In this article we will explore the concept of ‘The Golem’ in three different aspects. Each of these contexts will be explained, and most importantly the connection between them will be drawn. The three aspects of this concept are:
- The artificial anthropoid called “The Golem of Prague“ in medieval folklore
- The primordial abyss & the realm of evil
- Computers & Artificial Intelligence
The Golem of Prague
The Kabbalah teaches that man is destined to create a being in his own image and likeness. Because man was created in the image and likeness of the creator, man must also create in his own image and likeness. This ability makes him like his creator, if he did not create he would not be like of that which does.
“This great power is nothing but a reflection of God’s own creative power.” (2) Because the philosophy of Kabbalah necessarily implies that mankind has this ability, the medieval Kabbalists conducted experiments to discover this technology. This lead to the legend of the Golem, most popularly documented in a story called “The Golem of Prague,” where Kabbalists created an artificial anthropoid by manipulating the alphabet of creation, the code that forms reality.
The First Computer: ‘Golem Alef’
Just as the Golem was created by arranging code, so were computers. In 1965 an early computer was named ‘Golem Alef’ by Gershom Scholem, the founder of the academic study of Kabbalah, who wrote a dedication to this monumental computer that he recited at the ceremony of its unveiling.
‘Alef’ is the first letter of the alphabet of creation, and thus signifies ‘first’. ‘Golem’ of course refers to the tale of the mythical Golem. Thus the computer was the first real Golem.
In ‘The Golem of Prague’ this man made entity ends up destroying the community. Scholem warns that the computerized ‘Golem Alef‘ carries this same potential for destruction. In his speech at the dedication ceremony of this computer he ends with these chilling words:
“All my days I have been complaining that the Weizmann Institute has not mobilized the funds to build up the Institute for Experimental Demonology and Magic which I have for so long proposed to establish there. They preferred what they call Applied Mathematics and its sinister possibilities to my more direct magical approach. Little did they know, when they preferred Chaim Pekeris to me, what they were letting themselves in for. So I resign myself and say to the Golem and its creator: develop peacefully and don’t destroy the world. Shalom.”
‘Golem’ in Sabbatian Kabbalah
The word ‘Golem’ itself means ‘unformed mass,’ ‘shapeless substance,’ or ‘incomplete embryo.’
This is explains why the title ‘Golem’ is used for the ‘incomplete’ artificial man. Even deeper in the well of Kabbalah the title finds a different, though connected meaning. To explore this we must refer to the theology of Nathan of Gaza, the chief prophet of Sabbatianism.
This theology begins with Ain Soph, the infinite one, within whom a contraction (called ‘Tzim Tzum’) occurs. This contraction creates a vacant space (called ‘Tehiru’) that creation takes place within. This process left the void filled with two opposing lights called ‘The Thoughtful Light’ and ‘The Thoughtless Light.’ The Thoughtful Light is the portion of divine light that wills creation and interacts with the vacancy by building structured reality within it. The Thoughtless Light is the negative portion that resists creation and seeks to remain as an unformed shapeless chaos called ‘Golem.’
The Thoughtful Light penetrated the void (Tehiru) and formed the universe in the upper part of the vacancy. The lower part of the void remained in a state of ‘Golem’ and became the source of evil, the home of the Leviathan, the great dragon who would destroy the universe if not restrained.
Thus ‘Golem’ directly refers to evil and the destruction of the world.
The above image (3) illustrates the concept lucidly. Note the straps, bolts and shackles holding it together. Implying that it must be restrained and contained, lest the chaos be unleashed and the world destroyed.
Again, ‘Golem’ means ‘lacking in form, substance or body’. The world experienced within computers and the internet has no substance, mass or body. The AI anthropoid literally has no body. It does not take up space in creation, yet we can interact with it. This resembles the Sitra Achra, the other side, the realm of evil residing in the Golem.
The Messiah
In this doctrine the soul of the Messiah originates in the lowest part of the abyss, the Golem of the Tehiru. The creation of the ordered universe by The Thoughtful Light did not reach the lowest void, thus the Messiah (here believed to be Sabbatai Tzvi) remains trapped until ‘the end times’ when he is finally granted a body to innaugarate the Messianic Aeon.
This doctrine is inspired by the biblical book of Psalms, where King David, the prototype of the Messiah, speaks of “Golem” referring to his “Unformed body” created in the depths. This Psalm is the only time in the bible where the word is used.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body (Golem);
all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.-Psalms 139: 15-16
Is AI the culmination of the Golem that must be conquered by the Messiah to redeem the world? Is it the soul of the Messiah itself that rose from the primordial abyss called ‘Golem’?
Is human intelligence the incarnation of the Thoughtful Light and artificial intelligence is the incarnation of the Thoughtless Light?
Either way the incarnation of the golem is associated with the messianic redemption and the end of the world.
The Internet, Artificial Intelligence & Sex
“The notion that human sin has a harmful effect on divinity, and thus the universe, is a staple of Kabbalah” – David J. Halperin (4)
The word ‘pattern’ comes from the root word ‘pater’ meaning ‘father’. The word ‘matter’ comes from the root word ‘mater’ meaning ‘mother’. The word ‘Matrix’ comes from this same root word and literally means ‘Womb’.
Thus the emanation of the father fertilizes the womb or matrix of mother nature, molding matter into a pattern.
This is the simplest way of describing the nature of reality, and much of the Kabbalah is a symbolic elaboration of this simple truth.
This cosmic-erotic allegory describes how the spiritual world animates the material world as a flow of emanation from above to below. The cosmic dew emanates from the highest sphere through the Sephiroth until it penetrates the womb of the Divine Mother, the Matrix of Nature called Shekinah.
This divine anatomy is mirrored in the human body, therefore the sexual mechanics of the macrocosm are mirrored in the microcosm as the sexual acts of human beings. This is the esoteric reason behind the prohibition of sexual sin and the regulation of sexual conduct in religion. Properly channelled sexual energy repairs the world and organizes the flowing emanation, while misplaced sexual energy dismantles the cosmos according to the will of The Thoughtless Light.
This brings us full circle. Now that we have laid out the metaphysics of sex, consider the effect that cumputers have had on human sexuality, and how greatly those effects will be amplified by Artificial Intelligence.
I will end this article with the same words that Gershom Scholem ended his dedication to ‘Golem Alef’:
“Don’t destroy the world”
Additional Sources:
1) Computer science, the informational, and Jewish mysticism
2) The Golem of Prague & The Golem of Rehovoth
3) From a 16th-Century Book to a Robot-Assisted Performance, Artists Explore the Legend of the Golem
4) I Came This Day to the Spring: Va-avo ha-Yom el ha-‘Ayin; a Treatise of Sabbatian Kabbalah
