![]() When the attic was renovated in 1883, no evidence of the Golem was found. According to legend, the body of Rabbi Loew's Golem still lies in the synagogue's attic. ![]() The Golem's body was stored in the attic genizah of the Old New Synagogue, where it would be restored to life again if needed. The rabbi then managed to pull the shem from his mouth and immobilize him in front of the synagogue, whereupon the destructive golem fell in pieces. Some versions have the golem eventually going on a murderous rampage. A different story tells of a golem that fell in love, and when rejected, became the violent monster seen in most accounts. He destroyed it by smashing it to pieces. One Friday evening Rabbi Loew forgot to remove the shem, and feared that the Golem would desecrate the Sabbath. Rabbi Loew deactivated the Golem on Friday evenings by removing the shem before the Sabbath began, so as to let it rest on Sabbath. The only care required of the Golem was that he can't be alive on the day of Sabbath (Saturday). It was said that he could make himself invisible and summon spirits from the dead. The Golem was called Josef and was known as Yossele. To protect the Jewish community, the rabbi constructed the Golem out of clay from the banks of the Vltava river, and brought it to life through rituals and Hebrew incantations. Depending on the version of the legend, the Jews in Prague were to be either expelled or killed under the rule of Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor. The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th century rabbi of Prague, also known as the Maharal, who reportedly created a golem to defend the Prague ghetto from antisemitic attacks and pogroms. The golem could then be deactivated by removing the aleph letter ( א) in emet, thus changing the inscription from "truth" to "death". It was believed that golems could be activated by an ecstatic experience induced by the ritualistic use of various letters of the Hebrew Alphabet forming a "shem" (any one of the Names of God), wherein the shem was written on a piece of paper and inserted in the mouth or in the forehead of the golem.Ī golem is inscribed with Hebrew words, such as the word emet ( אמת, "truth" in Hebrew) written on its forehead. ![]() Early on, the main disability of the golem was its inability to speak. Similarly, it is often used today as a metaphor for a brainless lunk or entity who serves man under controlled conditions but is hostile to him under others."Golem" passed into Yiddish as goylem to mean someone who is clumsy or slow. In Modern Hebrew, golem is used to mean "dumb" or "helpless". The word golem occurs once in the Bible in Psalm 139:16, which uses the word גלמי (galmi my golem), meaning "my unshaped form" The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material (usually out of stone and clay) in Psalms and medieval writing. In Jewish folklore, a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being, magically created entirely from inanimate matter. Golem: Originally from Jewish folklore legends which tells of an artificially created human being that is given life by supernatural means.In our folklore we have the "Boogy-man" who was invented to discipline little unruly kids with threats of fearful things which could take place. In essence, it would appear that Yiddish has adopted certain German elements and adapted them to suit its own carefree spirit. “Compared with the procrustean rigidities of German syntax, that of Yiddish is highly flexible…” John Geipel validates this assertion when he states, The vocabulary of Yiddish is said to be 72 percent German,ġ8 percent Hebrew, 16 percent Slavic languages, 5.60 percent Romance languages, and Northeastern (Lithuanian-White Russian) Yiddish. ![]() Mideastern (Polish-Galacian-Eastern Hungarian), and Under these desirable conditions, Eastern Yiddish thrived and developed into three dialects: “Since the golden age of Jewish life in Babylonia, Jews had never felt as much at home in a country as they did now in Poland” (quote: in Joys of Yiddish pg.525). The Polish Jews welcomed the Ashkenazic Jews into their social and cultural life. While in Poland, the Ashkenazic ran into an older settlement of Polish-speaking Jews. This group of Ashkenazic (Germany) Jews received an invitation to go to Poland with the guaranteed social status Eastern Yiddish was developed by the second migratory group. Unfortunately, Western Yiddish died out in the Medieval Yiddish Period which spanned from 1500-1750.Įastern Yiddish was not touched by this movement and survived to become the prevailing form of Yiddish spoken today. Their written language is known as Western Yiddish. The first group went to southern Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and northern Italy. With the slaughter of the Jews during the First Crusade and the devastation of the Black Plague, the Ashkenazic Jews split into two migrating groups. ![]()
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