The Golem Redux: From Prague to Post-Holocaust Fiction

1. The Golem Redux: Variations on the Golem Legend in Jewish Tradition

The Golem Redux Variations on the Golem Legend in Jewish Tradition 17 1 My being was not concealed from thee, when I was made In secret, when I was (so to say) embroidered in the lowest Parts of the earth. My undeveloped substance did thy eyes see; And in thy book were all of them written down—the days Which have been formed, while yet not one of them was here. Psalm 139:15–16 “In the beginning . . . ” Most accounts of the history of the golem begin by mentioning that the first appearance of the word “golem” occurs in the Book of Psalms, as quoted above. Commentaries in the Talmud suggest that the speaker here is Adam and that he praises God for forming his “undeveloped substance” (i.e., golem) from the earth. The use of the word “golem” also implies the figure of man before he has acquired a soul (Bilski, 10). Of particular importance for this study of the appropriation of the golem legend in post-Holocaust fiction is the emphasis on the book and the writing of the word in this psalm. If intertexuality serves as a memory for literature, then this is the ur-text from which the golem legend arises. As Geoffrey Hartman declares, “The Jewish imagination has been dominated by a turn to the written word, and has developed within the orbit of the Hebrew Bible” (208). In this chapter, we will look at several early manifestations of the golem legend that follow upon this verse from the Book of Psalms. This overview 01 Text_.indd 17 2/2/12 12:49 PM 18 Chapter 1 is not intended to be exhaustive1 but will provide the reader with a grasp of the key tropes of the legend that, in turn, will enhance appreciation and understanding of the post-Holocaust texts discussed in chapters 3, 4, and 5. I begin by presenting golem texts from the third and fourth centuries and from the medieval period. A much fuller exposition of Prague’s golem legend , which is attached to the Maharal Rabbi Judah Loew, follows. Also important for context is the history of the Josefov, the Jewish ghetto in Prague, the site of the golem legend, and the setting for both filmic treatments and fiction in the twentieth century. Finally, attention is given to versions of the golem legend by Yudl Rosenberg and Chayim Bloch, which have informed and influenced late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century intertexts. Early Manifestations of the Golem Legend References to a golem-like creature occur in several classical Jewish texts. In the tractate Sanhedrin 65b in the Talmud, we find legends about famous rabbis of the third and fourth centuries who succeeded in creating life. Despite the fact that the following passage does not use the word “golem,” it “represents the first record of a creation of a Golem by a human being” (Sherwin, The Golem Legend, 4). Rava said: if the righteous wished, they could create a world, for it is written [Isa. 59:2]: “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God.” The implication is that if a man is saintly without sins, his creative power is no longer “separated” from that of God. And the text continues as though its author wished to demonstrate this creative power: “For Rava created a man and sent him to Rabbi Zera. The rabbi spoke to him and he did not answer. Then he said: “You must have been made by the companions [members of the Talmudic Academy]; return to your dust.” The Aramaic word here rendered by “companions” is ambiguous. According to some scholars Rabbi Zera’s sentence should be interpreted to mean “You must come from the magicians.” In the Talmud this passage is immediately followed by another story: “Rav Hanina and Rav Oshaya busied themselves on the eve of every Sabbath with the Book of Creation—or in another reading: with the instructions [halakhoth] concerning creation. They made a calf one-third the natural size and ate it.” (quoted from Sanhedrin 65b in Scholem, On the Kabbalah, 166) Several aspects of this passage are important for our purposes. First, we read the implication that human beings do have the power to create life 01 Text_.indd 18 2/2/12 12:49 PM 19 The Golem Redux: Variations on the Golem Legend in Jewish Tradition and, second, that the creator of a golem must be...