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Three Golems I Have Known

JL;DR SUMMARY The concept of the golem in Jewish tradition offers a potent metaphor for exploring boundaries between humanity, intelligence, and technology. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

TalmudArtificial IntelligenceGolemCultural IdentityI.L. PeretzTechnologyCreationRabbinic LiteratureMythologyDivine Imitation

Places mentioned

Israel
"The JPS 1985 translation has Your eyes saw my unformed limbs; they were all recorded in your book."
Chelm, Odeshchyna, Ukraine
"concerning my grandfather, the Gaon, our master and teacher, Rabbi Elijah, chief rabbi of the holy community of Chelm"
Prague, Prague, Hlavní mešto, Czechia
"ends his tale with the portrait of the figure lying concealed in the uppermost part of the synagogue of Prague, covered with cobwebs that have been spun from wall to wall to encase the whole arcade so that it should be hidden from all human eyes."

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Cairo Item ID 77020
Cairo Source ID 29
Retrieved 2026-03-06 05:32:02 UTC
Curated 2026-03-06 08:30:43 UTC