When I was younger, I had heard tell of the Golem, but only truly became acquainted with the legend thanks to the “Kaddish” episode of “The X-Files,” in which the legendary clay monster of Jewish folklore is brought forth to revenge a hate crime in modern day Brooklyn. Now, the Golem’s back on FOX and this time he’s more nebbish than nightmare. The second of the three stories that make up this year’s “Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XVII” was a bit of a monster mash, marrying the Golem story with the “Bride of Frankenstein.”
Trying to return his Krusty the Clown Alarm Clock that squirts acid, Bart stumbles upon the Golem in Krusty’s prop room. The ersatz entertainer goes on to tell Bart of the tale of Rabbi Loew, the “legendary defender of the Jewish people,” who created the Golem to defend his Jewish community. “Like Alan Dershowitz,” says Krusty, “but with a conscience.” Of course Bart can’t resist temptation, feeds the Golem a scroll with orders–the monster’s method of motivation–and forces him to do his bidding: Think Bart’s usual bag of tricks on principal Skinner.
However, Lisa feeds her own scroll to the monolithic monster, giving him the freedom of speech. And, oy, does he ever speak! Voiced by comedian Richard Lewis, Golem goes on to introduce the Simpson family to Jewish humor and its stereotypical neuroses (“I mangled and maimed 37 people, and I told a telemarketer I was busy when I wasn’t!”). They might as well have named him Woody Golem. In order to shut the monster up, Marge creates a “Girlem” out of blue Play-Doh. Girlem is, naturally, voiced by Fran Drescher, whose nasal delivery has never been more perfectly grating. And while Homer decides that they need to go back to the drawing board, as Girlem spouts bad Borscht Belt comedian jokes, Golem is smitten, and the pair head to the chuppah.
As “Treehouses of Horror” stories go, this entry was middling. While the voices of Lewis and Drescher were perfect, the story just didn’t go anywhere. But it’s nice to know that the FOX network has introduced yet another generation to an enduring Jewish folk tale.
posted November 7, 2006 at 6:07 pm
i thought it was kinda a cute story. i first learned the story of the Golem when i was about 10 years old and i watched Gargoyles/ there was an episode that had Goliath and Lisa and Bronx trying to return home from avalon (a long lasting adventure that took many episodes) and they came across a Jewish community in europe somewhere and there was alot of gang violence and mafia activity so a young jewish man was trying to bring the Golem to life again to protect the community. of course there were many hitches, but in the end the Golem wound up in the right hands again. it was very repectful of the legend and the people that it came from. i miss that show.
posted November 8, 2006 at 4:14 am
“When I was younger, I had heard tell of the Golem”? Yeah, and when I was younger, I had seen *imagines* of the Golem. Heard “tell of the Golem”? What kind of English is that? Do you really mean that you’ve heard of “hills” of Golem?>
posted March 5, 2009 at 4:36 am
Singer based his book on the original legend as passed down by Katz who just happened to be the Maharal’s son-in-law. The crimes committed by the banker, the printing house and the Golem were more than legend but in actuality historical facts. So much so that Meisel had everything confiscated by the crown upon his death as compensation for the crimes committed by his family printing house. The perpetrators, events, and repercussions are all true. Unfortunately, in the current legend as it’s written, the villains have all been hailed as heroes and the true saviors have been practically erased from the pages of history.
The reality was that in the year of 1588, the city of Prague was held in the grip of terror, victim to the murderous rampage of an inhuman monster created from the seeds of hatred and sown through religious intolerance and mortal greed. Therefore the legend of the Golem must be viewed from this perspective to appreciate it fully.
I strongly recommend reading Shadows of Trinity released by Eloquent Books http://www.eloquentbooks.com/ShadowsOfTrinity.html in order to compare the legend against the docuentation. In this story, there is an exposure of those intentionally proclaimed as its heroes to be nothing more than the notorious villains who were prepared to destroy their own world.
Shadows of the Trinity, for the most part, is a non-fiction historical novel, revealing a series of strange and world-shattering events that occurred during the years 1588 and 1589 in Prague, the Bohemian capital of the Austro-Hungary Empire. It is a social commentary on why people believe that in order to achieve something good that they must commit evil to do so.