Life by Rabbi Judah Loew to protect the Jewish community. The best known version of the story takes place in the city of Pragueĭuring a time of oppression and pogroms. It often is a story of unintended effects. Human beings trying to play God, of trying to harness power that isīeyond our control. The story of the golem, then, often is a story of hubris, of Turns on its creator, sometimes because it follows instructions too In some versions it cannot speak-speech is theĭefining characteristic of our species-while in others eventually it Inscriptions as holy, for example, the Torah and mezuzahs. Reflects the idea of the Hebrew alphabet as sacred, and certain The golem can be deactivated by erasing the first letter, theĪleph, leaving the Hebrew word met, meaning death. The written word-it may be a series of letters in the Hebrew alphabet or A golem typically is brought to life not by breath or speech, but by In Hebrew, the wordsĭenoting breath and wind also mean spirit and soul breath is intimatelyĪssociated with life itself, and also with speech. In the story ofĬreation, God breathes life into Adam’s body. Genesis of God creating Adam’s body out of clay. Typically is made out of clay, following the description in the Book of The gist of it is a storyĪbout a human being creating an artificial being. Want to point to one Jewish legend that has enormous fantasy Remains to be seen-I imagine that someday there will be-for now I do While the question of whether there ever will be a Jewish Chronicles of Narnia or Game of Thrones Writers, not the least of them Isaac Asimov, the most prolific writer NoĪccident, then, that there have been a great many Jewish science-fiction ![]() Progress in politics following progress in science and technology. For our people, modernity represented the moment ofĮmancipation and acceptance as citizens in newly formed republics, with System and often victimized by Crusaders claiming to be on a missionįrom God. Image of the medieval period as a time of knights in shining armorįollowing a code of chivalry, Jews were shut out from this aristocratic Speculates on the reasons for our lack of representation in this area, Modern literature have Jews contributed so little.” There are only a handful of minor ones of any note. ![]() He “cannot think of a single major fantasy writer who is Jewish, and Which Jewish practitioners are strikingly rare.” He goes on to note that ![]() Represents “an entire literary genre-perhaps the only such genre-in Weingrad poses that question, noting that fantasy literature The recent controversy over the final season of the HBO series Game of Thrones brings to mind the essay by Michael Weingrad published in the Spring 2010 issue of the Jewish Review of Books: “Why There is No Jewish Narnia.” In any event, here it is now here on Blog Time Passing: Can you remember back that far, when the Game of Thrones series had just wrapped up in a dissatisfying manner? "Going Golem" was the title I gave to this op-ed, which was published on June 14th in the Jewish Standard under the title, Going Golem… Or Moving the Letters Around.
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