GOLEM
Golem is a Jewish word meaning “unformed” or “imperfect”. In the Jewish scriptures, it is used to describe humanity at the moment before receiving the breath of life, or the human fetus as it is still just forming in the mother’s womb. In Jewish Folklore, it is also the title of multiple versions of a wonder tale, where a Rabi was able to create an animated human form out of clay and animates it to help the community in its need.
The details of the story vary, but there is a consistent arc. In order for the Rabi to create the golem, the Rabi must have complete knowledge of the cosmos, and as the maker, they must be in right standing within it. They must be in tune with the Divine, the community, and all created matter. The golem must also be designed in a way that serves a specific purpose within the community. This creation becomes animated when either the Name of God or the word emet or truth is written upon its head or on a piece of paper in its mouth. In all the tales, this wonder creature is embraced by the community, and the golem serves by increasing prosperity or acting as a protector against outside threats.
The golem works because it belongs. It belongs to the divine, the world, and the community. It has a place in the cosmos. When the golem’s job is done, or weekly on Sabbath (the holy day of rest), the word is removed, and it returns to the stuff it was made of to be reanimated when the need arises.
Only rarely does the story become a cautionary tale. If the Goem is forced to work on the Sabbath, that is, pushed past the natural rhythms of the cosmos, it grows at an alarming rate, and becomes uncontrollable, violent, and even lustful in its state of exhaustion. The Rabi must then resort to trickery or violence to destroy it.
Non-Jewish cultures have parallel tales in the characters of the Homunculus, Pygmaleon, Frankenstein’s Wretch, Pinocchio, the Android, and the Automaton. I consider that these tales have implications for the Anthropocene on a macro level, and human wholeness on a personal level. As such, they have become central to my work as my family and I reposition ourselves as creatures living creatively with a place in the cosmos, rather than as humans using technology in competition against nature.
