Torah on the Town: Some Jewish Sources for Golem Stories

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 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.

[There are] seven things [characteristic] in a clod/golem, and seven in a wise man:

• A wise man does not speak before one who is greater than he in wisdom,
• And does not break into his fellow’s speech;
• And is not hasty to answer;
• He asks what is relevant, and he answers to the point;
• And he speaks of the first [point] first, and of the last [point] last;
• And concerning that which he has not heard, he says: I have not heard;
• And he acknowledges the truth.

And the reverse of these [are characteristic] in a clod/golem.

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 Hashem'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.

Rabbi Yoḥanan bar Ḥanina says: Daytime is twelve hours long, and the day Adam the first man was created was divided as follows:

• In the first hour of the day, his dust was gathered.
• In the second, an undefined figure was fashioned.
• In the third, his limbs were extended.
• In the fourth, a soul was cast into him.
• In the fifth, he stood on his legs.
• In the sixth, he called the creatures by the names he gave them.
• In the seventh, Eve was paired with him.
• In the eighth, they arose to the bed two, and descended four, i.e., Cain and Abel were immediately born.
• In the ninth, he was commanded not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge.
• In the tenth, he sinned.
• In the eleventh, he was judged.
• In the twelfth, he was expelled and left the Garden of Eden, as it is stated: “But man abides not in honor; he is like the beasts that perish” (Psalms 49:13).

Adam did not abide, i.e., sleep, in a place of honor for even one night.

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 through a 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 [alone] is the true creator. If a human comes upon a creature that the Holy One created through combinations of letter backwards, that person could only leave the creature as it is.

This is the meaning of [the verse from Isaiah read through this lens] "Recount the letters in reverse," the wicked of Israel, in the same time period where miracle workers were using the Divine Name, and they knew how to combine the letters of Sefer Yetzirah to make a creation, and they were extolled for this matter, because they had this ability. And the prophet said to him, "Speak the letters of the combinations that you used to create this thing backwards, and then we will know that you are a god," meaning if you speak 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 do reverse what you made, then it would be evident that they have no reality.

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, and to appear to the world that they are a 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.

...

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, except for the capacity of speech, which he could not create in it, and later, he knew that this person was created from Sefer Yetzirah since 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."

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.... 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 son in Sheilat Yabetz, that it caused damage... And I wonder about the rabbi: a thing like this, there was 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."...