Sacred Realms - Golems

Your eyes saw my unformed limbs [Heb. golmi]; they were all recorded in Your book; in due time they were formed, to the very last one of them.

My unformed limbs - This is the primal body, which is like a small drop, and it is from the same root as in the word "vayiglom," (II Kings 2:8; see below) and words like this and related works are about a golem, which does not have a heart [i.e. mind, the seat of the intellect and the power of speech], only a body alone.

It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Meir would say: The dust that served to form Adam the first man was gathered from the entire world, as it is stated: “When I was made in secret and wrought in the lowest places of the earth, Your eyes did see my unshaped flesh” (Psalms 139:15–16), and it is written: “For the eyes of the Eternal run to and fro throughout the whole earth” (II Chronicles 16:9), indicating that this figure was formed from the whole earth, the place within the view of the Lord’s eyes.

Indeed, Rava created a man, a golem, using forces of sanctity. Rava sent his creation before Rabbi Zeira. Rabbi Zeira would speak to him but he would not reply. Rabbi Zeira said to him: You were created by one of the members of the group, one of the Sages. Return to your dust.

One must understand what was done to it, to this creature? And if it was nullified, how it was nullified? With which words?

It seems to me..in the book Shevet MiYisrael (on Psalm 28) what is this verse about in Isaiah? "Foretell what is yet to happen, That we may know that you are gods! Do anything, good or bad, That we may be awed and see." (Is 41:23).

The explanation of the matter is according to what they say in Likut Reuveini (on Parshat Breisheet) Ben Sira made a golem by combining the letters of the Aleph-Bet. And Jeremiah the prophet came and rebuked him! Ben Sira replied to him, "It was already created, so what should I do now?" Jeremiah the prophet said to him, "Set your mind to intend that all of the letter combinations that you made are reversed in the TASHRAK method, and then they will return to dust." And that is what he did.

If someone makes a creation by the combination of letters, if they reverse them, and combine the letters in other combinations to reverse the process in the TASHRAK method, the created thing would revert to dust. Indeed God is the true creator. If a human comes upon a creature that the Holy One created through combinations of letter backwards, that person could not make anything happen except leave the creature alone as it is.

This is the meaning of [the verse from Isaiah read through this lens] "Tell the letters in reverse" the wicked of Israel at the same time where miracle workers using the Divine Name, and they knew how to combine the letters of Sefer Yetzirah to use them to make a creation, and they were extolled for this matter, for this ability. And the prophet said to him, "Tell the letters of the combinations that you used to create, for this thing that were created by them, backwards, and then we will know that you are a god," meaning if you tell the letters backwards, and the created things remain as they were, and were not nullified, then we will know that you are a god, and if they did not nullify your deeds, then it would be seem that they have no reality. (Needs some clarification).

I explained this [in a book] - hinted at in the verse "But they shall fall backward, and be injured and snared and captured." (Is 28:13) Explanation: Those who create with Sefer Yetzirah in order to glorify themselves, to appear to the world that they are God, the prophets make them fall when mentioning them regarding their creations, the letter combinations that they used to create them, and to undo them, and their creations were injured and thus it was revealed "kalonam," and it was known then that they were not these gods, and they were snared and captured.

[Similar example of a verse and explanation]

Thus it seems that Rabbi Zera knew how to create a human by means of known letter combinations which are effective for creating a whole person, aside from the mental capacity of speech, which he could not create with it, and after he know that this person was created from Sefer Yetzirah after he saw that it could not speak, then it was mentioned about him the combinations that were used to reverse the creation, because he knows which combinations create a human, and since it was mentioned that the reverse combination returns it to dust, and is completely nullified, and the Gemara hid the matter, and only records "Return to your dust," but indeed it mentions the letter combinations reverse, and it could be that this hints at the word "to your dust" [complex word play].

Because the power of the soul, which is speech, he could not create, and because it had no soul, which is the ruach that ascends upwards, only the [chiyuni/other?] ruach, which is also found in animals, which descends downwards, he said to it, "Return to your dust." And some explain "from the chavraya" to mean "from the spell casters," but this cannot be, because spell casters never create people, but "from the chavraya" means from the Sages, who study Sefer Yetzira, who call each other this term...

HaGaron Moreinu HaRav Tvi Ashkenazi, z'l, in his responsa (#93 / alas), is asked the question if a human created by Sefer Yetzirah can count in the minyan, meaning to help people say kaddish, the kedushah, etc. The rabbis beings proof from this sugya, "Return to your dust. Learn from this that this does not work. See there." There are grounds to push back that the negatives outweigh the positives, that one can cause damage. And as we see what the rabbi wrote about his sone in Sheilat Yabetz, that it caused damage. See there. And I wonder about the rabbi that a thing like this, there is enough cause to ponder if a beast counts in the minyan, then this creature made by Sefer Yetzirah, which is an animal in human form, who only has the power of the lower soul from the Sefer Yetzirah, like an animal, which cannot speak, for the power of speech and knowledge come from the Eternal alone, as it is written, "And God blew into his nose the breath of life."...

AND HE BREATHED INTO HIS NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE. This alludes to the superiority of the soul, its foundation and secret, since it mentions in connection with it the full Divine Name. And the verse says that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life in order to inform us that the soul did not come to humans from the elements, as God intimated concerning the soul of moving things, nor was it an evolvement from the Separate Intelligences. Rather, it was the spirit of the Great God: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and discernment. For the one who breathes into the nostrils of another person gives into him something from his own soul. It is this which Scripture says, And the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding, since the soul is from the foundation of binah (understanding) by way of truth and faith. This corresponds to the saying of the Rabbis in the Sifre: “Vows are like swearing ‘by the life of the King:’ oaths are like swearing ‘by the King Himself.’ Although there is no proof for it in Scripture, there is an allusion to it: By the living God, and by the life of your soul.” And in the Midrash of Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah we find: “What is the meaning of the word vayinafash (and God rested)? It teaches us that the day of the Sabbath preserves all souls, for it is vayinafash” [i.e., from the word nefesh, soul]. It is from here that you will understand the expression, speaking the oath of God. The person learned in the mysteries of the Torah will understand.

Know that those who engage in research have differed concerning humanity. Some say that the human has three souls. One is the soul of growth, like that in a plant; or you may call this “the force of growth.” Then there is also a soul of movement in him, which Scripture mentioned concerning fish, animals, and everything that creeps upon the earth. The third is the rational soul. And there are some philosophers who say that this soul in man which comes from the Most High comprises these three forces while the soul is but one. This verse in its plain meaning so indicates for it states that God formed man of the dust of the ground, but he lay there lifeless like a dumb stone, and the Holy One, blessed be He, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and then man became a living soul, able to move about by virtue of this soul, just like the animals and the fish, concerning which He said: ‘Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures,’ and ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature.’ This is the meaning of the expression here, ‘lenefesh chayah’ (into a living soul) man was made, meaning man turned into a soul in which there is life, after having been as a potsherd with the potsherds of the earth. For the letter lamed in the word lenefesh indicates the opposite, [namely, that from being a potsherd he became a living soul]. And so it is in the verses, And the water shall turn ‘ledam’ (into blood) upon the dry land; And it turned ‘lenachash’ (into a snake); And He made the sea ‘lecharavah’ (into dry land).

Onkelos, however, said: “And it became a speaking soul in man.” From this it would appear that his opinion coincides with those who say that man has various souls and that this rational soul which G-d breathed into his nostrils became a speaking soul.
It appears to me that this also is the opinion of our Rabbis, as we may deduce from what they said: “Rava created a man. He sent him to Rabbi Zeira who spoke to him but he did not answer. Said Rabbi Zeira to him: ‘You are created by one of the colleagues; return to your dust.’” And in Midrash Vayikra Rabbah we find written: “Said Rabbi Avin: When a man sleeps, the body tells the neshamah (the moving spirit), and the neshamah tells the nefesh (the rational soul), and the nefesh tells the angel.” So also the verse, He gathers unto Himself his spirit and his breath, indicates, according to its plain meaning, that his spirit and breath are two distinct things.

That being so, the verse, And the Eternal G-d formed man, states the formation of movement, that man was formed into a creature capable of movement since “formation” denotes life and perception by virtue of which he is a man and not a kneaded mass of dust, just as it is said, And the Eternal G-d formed out of the ground every beast of the field, and He brought them unto the man. And after He formed him with the power of perception, He breathed into his nostrils a living soul from the Most High, this soul being in addition to the formation mentioned, and the whole man became a living soul since by virtue of this soul he understands and speaks and does all his deeds and all other souls and their powers in man are subject to it. The letter lamed in the word lenefesh is thus the lamed indicating possession, just as in the following verses: My lord, O king, ‘lecha ani’ (I am thine), and all that I have; ‘lakoneh’ (to him that bought) it, throughout his generations; ‘lecha ani’ (I am thine), save me. Or, it may be that the verse is stating that man wholly became a living soul and was transformed into another man, as all His formations were, from now on, directed towards this soul.