The golem spread fear by attacking and killing all those who sought to do harm to the Jews. Rabbi Juddah Loew ben Bezalel, the chief rabbi of Prague, created and brought to life a golem, in order to protect his people. The legend states that in the 16th century CE, the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II had decided to expel or kill Prague's Jews. The most famous golem story is that of the Golem of Prague. To deactivate it, the rabbi would erase the letter aleph, leaving met, the Hebrew word for 'death'.ĭepiction of Rabbi Loew and the Golem of Prague. Other versions say that the rabbi would write the Hebrew word emet, meaning 'truth', on the golem's forehead to activate it. Some versions say that the rabbi would need to write a series of letters of the Aleph-bet on a piece of parchment and put it in the golem's mouth. Legends vary on the precise way in which a rabbi would bring a golem to life, although Hebrew incantations would usually be involved. The idea of creating and bringing to life a clay man is probably taken from Genesis, in which G-d forms Adam from clay and breathes life into him. The Hebrew word golem appears only once in the Tanakh, in Psalm 139:16, where it is used to mean 'unshaped form' or 'embryo'.

2 Activating a golem, according to legend.

He worked as a translator and translated in German 15 volumes by Charles Dickens while working on his own novels.Īmong his most famous works are Der Golem (1914) and Walpurgisnacht (1917). Meyrinck founded his own bank but was accused of fraud for which he spent 2 months in prison.

His son committed suicide at the same age with success.

He unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide at the age of 24. The city of Prague is present in most of his work along with various religious, occult and fantastic themes. The illegitimate child of a baron and an actress, Meyrinck spent his childhood in Germany, then moving to today's Czech Republic where he lived for 20 years. Among his most famous works are Der Golem (1914) and Walpurgisnacht (1917). He worked as a translator and translated in German 15 volumes by Charles Dickens while working on his own novels. Curious facts: He unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide at the age of 24.

Golem by Gustav Meyrink