Clay monster from Prague. Golems in different cultures. “Again, the product of some mythology?”

The story of a humanoid, unusual creature, the Golem, has its roots far back in history. Many different, unconfirmed facts exist about this clay creation, but only the story of its fantastic creation is still kept in the memory and hearts of many Jews. They will never be able to forget the one who, in their opinion, became the savior of the Jewish people.

Heaven Sent

As the legend says, one day, having once again seen how his Jewish people living in Prague were being oppressed, Lev could not stand it and with a tearful plea turned to heaven for help. He prayed for them to give an answer on how to protect the unfortunate people, and the heavens responded to his call. They ordered the rabbi to create a clay Golem, which would become the protector of the frightened, dispossessed people and destroy their enemies.

Birth ritual

After this, Leo immediately sets about creating this extraordinary creature. He possessed sufficient knowledge to perform a complex ritual of revival. To do this, he needed four elements (fire, earth, air, water), two assistants and a shem (according to one ancient scripture, there is a belief that if you write the letters of the Name of God in the correct sequence, you can repeat an act subject to the Almighty alone).

Thanks to this list, on the banks of the river, Lev and his assistants began to perform a complex ceremony. First, the rabbi sculpted the likeness of a man from clay, the size of three cubits. Then, each of them walked around this sculpture, while pronouncing words from magical formulas. After this, Lev put a golem into the mouth of the Golem, which breathed life into lifeless, soulless clay.

Main purpose

At the end of the ritual, the clay man woke up and stood up. The rabbi took him along and sheltered him in his house. Initially, Golem was small in stature, but every day he became bigger and stronger. His main job was to protect the Jewish people, as well as help with housework. And, although the Golem was very similar to a person, it still did not feel anything and did not distinguish between emotions. There was neither evil nor good in him. He simply did what he was ordered to do.

For 13 long years, the clay protector guarded the safety of the Jewish population and helped its creator. During this time, he accomplished a lot and the Jews were finally able to live in peace. They no longer trembled in fear for themselves and their families. They managed to get the freedom they wanted.

Losing control. Disappearance.

Despite the fact that the Golem did not need rest or peace at all, and his strength was inexhaustible, every Friday the rabbi put him to sleep.

He took it with him and went to the synagogue to pray. But one day, Leo forgot to perform this weekly ritual and left home, leaving the awake clay man alone.

News that he began to rage and show unprecedented aggression found the rabbi in church at a service. He quickly returned home and took the shem out of the raging Golem’s mouth. On this day, Leo decided to end the existence of the clay man forever. After this decision, the man and several of his assistants carried the devastated body to the attic of the synagogue.

The rabbi strictly ordered everyone so that no one should ever dare cross the threshold of this storehouse. Even years after his death, people were still afraid to enter the forbidden place.

And only in 1920 this ban was violated. Egon Erwin Kisch, a Czech journalist, decided to conduct his own investigation. But when he went up to the abandoned attic, he found nothing. Only rubbish and no traces or even hints that the body of the great Jewish hero Golem might once have been there.

A folk legend is much more important for people than facts and evidence.

Although it has now been almost completely proven that the story about the revived clay man is just a fiction without any basis, Jews still still believe in its reality. Some even claim to have personally seen the Golem while he was walking through the streets of Prague, where most of the Jews live.

This legend has forever entered the history of Prague Jews and they sacredly believe in it, and to this day they say thanks to the Golem for once being able to save their ancestors. And in gratitude for a long memory, a monument was unveiled in his honor on Karol Marcinkovsky Alley.

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Artificially created by man, into which the cabalists, with the help of occult sciences, breathed life. Mostly they were created from clay, stone, and metal. Outwardly, the golem resembled a person.

The creation of the golem is often compared to the biblical creation of Adam. Where God molds a man from clay and breathes life into him. But unlike the biblical Adam, the golem is a soulless creature, has no speech and no thinking. When creating a golem, it was recommended to sculpt the figurine as tall as a ten-year-old child. The animated golem grows rapidly and its strength reaches inhuman proportions. The golem is subordinate to its creator, its main function is protection, it is also used for various purposes in everyday life. Where to use force.

In addition to their gigantic strength, golems did not succumb to virtually any magic. In mythology, there are cases when a golem escaped from the will of its creator. Transforming into a creature blinded by hatred. Demolishing everything in its path and killing everyone nearby. Including its creator.

The golem is found in the legends of many peoples. For Jews it is a giant made of clay.

The most famous legend about the golem is the Prague Golem. It was created to protect the Jewish people by Prague Rabbi Lev. In the pre-dawn hour, the rabbi with two assistants, on the banks of the Vlatva River, sculpted a human figure, 3 cubits tall. After performing a magical ritual and putting a shem (the secret name of god) into the golem’s mouth, Leo revived the clay creature.

The golem looked like an ugly man, about 30 years old. His strength was many times greater than that of a human. During the day, the golem was a servant and carried out orders for the rabbi. At night he guarded the Jewish quarter. According to legend, the golem initially did not eat food and did not speak a word.

But later he developed a beastly appetite, and it was difficult to feed the golem.

Also, after a while, the Parisian golem began to speak in short phrases and showed the makings of intelligence. So he asked the Monk Leve:

- Who is the golem?
- Who is the father and mother of the golem?
- What is the golem for?
- The golem doesn't want to be alone.

That is, he became aware of the feeling of loneliness. The golem began to become aware of itself and show emotions. He began playing tag with the children, although his bulky, clumsy body did not allow him to do so. The golem began to be drawn to children and people. He wanted communication. But people fled from him in fear. The children did not want to take the Prague Golem into their games.

So the defender of the Jewish ghetto was an outcast. They demanded submission and help from him, but they could not give him anything.

According to legend, the rabbi removed the golem from the Prague golem every Friday evening so that it could not act. Since the rabbi was in the synagogue on Saturday. But one day the righteous Leo forgot to immobilize his subordinate. And the Prague golem rebelled. He destroyed the houses and property of residents of the Jewish quarter. People ran away from the golem in panic. Perhaps the feeling of hopelessness and loneliness pushed him into the arms of hatred.

The rabbi was able to pull the shem out of the rebellious golem. Afterwards, he carried his lifeless body to the attic of the synagogue and buried him under the holy scriptures. Later in 1920, a Czech journalist went up to the attic, but found nothing there except garbage.

According to another version, the Prague golem fell in love with the rabbi's daughter Miriam. She jokingly called herself the golem's bride. The clay man followed her everywhere and did not allow the rabbi to pull out the shem. He became more and more out of control and carelessly destroyed everything that was nearby. Then the rabbi persuaded Miriam, and she, succumbing to her father’s persuasion, immobilized the golem.

There is another version that the rabbi and residents of the Jewish quarter simply no longer needed the golem. He completed his mission. The Jews were not in danger. And the Monk Leo simply put him to sleep. Carrying out the same ritual as during resurrection, but in reverse order.

Residents of Prague still believe that their golem comes to life every 33 years. And stands up to defend their city.

The legend of the golem is a warning that man cannot replace God. That a human-created being will not be complete, it will not have a soul. Creating a golem is a mystical path that can only be followed by a pure-minded and righteous person. What was Rabbi Lev like?

There is another legend about the creation of a golem. In it, the prophet Jeremiah, when creating a clay man, wrote on his forehead “God is truth.” But the golem pulled out the knife from the prophet and changed the inscription to “God is dead.” This speaks of a mystical evil force that appears when the golem is created.

In Russian legends there are also creatures whose creation is similar to the creation of a golem. These are the Snow Maiden and the Clay Guy, who, like the Prague Golem, had an uncontrollable appetite. He ate not only regular food, but also all the people and animals he came across. The only difference between the characters of Russian folklore and the legend of the Prague Golem is that they could initially think and speak.

The well-known literary character Frankenstein is also a golem. Only his body was not clay, but the bodies of different people. And he came to life not with the help of occult knowledge, but with the help of science.

Types of golems

In different mythologies, golems are distinguished by type:

Stone golem. Looks like a piece of living rock. Mountain habitat.
Golem of the earth. Lives mainly on the plain. It is a small hill. Not as aggressive as stone golems.
Fire golem. Habitat of volcanoes. Has intelligence. They are often compared to. Endowed with magical powers.
Water golem. An animated clot of water. Also has intelligence. Less aggressive than previous golems.

Prague Golem

Translated from Hebrew “lump”, “unprepared”, “unformed”, and also “blockhead”, “fool”. The possibility of producing golems - artificial creatures devoid of their own will and soul - is described in some religious Jewish texts of the Kabbalistic tradition.

In Kabbalistic texts of the 12th century, golems began to be called special creatures that a person can create with the help of spells. These include the animated dead, “hellish hens” (creatures made from eggs), mandrakes, homunculi and golems - the most difficult to “produce”. Golems can be created from any non-plant matter (clay, water, blood) using a magical ritual, which is accessible only to a scientist, a morally pure and untainted person, an enlightened rabbi. The purposes for creating golems are very different: in Peter Weil’s book “Genius Loci” there is a legend about two hungry rabbis who sculpted a calf from clay, brought it to life, killed it and ate it.

In the Middle Ages, many legends arose about rabbis - the creators of golems.

Among them are the rabbi from Chelm Eliach ben Judah (Baal Shem) and the Polish Hasid Yudel Rosenberg, who left a detailed description of the technology of golem production. Rabbi Baal Shem created the Golem for his own destruction. The word “emet” (translated from Hebrew as “truth”), which he inscribed on the forehead of the clay idol, revived it, and to “turn off” this creation it was necessary to erase the first letter - then “emet” turned into “met”, which means “death” " The Baal Shem erased this letter, but did not have time to jump to the side. The golem collapsed and killed its creator.

But the most famous creator of the Golem is Rabbi Yehuda Lev Besalel, the Chief Rabbi of Prague. It is interesting that neither during his service nor after his death were there any legends about the Golem associated with his name. In 1709, the first book about the miracles of Rabbi Loew, written by his great-grandson Naftali Cohen, was published, but there was not a word about the Golem in it, as well as in the biography of the rabbi, which was published in 1718. Nevertheless, at the end of the 18th century, the legend of the Prague Golem found its way into Jewish folklore throughout Germany, and then into one of the collections of fairy tales and tales of the Brothers Grimm. However, as before, the appearance of the Golem in Prague was in no way connected with Rabbi Lev.

The first mention of Rabbi Lev's creation of the Prague Golem dates back to 1841: in the collection “Prague Mysteries” by Svatek (1868), a detailed account of the creation of the Golem by the Prague rabbi and his assistants appears.

There are different versions as to why Rabbi Loew suddenly needed a Golem. According to the first, the Golem was created to help Lev with the housework (as A. Irasek believes). According to another, the Golem was an experimental creature for the rabbi, on which he tested his mastery of the secrets of Kabbalah. And the most common one is that the Golem was sculpted and brought to life to protect the ghetto from pogroms. The time of its creation is March 1580.

LEGENDS ABOUT THE GOLEM

This was in 1530. One clergyman named Tadeusz, a fanatical opponent of the Jews, again tried to turn peace and harmony into discord and discord and raise new superstitious accusations. Rabbi Lev found out about this in time and in a dream asked heaven the question by what means to begin the fight against the enemy and how to resist evil. He received the following alphabetical response: Ata Bra Golem Dewuk Hachomer Wrtigzar Zedim Chewel Torfe Israel- “Create a Golem from clay to protect your people.” Rabbi Lev interpreted the combination of words in such a way that he could, using the number of letters revealed to him by heaven, create a living being from clay.

He called his son-in-law Isaac ben Simon and his student Jacob Sasson and told them the secret of how the Golem could be created. “I require your help because four elements are needed to create it: you, Isaac, are fire, you, Jacob, are water, I myself am air, and together we will create a Golem from the fourth element - earth.”

On the appointed day, all three went after midnight to the mikveh (ritual bath), then went home in silence, where they said prayers. Eventually they headed outside the city to the banks of the Vltava. There they found clay and immediately got to work.

By torchlight and reading psalms, work proceeded in feverish haste. They sculpted from clay the figure of a man with all limbs three cubits long. The golem lay face up. Then the men 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, entrusting him with the tsirufim - a phrase that he must pronounce at the same time. When this was done, the clay body turned fiery red.

Then the rabbi ordered Jacob to walk around the body from right to left seven times, telling him the tsirufim specific for his element. When he completed his task, the fiery red color disappeared, water flowed in the clay body, hair emerged from the skin, and nails appeared on the fingers.

Finally, Rabbi Lev himself walked around the clay body and put a shem written on parchment into its mouth. 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.” And thanks to the three elements - fire, water and air, the fourth element - earth - came to life. The golem, opening its eyes, looked around in amazement. Rabbi Lev told him: “Get to your feet!” And he stood up.

Then they put on the clothes of the Shames servant, and soon he looked like an ordinary person, although far from handsome. Rough facial features, very thick build, looking about thirty, very strong, but clumsy, with dark skin color. The Golem could not speak.

At dawn all four went home.

On the way, Rabbi Lev said to the Golem: “Know that we created you from a lump of earth. Your task is to protect 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, through fire and water, if I order you to jump from the roof and if I send you to the bottom of the sea.” Josef nodded in agreement.

At home, Rabbi Loew said that he met a mute stranger on the street, took pity on him and accepted him as a servant of the rabbinate.

The Golem's powers were very great. He managed all the household work in the rabbi's house, helped him during services and scared off all encroachers on the security of the Jewish ghetto.

Rabbi Lev introduced the custom of giving the Golem on Friday afternoons a kind of daily plan, because on Saturday he wanted to communicate with him only as a last resort. As a rule, Rabbi Loew told him not to do anything else on the Sabbath except stand at his post and be careful.

One day, Rabbi Loew forgot to give Golem his daily plan on Friday afternoon, and he was left to his own devices. When evening came, the Golem began to rush around the ghetto, crushing everything in its path. People ran away shouting: “Joseph Golem has gone mad!”

Soon the news of this reached the Old New Synagogue, where Rabbi Lev prayed. He interrupted his prayer, ran outside and shouted into the void: “Joseph, stop!” And people saw how the Golem immediately froze like an idol. 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.

Since that Friday, it had never happened that he had forgotten to give the Golem his daily plan, knowing that the Golem was capable of laying waste to all of Prague if not stopped in time.

According to one version, Golem allegedly fell in love with the daughter of Rabbi Loew himself and began to take revenge on the residents of the ghetto because of his unrequited feelings. This interpretation penetrated into literary texts of the early 1900s (plays by Antonin Fenzl, Arthur Golitscher, one of the early novels by Max Brod). The motif of the Golem's unhappy love also ended up in the film of the same name by German director Paul Wegener. But this version is, as they say, far-fetched. The Golem Riot is uncontrolled mystical forces awakened by man to his destruction. One way or another, Lev, 13 years after the creation of the clay man, decided to destroy the Golem.

When the community was no longer in danger, Rabbi Loew again called his son-in-law Isaac and his disciple Jacob, who had participated in the creation of the Golem, and told them: “Now the Golem has become superfluous, since we no longer need to fear enemies. Therefore we must destroy it."

Lev ordered the Golem 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 arrived. All three went up with the servant to the attic where the Golem slept and began to destroy it.

They did everything the opposite of what they did during creation. If, when creating it, they stood at the feet of the Golem, then this time they stood at his head. Words from the Book of Genesis were also read backwards.

After this, the Golem again became a block, as before its revival. Rabbi Lev called the servant, took the candles from him and ordered him to strip the Golem down to his shirt. He ordered the clothes to be burned quietly. The frozen Golem was covered with old robes and the remains of books stored in the attic of the synagogue.

In the morning they learned on the Jewish streets that Joseph Golem had disappeared from the city during the night. Only a few people knew the truth. Rabbi Loew ordered a strict ban on entering the attic of the Old New Synagogue in all synagogues and houses of worship.

At the end of the 18th century, the then Prague rabbi Ezechiel Landau climbed into the attic of the synagogue. He was very frightened by what he saw there, did not tell anyone about it and confirmed Rabbi Loew’s prohibition.

In 1920, the famous Prague writer and journalist Egon Erwin Kisch took an excursion in search of the Golem to the attic of the Old New Synagogue, but found nothing there except old rubbish and pigeons. But this could no longer change anything - the myth of the Golem was firmly established in Prague mythology (by that time Meyrink’s novel “The Golem” had already been published). The explanation for where the Golem disappeared from the attic was found by Kish himself in one of the collections of legends - supposedly the Golem was revived by a certain mason, who accidentally fell into the hands of a shem, after which it went out of control, killed seven people and was carried away by a white dove , descended from the sky.

According to another version, the Golem was revived by a certain Abraham Chaim to be used for evil purposes. However, a plague began in the Jewish ghetto, and when the children of Chaim himself began to die, he realized that he had angered God, and considered it best to bury the Golem in a plague grave on the Gallows Top (now the Prague district of Hrdlorzezy east of Žižkov).

Today, the Golem is one way or another present in Prague at every turn. In the windows of souvenir shops you can see postcards with the Golem, T-shirts with his image, watch charms, posters, figurines made of ceramics and plastic - for every taste. The legendary creature became the hero not only of novels and dark expressionist films of the early 20th century, but also of children's cartoons.

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What is Golem

Golem is a creepy monster made of clay in the shape of a huge man, whose main goal is to protect and fulfill the wishes of its creator.

The origin of golems or who invented them?

These creatures come from Hebrew. In most stories, the creators of golems were rabbis. The basic idea was that a holy person and his closeness to God receives divine power that can breathe life into a clay figure. But, since the creator of the golem is not God, he cannot give a soul to his creation. Thus creation is inferior to man in form, intelligence, and free will. Also, due to the lack of a soul, golems are speechless.

Most stories about golems date back to the Middle Ages. By and large, these creatures acted as protectors of the Jewish people or as a punitive force against offenders.

Golem in legends. Instructions on how to create a golem at home?

Some legends describe the process of creating these creatures. After making the clay figure, the holy man must write on the forehead the sacred word that brings the monster to life. Some sources say that this word was written on a piece of paper or tablet, then placed in the golem's mouth. In the first published story about this monster, namely in a collection of Jewish fairy tales from 1847, it is indicated that to revive it you need to write the word "Emet" ( true). To disable it, you need to erase the first letter in the word, so that it turns out - Met ( death). After which life will leave the clay mold.

Later, in the 19th century, the golem entered the realm of Western European culture and folklore. Christian clergy began to use his image as a symbol of excessive danger when used. Under this influence, a story appeared about how the creator loses control over the created creature.

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. In sacred books such as the Bible, the Koran, This is said 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 everything that he created, and created man for the first time 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 the creation of an artificial man from earth and 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 of secret knowledge - all according to 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 that arose in Prague about an artificial man created from clay to perform various “menial” jobs, difficult tasks important for the Jewish community, and, mainly, to prevent blood libel by 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, fiction, theater plays, cinema, and even 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 a living being from earth - clay. 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 said 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, 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 into his mouth a shem written on parchment (a Kabbalistic combination of letters of the name of God) 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 the shames clothes on him, and soon he looked like a 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 in fire and water; 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 out one prayer book from the bookcase, 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 it was somewhat forgotten, but they started talking about the Golem again at the end of the 18th 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 a journalist of Jewish origin, writing in German, Egon Erwin Kisch (1885-1948), who was 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 may 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 a renovation was carried out in the synagogue, during which the rotten beams in the attic were also replaced (that’s where the numbers 1883 on the beam come from) and a temporary staircase made of metal brackets was mounted on the outside. 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?

Then the story takes an unexpected turn that 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 extensive reconstruction at the end of the 19th 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!

Or the body of a Golem (a human skeleton, a clay figure or the remains of a mysterious mechanism - this version also took place, because Rabbi Lev was known for his wisdom, extensive knowledge of natural and secret sciences. He could, for example, build an artificial mechanism. Although this seems less plausible , but this version cannot be completely ruled out) is buried in another place and lies somewhere near this Prague street and is waiting for its discoverer?

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