Editing Golem (section)

===Sources of the Prague narrative===
The general view of historians and critics is that the story of the Golem of Prague was a German literary invention of the early 19th century. According to John Neubauer, the first writers on the Prague Golem were:
* 1837: [[Berthold Auerbach]], ''Spinoza''
* 1841: Gustav Philippson, ''Der Golam, eine Legende''
* 1841: Franz Klutschak, ''Der Golam des Rabbi Löw''
* 1842: Adam Tendlau ''Der Golem des Hoch-Rabbi-Löw''
* 1847: Leopold Weisel, ''Der Golem''<ref name="neubauer" />

A few slightly earlier examples are known, in 1834<ref>{{cite book |last1=Glasenapp |first1=Gabriele von |editor1-last=Haug |editor1-first=Christine |editor2-last=Mayer |editor2-first=Franziska |editor3-last=Podewski |editor3-first=Madleen |title=Populäres Judentum: Medien, Debatten, Lesestoffe |date=2 June 2009 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=9783484971042 |page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qPzRvJgrMkEC&pg=PA31 |language=de |access-date=16 September 2018 |archive-date=3 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203234723/https://books.google.com/books?id=qPzRvJgrMkEC&pg=PA31 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Der jüdische Gil Blas |url=http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/-502/6 |language=de |quote=der Golam... des Rabbi Liwa, vom Volke der hohe Rabbi Löw genannt |access-date=16 September 2018 |archive-date=27 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927064901/http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/-502/6 |url-status=live }}</ref> and 1836.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frankl |first1=L. A. |author-link1=Ludwig August von Frankl |editor1-last=Kaltenbaeck |editor1-first=Johann Paul |title=Oesterreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichts- und Staatskunde |date=1836 |publisher=Beck |page=368 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W7ZeAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA368 |language=de |access-date=16 September 2018 |archive-date=16 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180916120809/https://books.google.com/books?id=W7ZeAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA368 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Frankl |first1=L. A. |editor1-last=Bahrgang |editor1-first=Bweiter |title=Defterreichilche Beitfchrift |date=1836 |publisher=Oxford University |page=368 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FzwTAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA368 |language=de |access-date=16 September 2018 |archive-date=3 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203231832/https://books.google.com/books?id=FzwTAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA368 |url-status=live }}</ref>

All of these early accounts of the Golem of Prague are in German by Jewish writers. They are suggested to have emerged as part of a Jewish [[folklore]] movement parallel with the contemporary German folklore movement.<ref name="gelbin" />

The origins of the story have been obscured by attempts to exaggerate its age and to pretend that it dates from the time of the Maharal. [[Rabbi Yehudah Yudel Rosenberg|Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg]] (1859–1935)<ref name="Kieval">[[Hillel J. Kieval|Kieval, Hillel J.]] [http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Golem_Legend "Golem Legend"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170825022936/http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Golem_Legend |date=25 August 2017 }} ''The YIVO Encyclopedia''. 24 August 2017.</ref> of [[Tarłów]], before moving to Canada where he became one of its most prominent rabbis, is said to have originated the idea that the narrative dates from the time of the Maharal. Rosenberg published ''Nifl'os Maharal'' (''Wonders of Maharal'') ([[Piotrków Trybunalski|Piotrków]], 1909),<ref name="Kieval" /> which purported to be an eyewitness account by the Maharal's son-in-law, who had helped to create the Golem.

Rosenberg claimed that the book was based upon a manuscript that he found in the main library in Metz. ''Wonders of Maharal'' "is generally recognized in academic circles to be a literary hoax".<ref name="idel" /><ref name="tradition">[http://traditionarchive.org/news/originals/Volume%2036/No.%201/The%20Adventure%20of%20the.pdf Leiman, S.Z., " The Adventure of the Maharal of Prague in London: R. Yudl Rosenberg and The Golem of Prague"], {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170917075811/http://traditionarchive.org/news/originals/Volume%2036/No.%201/The%20Adventure%20of%20the.pdf |date=17 September 2017 }} ''Tradition'', 36:1, 2002</ref><ref>Sherwin, Byron L. (1985) ''The Golem Legend: Origins and Implications''. New York: University Press of America</ref> [[Gershom Sholem]] observed that the manuscript "contains not ancient legends, but modern fiction".<ref>Sholem, G., ''Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'', Schocken, 1961</ref> Rosenberg's claim was further disseminated in Chayim Bloch's (1881–1973) ''The Golem: Legends of the Ghetto of Prague'', English edition 1925.

The ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' of 1906 cites the historical work ''Zemach David'' by [[David Gans]], a disciple of the Maharal, published in 1592.<ref name="jewishencyclopedia">[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=334&letter=G&search=golem#1137 GOLEM] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125023845/https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6777-golem#1137 |date=25 January 2022 }}. ''Jewish Encyclopedia''. Retrieved on 23 September 2011.</ref><ref>[http://www.epa.hu/01400/01462/00004/pdf/1986_2_296-298.pdf HUNGARIAN STUDIES 2. No. 2. Nemzetközi Magyar Filológiai Társaság. Akadémiai Kiadó Budapest [1986&#93;] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510130210/http://www.epa.hu/01400/01462/00004/pdf/1986_2_296-298.pdf |date=10 May 2013}}. (PDF). Retrieved on 23 September 2011.</ref> In it, Gans writes of an audience between the Maharal and Rudolph II: "Our lord the emperor&nbsp;... Rudolph&nbsp;... sent for and called upon our master Rabbi Low ben Bezalel and received him with a welcome and merry expression, and spoke to him face to face, as one would to a friend. The nature and quality of their words are mysterious, sealed, and hidden."<ref>Gans, D., ''Zemach David'', ed. M.Breuer, Jerusalem, 1983, p.145, cited [http://www.rabbiyehudahyudelrosenberg.com/ Rabbi Yehudah Yudel Rosenberg and the Maharal's Golem] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923154135/http://www.rabbiyehudahyudelrosenberg.com/ |date=23 September 2009 }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=August 2017}}

But it has been said of this passage, "Even when [the Maharal is] eulogized, whether in David Gans' ''Zemach David'' or on his epitaph&nbsp;..., not a word is said about the creation of a golem. No Hebrew work published in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries (even in Prague) is aware that the Maharal created a golem."<ref name="neubauer">Neubauer, J., [https://books.google.com/books?id=YINYl4iv4ecC&q=golem&pg=PA303 "How did the Golem get to Prague?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160614161741/https://books.google.com/books?id=YINYl4iv4ecC&pg=PA303&lpg=PA303&dq=gustav+philippson+the+Golem&source=bl&ots=euPUiGZv7x&sig=pxjaHEMbgMEPZsW6wk9knCLhrTw&hl=en&ei=Ls9tTpXgD8i3hAf85JiDDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=golem&f=false|date=14 June 2016}}, in Cornis-Pope, M., and Neubauer, J. ''History of The Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe'', John Benjamins, 2010, see also: Dekel E., Gurley D.E., "How Did Golem \came to Prague", JQR, Vol. 103, No. 2 (Spring 2013), pp. 241–258 [https://jqr.pennpress.org/media/23891/JQRnewArticle.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809114258/http://jqr.pennpress.org/media/23891/JQRnewArticle.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140602100921/http://jqr.pennpress.org/media/23891/JQRnewArticle.pdf|archive-date=2014-06-02|url-status=live|date=9 August 2017}}</ref> Furthermore, the Maharal himself did not refer to the Golem in his writings.<ref name="leiman" /> Rabbi Yedidiah Tiah Weil (1721–1805), a Prague resident, who described the creation of golems, including those created by Rabbis [[Avigdor Kara]] of Prague (died 1439) and Eliyahu of Chelm, did not mention the Maharal. Rabbi Meir Perils' biography of the Maharal<ref name="megilasYuchsin">{{cite book|author=Meir Perels|title=Megilas Yuchsin|year=1718|location=[[Prague]]|oclc=122864700}}</ref> published in 1718 does not mention a golem.<ref name="gelbin" /><ref name="leiman" />