A golem ( /ˈɡoʊləm/ GOH-ləm; Hebrew: גּוֹלֶם, romanized: gōlem) is a human-like creature in Jewish stories that is made from non-living materials, such as clay or mud. The most well-known story about a golem involves Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, a rabbi who lived in Prague in the late 16th century. According to Moment magazine, "the golem is a symbol that can represent many different ideas. It can be a victim or a villain, a man or a woman—or both. Over time, it has been used to describe war, community, loneliness, hope, and sadness."

In modern stories and media, the term "golem" is often used more broadly. Today, any roughly made machine created by a magician may be called a "golem."

Etymology

The word "golem" appears once in the Bible, in Psalm 139. In this passage, the Hebrew word גׇּלְמִ֤י (golmi) is used to describe an unfinished human being before God. In Pirkei Avot 5:9, the term refers to someone who is not well-educated: "There are seven things in a clod, and seven in a wise man" (שִׁבְעָה דְבָרִים בַּגֹּלֶם וְשִׁבְעָה בֶחָכָם).

In Modern Hebrew, "golem" means "dumb," "helpless," or "pupa." It is also often used today as a way to describe a person or thing that acts in a controlled way but is harmful in other situations. The word "golem" entered Yiddish as "goylem," which means someone who is very tired or in a daze.

History

The oldest stories about golems come from early Jewish traditions. In the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 38b), Adam is first described as a golem (גולם) when his dust is "kneaded into a shapeless husk." Like Adam, all golems are made from mud by people who are close to divinity, but no golem is fully human. In early stories, the main problem with golems was that they could not speak. Sanhedrin 65b tells of Rava creating a man (gavra), who he sent to Rav Zeira. Zeira spoke to the man, but the man did not answer. Zeira then said, "You were created by the sages; return to your dust."

During the Middle Ages, parts of the Sefer Yetzirah were studied as a way to create and animate a golem, though Jewish mystical writings do not strongly support this belief. The earliest written instructions for making a golem appear in the Sode Raza, a commentary on Merkabah mysticism by Eleazar of Worms, who lived in the late 12th and early 13th centuries.

It was believed that golems could be activated by a special experience caused by using certain letters of the Hebrew alphabet to form one of God’s names. This was written on paper and placed in the golem’s mouth or forehead.

In some stories, such as those about the Chełm and Prague golems, the word "emet" (meaning "truth") was written on the golem, often on its forehead. To deactivate the golem, the letter "aleph" (א) was removed, changing the word to "met" (meaning "death").

One source says Solomon ibn Gabirol, who lived in the 11th century, may have created a golem, possibly a woman, to help with household tasks. Another legend claims Samuel of Speyer made a golem in the 12th century.

In 1625, Joseph Solomon Delmedigo wrote that "many legends of this sort are current, particularly in Germany."

The oldest known story of a historical figure creating a golem is connected to Elijah of Chełm (1550–1583), a Baal Shem (folk healer).

In 1674, the Christian author Christoph Arnold wrote in a letter that Rabbi Eliyahu created a golem. A similar account was reported by an unnamed Polish Kabbalist writing between 1730 and 1750.

Rabbi Jacob Emden described the story in his autobiography, Megillas Sefer, written in 1748. The Polish Kabbalist wrote that the legend was known to several people, suggesting it had been shared for a long time before being written down. This implies the story may have started soon after Rabbi Eliyahu’s death.

The most famous golem story is about Judah Loew ben Bezalel, a 16th-century rabbi in Prague known as the Maharal. He is said to have made a golem from clay near the Vltava River and brought it to life with rituals and Hebrew prayers to protect the Prague ghetto from attacks. Depending on the version, the Jews in Prague were at risk of being expelled or killed under Emperor Rudolf II. The golem was named Josef or Yossele and could become invisible or summon spirits. Rabbi Loew deactivated the golem every Friday evening by removing the shem (a sacred name) before the Sabbath began.

One Friday, Rabbi Loew forgot to remove the shem and feared the golem would break the Sabbath. Another version says the golem fell in love, and when rejected, it became violent and attacked people. The rabbi then pulled the shem from the golem’s mouth, stopping it, and the golem fell apart. Its body was stored in the attic genizah of the Old New Synagogue, where it could be revived if needed.

Rabbi Loew forbade anyone except his successors from entering the attic. Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, a successor, once tried to go up the steps to the attic while he was Chief Rabbi of Prague. He fasted, immersed in a mikveh, and wrapped himself in phylacteries and a prayer shawl before climbing. At the top, he hesitated and returned, trembling and frightened. He then repeated Rabbi Loew’s warning.

According to legend, the golem’s body still lies in the synagogue’s attic. When the attic was renovated in 1883, no evidence of the golem was found. Some stories say the golem was stolen and buried in Prague’s Žižkov district, where the Žižkov Television Tower now stands. A recent tale claims a Nazi agent entered the attic and died under mysterious circumstances. The attic is not open to the public.

Some Orthodox Jews believe the Maharal actually created a golem. This belief has been studied by Shnayer Z. Leiman from an Orthodox Jewish perspective.

Most historians and critics believe the Prague Golem story was created by German writers in the early 19th century. The first known writers about the Prague Golem were:

• 1837: Berthold Auerbach, Spinoza
• 1841: Gustav Philippson, Der Golam, eine Legende
• 1841: Franz Klutschak, Der Golam des Rabbi Löw
• 1842: Abraham Tendlau, Der Golem des Hoch-Rabbi-Löb
• 1847: Georg Leopold Weisel, Der Golem

Earlier accounts from 1834 and 1836 also exist. These stories were written in German by Jewish authors and were part of a Jewish folklore movement similar to the German folklore movement of the time.

The origins of the story are unclear because some people tried to make it seem older than it is. Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg (1859–1935) claimed the story dates back to the Maharal’s time. He wrote Nifl'os Maharal (1909), which he said was based on a manuscript he found in Metz. However, scholars say the book is a fake. This story was later spread in The Golem: Legends of the Ghetto of Prague (1925) by Chayim Bloch.

The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) mentions a 1592 work by David Gans, a student of the Maharal, called Zemach David. It describes an audience between the Maharal and Emperor Rudolf II. However, no mention of the golem is made in this text or in other writings from the 16th, 17th, or 18th centuries. The Maharal himself never wrote about creating a golem.

Golem of Vilna

A similar tradition is connected to the Vilna Gaon, also known as "the saintly genius from Vilnius" (1720–1797). Rabbi Chaim Volozhin (Lithuania, 1749–1821) wrote in the introduction to Sifra de Tzeniuta that he once showed his teacher, the Vilna Gaon, ten different versions of a passage from Sefer Yetzira. He asked the Gaon to find the correct version. The Gaon quickly recognized one version as the accurate text.

Rabbi Chaim was surprised and told his teacher that, with such clear understanding, he should be able to create a living human being. The Gaon agreed and explained that he had once tried to create a person when he was a child, before the age of 13. However, he received a message from Heaven telling him to stop because he was too young.

Theme of hubris

The existence of a golem can be both helpful and harmful. Golems are not smart; if told to do something, they follow the instructions exactly without thinking. In many stories, golems are perfectly obedient. However, in the earliest known modern version, the Golem of Chełm became very large and refused to follow orders. In one version of this story, the rabbi used tricks to stop it, and the golem fell apart, crushing its creator.

A similar idea appears in stories like Frankenstein, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and The Terminator. This theme also appears in R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), a 1921 play written by Karel Čapek in Prague. This play introduced the word "robot" into the language. Although Čapek said he did not base the robot on the golem, some parts of the story are similar to golem tales.

Culture of the Czech Republic

The golem is a well-known character in the Czech Republic. The 1915 novel The Golem by Gustav Meyrink was popular for a short time and helped keep people interested in the golem. Many restaurants and businesses use the golem's name in their titles. A Czech strongman named René Richter is known by the nickname "Golem," and a Czech monster truck group is called the "Golem Team." Before writing his article about human automatism in modern cities, Abraham Akkerman wrote a short, humorous poem about two golems becoming humans.

Clay Boy variation

A Yiddish and Slavic folktale called The Clay Boy mixes ideas from the golem story and the tale of The Gingerbread Man. It tells of a lonely couple who create a child from clay, leading to bad or funny results.

In one Russian version, an elderly couple, whose children have left home, make a boy from clay and dry him near their fireplace. The Clay Boy (Гли́няный па́рень, Glínyanyĭ párenʹ) comes to life. At first, the couple is happy and treats him like a real child. However, the Clay Boy keeps growing and eats all their food, then all their animals, and finally eats his parents. The Clay Boy causes chaos in the village until a clever goat smashes him.

In popular culture

In popular culture, the word "golem" is often used to describe "any magically created human figure" instead of specifically referring to "a humanoid formed by Jewish mystical traditions."

Golems appear in many movies and TV shows. Some examples include:

• The Golem (German: Der Golem, shown in the United States as The Monster of Fate), a 1915 German silent horror film written and directed by Paul Wegener and Henrik Galeen.
• The Golem and the Dancing Girl (German: Der Golem und die Tänzerin), a 1917 German silent comedy-horror film directed by Paul Wegener and Rochus Gliese.
• The Golem: How He Came into the World (German: Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam, also called Der Golem), a 1920 German silent horror film directed by Paul Wegener and Carl Boese.
• Le Golem (Czech: Golem), a 1936 Czechoslovak monster movie directed by Julien Duvivier in French.
• The Emperor and the Golem (Czech: Císařův pekař-Pekařův císař), a 1952 Czechoslovak movie starring Jan Werich.
• The Limehouse Golem, a 2016 film about a fictional series of murders in Victorian London that resemble the crimes of Jack the Ripper.

Other examples of golems in popular culture include:

• The Golem (German: Der Golem), the first novel by Gustav Meyrink, adapted for television in 1967, for film in 1980, and for the stage in 2013.
• Daimajin, a 1966 Japanese kaiju film directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda.
• It!, a 1967 British horror film directed by Herbert J. Leder.
• "Kaddish," an episode of The X-Files from 1997.
• A 1995 episode of Gargoyles titled "Golem" features a golem made from a stone statue created by Rabbi Loew to protect Jewish people in Prague.
• A 1997 episode of Extreme Ghostbusters shows a golem brought to life to protect a synagogue from antisemitic attacks.
• "You Gotta Know When to Golem," a short story in The Simpsons Halloween special Treehouse of Horror XVII, where a golem is controlled by Bart using paper notes.
• Inglourious Basterds (2009), a film by Quentin Tarantino, includes a fictional version of Adolf Hitler who mentions a golem.
• The 2019 Netflix series The Order has a character revealed to be a golem in season 1.
• The CW series Legacies (a spin-off of The Vampire Diaries) focuses on defeating a golem.
• The Golem (2018), an Israeli horror film, features a golem that appears as a dead child.

Other references include:

• "El Golem," a poem by Jorge Luis Borges from 1959, which tells the story of Rabbi Loew and his creation of the golem.
• Marge Piercy's 1991 science fiction novel He, She and It includes a retelling of the golem story.
• Terry Pratchett's 1996 Discworld novel Feet of Clay features golems in the city of Ankh-Morpork.
• Thomas Pynchon's 1997 novel Mason & Dixon describes a giant golem created by a Native American tribe.
• Golems play a major role in Mary Gentle's novel Ash: A Secret History.
• Ted Chiang's 2000 novella "Seventy-Two Letters" explores a world where science is based on golems.
• Michael Chabon's 2000 novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay includes a golem-like creature.
• The Golem's Eye (2004), a book by Jonathan Stroud, features a magical golem as the main threat.
• Kiln People (2002), a book by David Brin, describes people creating short-lived clay copies of themselves.
• Fablehaven (2006), a book series by Brandon Mull, includes a golem character.
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente features a golem made of soap.
• The Marvel Comics character Captain America was originally inspired by the golem concept.
• The Golem and the Jinni (2013), a novel by Helene Wecker, tells the story of two magical creatures in 19th-century New York.
• The Golem of Hollywood (2025