Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

Like a lot of people I was familiar with the basic concept and story of the Golem. After reading though Chayim Bloch’s “The Golem: Mystical tales from the Ghetto of Prague” I have a much deeper appreciation of where it came from and what it means. Reading the five introductory writings helped in the process too. First we have a two page long introduction by Paul M. Allen from 1971. It mentions later literary expression of the Golem and provides to alternative analysis: Golem as a symbol for the collective soul of (the Jewish) people and/or Golem as the ‘double’ of its creator. He also posits the Golem as someone who is” demanding to be released from his servitude by us who have shaped him to the thing he is.” Next we have an untitled, unsigned four page piece about the birth of the first edition of the book. How a 1917 German edition was welcomed in 1923-24 in New York. It also contains a few words attempting to discover the authenticity of the story with the help of literary detective work. The third piece in the book was written by Harry Schneiderman about “Chayim Bloch, an interpreter of the East to the West; the story of Chayim Bloch who has created a sensation in Literary Europa [sic!].” It is worth knowing more about the life of the person who revitalized (and to some extent reinterpreted) the story for modern use. Fourth, we have four pages of literary analysis, titled, “Prefatory” by Hans Ludwig Held. Finally we have the author’s seven page introduction itself. Bloch talks about the sources he used (Hebrew manuscripts) and yet another interpretation of the possible hidden meaning s of the legendary figure.

Then we finally arrive to the bulk of the book: 33 individual chapters, almost all of them containing a single story related to the Golem, from the birth of Judah Loew to his death. A better title for the book,–if we believe that titles should reflect the contents of books–would be Rabbi Judah Loew, because he stories convey his virtues, powers, wisdom and passion. The Golem doesn’t even appear in about fourth of the chapters. This provides a much wider context (in terms of period of time, geography and social relations) than most Golem books that are strictly focusing on the trouble he was called to solve for and his dissolution. Here we see the Golem working in an extended period of time, used by his master over decades for the protection of Prague Jews both communally and individually. I won’t detail these narratives, but they really are where the action is happening and the learning for our age derives from. They display a fascinating mixture of personal wit, historical anecdotes, societal observations, and mystical words and deeds. I will surely need to reread them to get a comprehensive understanding, as for a first reading I just followed them as the captivating tales they were.

I cannot stop wondering what the story and its layers of meanings signify for the publisher. The volume was published by Steinerboooks, which was established to serve the work of Rudolph Steiner and anthroposophy. The Golem was published in their “spiritual Sciences” paperback series, along with such titles as From Sphinx to Christ, Ancient mysteries of Greece, Rognarok, Atlantis, Vril, Tarot … In other words the esoteric nature of these topics must have some an important connection to anthroposophy. But I believe this connection is rather different than the Golem story plays within Jewish context. I cannot indulge in a thorough comparison because I am not familiar enough with anthroposophy.