In Jewish folklore, a golem ( /ˈɡoʊləm/ GOH-ləm; Hebrew: גולם) is an animated anthropomorphic being, created entirely from inanimate matter. The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material in Psalms and medieval writing.
The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th century chief rabbi of Prague.
The word golem occurs once in the Bible in Psalm 139:16, which uses the word גלמי, meaning "my unshaped form". The Mishnah uses the term for an uncultivated person: "Seven characteristics are in an uncultivated person, and seven in a learned one", (שבעה דברים בגולם) Pirkei Avos 5:6 in the Hebrew text (English translations vary). In modern Hebrew golem is used to mean "dumb" or "helpless". Similarly, it is often used today as a metaphor for a brainless lunk or entity who serves man under controlled conditions but is hostile to him and others.[citation needed] "Golem" passed into Yiddish as goylem to mean someone who is clumsy or slow.[citation needed]
The earliest stories of golems date to early Judaism. In the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 38b), Adam was initially created as a golem (גולם) when his dust was "kneaded into a shapeless husk". Like Adam, all golems are created from mud. They were a creation of those who were very holy and close to God. A very holy person was one who strove to approach God, and in that pursuit would gain some of God's wisdom and power. One of these powers was the creation of life. However, no matter how holy a person became, a being created by that person would be but a shadow of one created by God.
Sam Green is a San Francisco and New York-based documentary filmmaker. His 2004 film The Weather Underground was nominated for an Academy Award, broadcast nationally on PBS, and included in the Whitney Biennial.
Green was raised in East Lansing, Michigan and is a graduate of East Lansing High School. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He received his master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied documentary with acclaimed filmmaker Marlon Riggs. He currently teaches film and video at the San Francisco Art Institute and the University of San Francisco.
Green's feature-length documentary film The Weather Underground focused on the group of young radicals of the same name, who during the late 1960s and '70s attempted to violently overthrow the United States government. The film premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for a 2003 Academy Award for Documentary Feature category. The award winning film interweaves extensive archival material with modern-day interviews to explore the story of the Weather Underground. The New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell called the documentary a "terrifically smart and solid piece of film-making."
I know, I know, from the assembly line
I know, I know, the three laws of my
type
I was not made to smile
I was not built to lie
I ask my positron self
why am I born apart
we work alone inside the big dome
there's no reason for my eyes to glow
every night, every morning
every day
I know, I know, all data and functions
I know, I know, the power of the sun
I don't care what I am
I am the never man
I ask my kindred spirit
why do I dream of kites
whatever to serve my master
anything to save my master
I know, I know, the passage of my time
Concentraited powers - mystical formulas
Seven burning candles - hexagonal star
An old and yellowed parchment - full of words and numbers
Limbs of dead material - start to move unsure
A mongolic face - muscles filled with life
A servant to the rabbi - immortality
Golem Humunculus
Golem Eternal life
Golem Unpredictable
Golem Obedient
Jewish myth - a friend
An old tale - a protector
But sometimes - agressive
Myth? Who knows?
He's working hard - not resting
But his eyes spread coldness
Myth? Who knows?
Feelings are not extant, weakness of the mortal
Now that I've got you
Where i always wanted you to be
Fallen from your throne
There will be no heaven for you
What can i do
What will i do
As you crawl in front of me
Shot point blank in your knees
You will never rise again
See the world you used to see
I haunt you in the dreams you have
I turn your future black
And i will waste every inch of the way you walk
Shattered dreams
Eye for an eye
Death before dishonour
Regret the day i was born
Mystic prayers and ancient spells
Transcending beyond the seven spheres
Upon wings of Merkava
Overshadowing of God's throne
Divine automation
Effigies awake to exist
I summon thee as thy protector
I command thou as my slave
From dust of clay the giant's spawned
Supernatural in its form
Robotic strength of many men
Destruction in the name of god
Morphed into a tyrant intoxicated with arrogance
Burning with carnal desires
Ravaging the daughters of man
Ritual murder
Calamity and power lust
Soulless conqueror
The saved are now enslaved!
Blood accusations! Call forth thy mystic man
"Unmake" the tyrant Golem
Return his body into dust
Havoc and devastation
Ravaged lands of scattered prey
Fatal spells of giganticide
The Golem unexists again
Withered flowers hem my toilsome way
The armies of spring defeated long ago
Where hopeful green once covered the land
Now decay and death rule everywhere
Shaggy crows, plaguing the soil, await the kingdom of frost
Grey and dirty the day laments, and a dust-hidden sunset blurs the sky
Through valleys of shadow, over hills of forlorn beauty
I drive my feet to a tower, where the night shall bring oblivion
(lead Hilbert)
The highest mountains provoking
Black stone forms a needle
Piercing the clouds at the horizon
It marks my quests solution
Reaching the massive gate, darkness takes the land
With the moon racing the heavens, behind wild and hoary fog
Looking down from the spire
I see the world beneath my feet
In the safety of this place
My present to mankind reveals
All human eager firestorms, the foul stench of lost battles
Vast pains and bitter grief, for only one now to consume
I enlighten the fields below, thunder roars throughout the plane
Gathering the ancient demons, sorrows last tunes now begin
Calling the mighty forces
Of this buildings secret powers
A breach to the inner core
Opens as a voracious door
(lead Hilbert)
With a black holes gravity
It inhales the outer tragedy
Gateways to exterminate
What we've done in our hate
My energy exhausted
My mind totally frosted
With all my memories erased
Thinking green through shady mists
An unreal walk on the burial grounds
Eyes within eyes in the complex plane
Woven into infinity
A green leaf falling
Down to my path
Removing the substance
Of this time and space
Entering this silent room
I reach the fissures source
A face without emotion
Origin of this paradox
Mind-control denied
By the second face inside
Misguided to confusion
By the master of illusion
(lead Hilbert)
Stiffened beyond carnality
He guards the world within
Blinded by the gods' betrayal
The circles breaking draws near
Inside, outside, perpetually exchanged
Bizarre devices, irrationally applied
By my soulside journeys winding
Now the time has come for destiny to steer my way
Now the time has come to welcome this stillborn day
A last faint doubt escapes into the first sunlights smile
Now I leave this earthly plane for things come to an end
The journey strains but with confidence these oceans I sail
Reaching your blooming realm again, recover and rejoice
My coming awaited I cross a timeless green
The vision well prepared, by gravity enslaved
(lead - Mai)
I draw near to our place; a slight scent loads the air
My memories released, your presence's getting real
Fresh like a first kiss your beauty veils the sky
And your majestic wings fill my heart with pride
One knowing look suffices though aeons went by
Mounting your back, I force my melancholy aside
I smell your desire but for your forgiveness I long
Now as we unite nothing's left to stop the tempest
Now the time has come to carry the final burden
To the outermost spheres we soar, empty shadows we pass
In the continuums disrupted core, the unavoidable we start
Backwards through the ages, we enkindle a deadly flame
The ultimate thunderstorm we unleash among the doomed
Like giant schematic drawings civilisations lie ahead
But loyal to our duty, their fate we must not fear
By my will I created and by my will now I erase
By our work, so skilful, history becomes undone
Perfection restoring, in silence worlds we drown
With your lethal breaths help to harmony constrained
(lead - Hilbert)
The black hole of our rage melts down time itself
Reconciling with the universe, the equilibrium we set
I look back into the dark, all movements paralysed
The mischief of evolution in a single point confined
The eternal night falls, for salvation I can't hope
Your tragic reward, chapters now forever closed
Beyond your passion, your grief remains my curse
While quiet loneliness guides us through the void
Out of the liquid chaos I awake
Sensitive to the sweet taste of your deaths
From feeling to feeling I borrow my existence
And work at my journeys endlessness
Passing the thresholds
Of your weak minds
I easily take over
Your flesh, so snug
The pains of dying
I sensually enjoy
Your cerebral cortex
Is my rebirths playground
Freed from your will
My desires fulfil
Exploiting your misery
I live on your biology
(lead Hilbert)
(lead Mai)
Now I take command
You remain paralysed
Infested with dreams
Your senses are mine
This eager breeding mankind
A fertile soil for my ambitions
To choose my lethal destiny
A harsh storm approaches, the eastern darkness frays
Clouds of ammoniac crystals roar in its ruthless way
A grim lightning flashes, the blood-red horizon rebels
Answering thunders resound over the mountains shelves
Survival instincts lead me to caves of frozen water
Damping the mighty forces of sodium explosions
Where ice and liquid gases protect my sturdy life
Nourishing the engines, feeding my primitive flesh
(lead Mai)
(lead Hilbert)
From far above, securely locked
The master fades but tempts my will
Defined thinking, sub harmonically amplified
By falsifying reality he longs to take control
Survival well done, my thoughts refocused
As a vessel for the weak I may be abused
(lead Mai)
destined to be a tool of a fragile alien mind
Messages intrude like dreams of unseen planes
Their lovely sounds strangely take away my fear
The vision changes, another presence I do feel
Where instincts worked its strength shall heal
(lead Mai)
(lead Hilbert)
From far above, securely locked
The master steers and guards my will
My inner eye resolved, the ancient rites forgotten
Stars over stars and nothing but stars
A moonless empty space
The sunlight hidden behind the sea
In my blooming gardens grace
Looking at this alien sky I miss the silver light
The days work's done, I await the silent night
The billions I left behind
Now scattered among the enemy
My brothers in the circle
Are now just fading memories
Towards their descendants I guide my inner eye
Deploring the betrayal of the primeval blood ties
(lead Hilbert)
I'm more now than you ever were
Ascended from our sacred unity
Torn apart by my supremacy
And bitter sadness floods my heart
I'll lead you to my dimension
Gathered like unique flowers
In my grid of secret powers
Embrace me, devour me
With your cold kiss of death
Release me, destroy me
With your lethal innocence
Look down on me, tempt me
Show your sweetest mockery
Love me, play with me
And drain all my life away
Send me to your underworld
Where illusions turn to pain
Where all longing is exhaled
And brings forth fruits of hate
Star-born
Star-child
Star-drowned
Then tease me to eternity
While fleshless curses arise
So beautiful in your disdain
You crush all lust to dust
(lead Hilbert)
Defile the fertile ground
With my unfolded heart
Examine its last convulsions
And bath in your delight
No prospects of redemption
My consciousness erased
This fatally bleeding muscle
Subject to your siren song
Absorb its exhausted fluids
Taste from the sacred juices
Gain strength by their passion
And suffer your last obsession
Star-born
Star-child
An eternity around the afterglow
Of a mighty stars remains
Weightlessly the ellipse is mastered
In an unconscious awakening
Huge, with senses coming to life
In this hostile gamma-burned void
Unremembered and vaguely felt
By the pulse of the lava-heart
A giant deformation of stone
The lifeless nature unhinged
Aware of alien movements
And ready to seal their doom
Malicious seductions of fire
Are collecting greedy desires
To saturate the hungry mind
With the agony of aspirations
(lead - Hilbert)
Strange logic applied
Weird thoughts collide
This rocky worlds degeneration
An evolutionary abbreviation
(lead - Hilbert)
(lead - Mai)
Bound to the revolution
In confined constitution
Feeling an omnipotent drifting
The laws of physics shifting
The unwritten chapters ahead
Where futures branches are spread
Within the life-span of the universe
Is time for mental powers to disperse
An eternity around the afterglow
Of a mighty stars remains
Weightlessly the ellipse is mastered
In an unconscious awakening
Huge, with senses coming to life
In this hostile gamma-burned void
Unremembered and vaguely felt
By the pulse of the lava-heart
A giant deformation of stone
The lifeless nature unhinged
Aware of alien movements
And ready to seal their doom
Malicious seductions of fire
Are collecting greedy desires
To saturate the hungry mind
With the agony of aspirations
(lead Hilbert)
Strange logic applied
Weird thoughts collide
This rocky worlds degeneration
An evolutionary abbreviation
(lead Hilbert)
(lead Mai)
Bound to the revolution
In confined constitution
Feeling an omnipotent drifting
The laws of physics shifting
The unwritten chapters ahead
Where futures branches are spread
Within the life-span of the universe
Huge and menacing you lie ahead
No path you did reveal to me
And fate drives me to your peak
Where my doom shall be concealed
(lead Hilbert)
Darkness hides your traps
And unnumbered cliffs wait
To be my icy tombstones
Hidden, when at last I failed
(lead Mai)
The hopeful morning far away
A misty moon betrays my yearn
Harsh frost benumbs my limbs
As weakness fills my universe
All my effort, fruitless and cursed
While the tearless heavens burst
Thus crushed to the snowy ground
And in a last vision I am drowned
My chest's corroding, the white's bloodstained
The rotten life-stream escapes from my flesh
And having innocence denied the pain amplifies
That the sweet taste of suffering won't be soiled
(lead Hilbert)
A bloodily devoured corpse I'll be soon
Unremembered through this silent tune
A carnal manifest against salvation
For endless years and years
Now I roam the outer void
And the boring same old games
Are meaninglessly repeated
All my wealth and energy
Insufficient substitutes for a life
That I exchanged for a desire
That never will be satisfied
(lead Mai)
I spin my net, in a sinister black
So monstrous, my degeneration
Where the careless gain sorrow
And all their greed brings pain
Invisible for the ungifted
And doomed by my darkness
I take their material legacy
And defile their fragile mortality
Solitude feeds my fatal lust
Vast deadly traps are hidden
Raped by the light of the rose
I teach them in devotion
All these harmless victims
Their fight without prospects
Finalizing my supremacy
And a welcome to my isolation
Then raise my pride
My insidious bride
Narcotising my emptiness
By a senseless eagerness
And the hungry teeth of time devour
What I used to be in ancient past
And decades flow into the void