A golem (/ˈɡoʊləm/ GOH-ləm; Hebrew: ‎גּוֹלֶם, romanized: gōlem) is an animated anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is created entirely from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud.

The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th-century rabbi of Prague.

"[1] In modern popular culture, the word has become generalized, and any crude anthropomorphic creature devised by a sorcerer may be termed a "golem".

[3] The Mishnah uses the term to refer to someone who is unsophisticated: "Seven characteristics are in an uncultivated person, and seven in a learned one" (שבעה דברים בגולם).

In the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 38b), Adam is initially created as a golem (גולם) when his dust is "kneaded into a shapeless husk".

[a][8] During the Middle Ages, passages from the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation) were studied as a means to create and animate a golem, although little in the writings of Jewish mysticism supports this belief.

The earliest known written account of how to create a golem can be found in Sodei Razayya by Eleazar ben Judah of Worms, who lived in the late 12th and early 13th centuries.

In this example, the golem could then be deactivated by removing the aleph (א),[12] thus changing the inscription from "truth" to "death" (מת, mét, 'dead').

One source credits Solomon ibn Gabirol, who lived in the 11th century, with creating a golem,[13] possibly female, for household chores.

"[15] The oldest description of the creation of a golem by a historical figure is included in a tradition connected to Rabbi Eliyahu of Chełm (1550–1583).

[10] Rabbi Jacob Emden (d. 1776) elaborated on the story in a book published in 1748: "As an aside, I'll mention here what I heard from my father's holy mouth regarding the Golem created by his ancestor, the Gaon R. Eliyahu Ba'al Shem of blessed memory.

"[10][18] 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 out of clay from the banks of the Vltava River and brought it to life through rituals and Hebrew incantations to defend the Prague ghetto from antisemitic attacks and pogroms".

[19][20] 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.

[11] One Friday evening, Rabbi Loew forgot to remove the shem, and feared that the Golem would desecrate the Sabbath.

[20] The rabbi then managed to pull the shem from his mouth and immobilize him[11] in front of the synagogue, whereupon the golem fell in pieces.

A recent legend tells of a Nazi agent ascending to the synagogue attic, dying under suspicious circumstances thereafter.

[26][27] The general view of historians and critics is that the story of the Golem of Prague was a German literary invention of the early 19th century.

[35] Rosenberg's claim was further disseminated in Chayim Bloch's (1881–1973) The Golem: Legends of the Ghetto of Prague, English edition 1925.

[43] In one common Russian version, an older couple, whose children have left home, make a boy out of clay and dry him by their hearth.

[44] In popular culture, the term "golem" is often used to refer to any magically created human figure" rather than specifically "a humanoid formed by Kabbalistic means".