A golem is an animated, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is entirely created

A golem is an animated, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is entirely created from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud. The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th-century rabbi of Prague. According to Moment magazine, "the golem is a highly mutable metaphor with seemingly limitless symbolism. It can be a victim or villain, man or woman—or sometimes both. Over the centuries, it has been used to connote war, community, isolation, hope, and despair."

ETYMOLOGY
The word golem occurs once in the Bible in Psalm 139:16, which uses the word golmi (my golem), that means "my light form", "raw" material, connoting the unfinished human being before God's eyes. The Mishnah uses the term for an uncultivated person: "Seven characteristics are in an uncultivated person, and seven in a learned one".

In Modern Hebrew, golem is used to mean "dumb" or "helpless" and also to describe an insect in its inactive immature form between larva and adult. Similarly, it is often used today as a metaphor for a mindless lunk or entity that serves a man under controlled conditions, but is hostile to him under other conditions. "Golem" passed into Yiddish as goylem to mean someone who is lethargic or beneath a stupor.

LINK TO ARTICLE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem

TAGS: Golem, Supernatural legends, History of Prague, Practical Kabbalah, Medieval legends, Kabbalistic words and phrases, Hebrew-language names, Czech folklore, Golem

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