Old New Synagogue in all synagogues and houses of worship.

Here is such a legend... For some time they forgot about it somewhat, but they started talking about the Golem again in late XVIII century, when the Polish rabbi Eliya from Chelm put forward his version of what happened in Prague and allegedly created the golem himself.

They say, however, that the Prague Golem was never completely destroyed, that the clay man continues to walk the streets of the Jewish quarter of Prague and scare passers-by. That he was allegedly even seen, more than once. But this definitely applies to the legends of the mysterious city of Prague, and more modern ones at that.

But here it’s time to move from legends to reality. If we analyze legends and historical data, three facts emerge that are definitely not fiction. The first of them is the suspension of Friday services by Rabbi Lev in order to stop the excesses of a certain Joseph. The second is a request to parishioners (or those initiated into history) not to inform the authorities about some experiment. And the third is a ban on entering the attic of the Old New Synagogue. The ban really existed, and even the external staircase was dismantled so that no curious person could get in there. In front of the door to the attic, at a height of 10 m, there used to be a platform to which a wooden staircase led.

This was evidenced by holes in the wall for load-bearing beams. Later they were walled up. In the 18th century, the chief rabbi of Prague, Ezechiel Landau (1713-1793), visited the attic of the synagogue - placing a portable ladder against the wall. Before going upstairs, the rabbi underwent a strict purification ceremony, fasting and praying. Then, wearing prayer robes and wearing tefillim straps on his head, he entered the mysterious attic of the synagogue while his disciples waited below. However, he spent only a few minutes at the top, and when he returned, he was shaking violently. He didn’t tell anyone what he saw in the attic. “Let no one else dare to go up there and disturb the peace of the Golem!” - the rabbi renewed the strict ban on entering the attic.

Today there are no remains of the Golem in the attic of the Old New Synagogue. But that doesn't mean they weren't there. One beam above the door has the date 1883 carved into it, indicating that someone was in the attic who may have removed the remains. By the way, entry into the attic of the synagogue is prohibited even today. For what reason? If it is because of the legend of the Golem, then this ban proves that it is not a legend!

Another confirmation of the reality of the Golem can be the repetition of the 92nd Psalm during the service in the Old New Synagogue. This tradition may be a reminder of the long-ago suspension of the rabbi's preaching due to the Golem's rowdy behavior. There is no such tradition in any other synagogue.

The mystery of the synagogue attic and the legend of the Golem greatly interested the Czech researcher and writer Ivan Markel, who studied this issue for about thirty years. In 1984, he finally obtained permission to go up to the attic of the synagogue, searched the entire attic with a radar, listened to the walls, but, naturally, found nothing.

By the way, in the entire twentieth century, Markel was the second person to be allowed into the attic. The first was to write in German journalist Jewish origin Egon Erwin Kisch (1885-1948), also fascinated by the legend of the Golem. He visited the attic in the 20s. He had a friend, also a Jew, who was no less passionate about this topic. Kish met him in 1915. He served in the Austro-Hungarian troops and copied some parts of the manuscript. The book, which he bought in the Polish city of Přemysl, describes the fate of the Golem, an ancient clay robot. It was written immediately after the death of Rabbi Lev. It follows from the text that the Golem's body probably did not remain in the attic of the Old New Synagogue. It may well be temporarily hidden in one of the parts of the current Josefov.

Markel believes that traces of the Golem's body can lead to several different places in Prague. To better understand this whole story, he studied a book published in 1909 by the Polish Jew Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg. This book is the first detailed account of the life of Rabbi Lev and the eventual Golem. Rosenberg claimed to have translated the original Hebrew text, The Miracles of the Maharal, written by Isaac Katz, Rabbi Lev's student and son-in-law. According to this work, the Golem was actually brought to life with the help of a shem, which is also consistent with other versions of this story. It is quite possible that his friend told Kish about exactly the book that served as the basis for Isak Katz’s work.

In his research, Markel also relied on articles by Egon Erwin Kisch, in particular, on an article in the Sunday supplement to the Prager Tagblatt newspaper dated September 12, 1920. In it, Kish writes that the most effective way would be to connect with the disappearance of the Golem the servant of Rabbi Lev Abraham Chaim, who took part in the destruction of the body. Probably, Chaim and his relatives secretly transported the Golem to the underground premises of the Prague Pinkas Synagogue. A few days later, he moves it to another basement on the former Gypsy Street - to a house that then partially belonged to the Prague Jew Asher Balbier. From there, Asher Balbirer transported the body to the partially abandoned Jewish cemetery near the television tower on Žižkov, on the former Sibenicni vrch Gallows Hill, now Fibichowa Street.

Did the Golem still remain there to this day? Is this not fiction? The origin of Kish's translation cannot be traced, and his manuscript contains several historical inaccuracies, although not very important, and who is immune from inaccuracies, especially since we are talking about events five hundred years ago. The most important of the inaccuracies is that the Jewish cemetery for those who died from the plague did not yet exist at that time; it appeared ninety years later. But could there have been another cemetery?

The second trail leads to the Old Jewish Cemetery in Josefov. The trail is very plausible. The fact is that in the Prague archives there was a record that in 1883 the synagogue underwent renovations, during which the rotten beams in the attic were also replaced (that’s where the numbers 1883 on the beam come from) and on outside We installed a temporary ladder from metal brackets. The attic was cleared, and the discovered items were taken down and buried in the old Jewish cemetery. No one knows what these things were, and archival records pass over this moment in silence: things, and that’s it. The Golem's body could also be taken out along with the objects.

If we assume that members of the Jewish community in 1883 found human bones (or something incomprehensible - such as a clay figure) among the sacred books and prayer vestments, then the find would have been hidden or secretly buried in the cemetery, because at that time a wave arose again anti-Semitism, and Jews were again accused of ritually using the blood of Christians.

By the way, about things taken out and buried: what was the need to bury old trash from four hundred years ago and the remains of books? And exactly in the cemetery?! Wouldn't it be easier to just burn it?

Next story does unexpected turn, which no one expected. In 1999, Ivan Markel was approached by Indonesian Teddy Sunardi, who was studying law at Charles University. He brings an amazing twist to the investigation. Since childhood, an Indonesian whose mother is Czech has had strange dreams and visions of an unfamiliar old square with a column or other unknown places, reminiscent of the streets of some old European city. He sketches these places and is terribly surprised when his mother recognizes Old Town Square in his drawings!

The Indonesian later identifies his dreams with other Prague places, most notably with the old Prague Jewish Town as it was before the extensive reconstruction in late XIX century. The young man came to Prague only to study; his mother did not take him there as a child, and he did not even see these places in photographs. But the Indonesian student knows details about old Prague that only specialists in its history can know. The chairman of the club “For Old Prague,” Ph.D. Katerina Bečkova, tested his memory by showing him old photographs of different places in the Jewish City before perestroika. Teddy tried to answer what was where. The results were amazing - about 80 percent of clear hits!

Psychics involved in the research found that Sunardi talks to long-dead people in his sleep, including the Prague rabbi Jakub Shmiles (1570-1634). In one of his dreams, he told a student that the body of the Golem lay in Josefov, Prague, in a house where a person would die in sixty days. The calculated date was July 31, 1999, when death actually visited house No. 849/6 on Prague's U Miloserdnyh Street. In the basement of this house, Markel then looked for the buried Golem, and again with a radar. The search was unsuccessful, but the Czech researcher came to a shocking connection: this house is located a few meters from the former Gypsy Street, which is mentioned in the Kis manuscript!
Golem - Medieval robot