Translated from the Hebrew "Golem" means "lump". In ancient folklore legends, the clay giant was called so, which could only be revived by certain magical actions. The legend of the golem is closely related to Kabbalah, the ancient mystical teaching of Judaism. This teaching says that the essence of all things is contained in the numbers and letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Kabbalists believed that any written word possesses special sacred power, in contrast to the spoken word.
The followers of this doctrine put a deep magical meaning in the names of God. The story of the golem is also closely intertwined with the story of the creation of the world. The Bible says that the god Yahwe blinded the first man - Adam - from red clay, and then breathed life into him.
According to an ancient legend, in order to create a golem, it was necessary to sculpt from red clay a figure of a person the size of a 10-year-old child. This creature could be revived either by the name of God or by the word “Life” inscribed on his forehead. The golem could not speak and did not possess a human soul. However, it grew extremely quickly and soon could reach truly gigantic proportions. Usually the golem was used to do the hardest work. Since he could not be considered a human, he was often assigned to work on Saturday (as you know, the commandment of Judaism forbids even doing housework on this day. However, the golem was far from as harmless as it might seem at first glance., he could even trample his creator.
The Austrian writer Gustav Meirink in his novel "Golem" described the history of the clay man, who was created by a rabbi (Jewish priest.
The golem was ringing bells and doing other hard work. In order to revive the golem, the rabbi thrust a special note into his teeth, on which a secret formula was inscribed. She allegedly attracted some life-giving magical forces from the universe. Every evening the rabbi would pull this note out of the golem's mouth, and the golem would sink into a lifeless, detached state. Once the rabbi forgot to remove the magic note before evening prayer. The golem flew into a rage and rushed through the dark streets, killing everyone who came to his hand. With great difficulty, the rabbi was able to catch up with his "Work" and tore the magic note out of his mouth. The golem collapsed to the ground as if knocked down, and only a small clay figurine remained of it, which was then put on public display in the local synagogue.
In some medieval works, formulas have been preserved that can be used to create a golem. Each organ of this creature was required to cast a magic spell. And on the forehead of a clay man, the word "Emet" had to be written, which meant "truth." To destroy the golem, it was enough just to erase the first letter of this word. Remained the word "meth," meaning "dead."