From the Golem-Talmud

A certain heretic came to Rav Idis and said, I want a golem—make me one now, or your Torah is false. Rav Idis said, Return on the day of Adam’s creation [i.e. Friday] and bring with you a thirdborn calf aged to the third of its maturity [i.e. the tastiest of calves]. The heretic returned with the calf and demanded his golem, but Rav Idis said, Return on the day of Adam’s creation and bring with you two candles, half a log of wine, and a tartemar of bread. The heretic returned with the candles, and the wine and the bread in their appropriate measurements, and demanded the delivery of his golem, but Rav Idis said, Bread is not merely wheat, and wine does not grow on the vine [i.e. to make a golem requires time and effort]. Return on the day of Adam’s creation and bring with you your youngest daughter to become my bride. The heretic returned with his youngest daughter and said, I have given you everything you have asked for—a calf, the candles, the wine, the bread, and now I give you the choicest of my loins, my youngest and most beautiful, and yet still I have no golem. What else must I do, or will you finally admit that you cannot make me a golem and so your Torah is false? Rav Idis said, You want a golem? Return on the day of the creation of the earth [i.e. Tuesday, the most auspicious day to be married] and bring with you a mirror.

Rav Yochanan said, in the name of Rav Meir, A golem is what you control. But Rav Yishmael, son of Rav Yose disagreed, A golem is who you control. The Gemara asks, Which is it? [i.e. If what, then a golem is inanimate. If who, then a golem is, or can be, animate.] The Gemara answers, by citing a Baraisa, "As Adam was made of dust, so too are we all made of dust, and to dust shall we return. God exhales to bring us life, and inhales to take life away again." Rav Idis said, This means that all men are golems. Rabban Gamliel said, Just because all men are golems, does not mean that all golems are men. Rav Idis agreed and said, Most of them are women.

According to Rav Zeira according to Rava, four things are required to make a golem: an indelible marker, a scissors, a cloth, a woman. Here is what to do: Take the woman, position her standing, and drape the cloth over her head, ensuring that it covers her body completely, unto the extremities of her limbs. Now, using the scissors cut a hole for her face. Finally, using the marker write the word sharmuta [whore] atop the swath of cloth that covers her forehead. Rav Idis said, The hole must be cut just for the eyes. Rav Yochanan said, No holes at all, no scissors required. Rav Yishmael, the son of Rav Yose said, The word on her forehead must be zawjati [my wife] or ukhti [my sister] or ami [my mother], and must be written in blood, no marker required. Once, a certain launderer [i.e. swindler] came to Rav Meir and asked, Can a woman make a golem out of another woman? Can she make a golem out of herself? Rav Meir answered, Yes and yes, but if she does so it is only because she has been forced at the point of a dusty rib [i.e. only because she has been forced by a man].

Talmud, Sanhedrin 65c, trans. Joshua Cohen

Joshua Cohen is an American writer. He is a regular contributor for Harper’s Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, and The London Review of Books. From 2001 until 2007 he was correspondant for the Jewish Daily Forward’s English edition, based in Berlin. His latest novel Book of Numbers was published in 2015.