The Golem and Artificial Intelligence
- Rabbi Skorka
- 11 minutes ago
- 4 min read
There is a legend, deeply rooted in Jewish folklore, about a creature built by Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel of Prague (1525–1609), known in rabbinic literature by the acronym, Maharal (for Moreinu ha-Rav Loew, "Our Teacher, Rabbi Loew). His knowledge of the rabbinic sources was vast, as was his grasp of mathematics, philosophy, and astronomy (there were deep ties of friendship between him and the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe). However, paradoxically, the Maharal's fame is due more to the fact that he was credited with the creation of a clay “Golem” than to his profound writings. This Hebrew word, which only appears in the Bible in Psalm 139:16, refers to unformed or raw matter. According to a rabbinic exegesis (Bereshit Rabbah, Ed. Vilna, Parashat Bereshit, 8:1; b. Sanhedrin 38b) on that psalm verse, Golem must be understood as a primordial state of man in the process of his creation by God.
The legend recounts that the Maharal, to defend his coreligionists from ongoing persecution, created a Golem out of mud, placed a piece of paper in its mouth on which the ineffable name of God was written. He then inscribed the word Emet (truth, in Hebrew) on its forehead, which brought the creature to life. However, one day, the Golem escaped the Rabbi's control. The Rabbi pursued it and, after much effort, managed to remove the paper from its mouth and erase the first letter of emet from its forehead (leaving the word met, which means dead), causing it to disintegrate and turn back into mud. The legend ends by saying that the remains of the Golem are located in the attic of the Altneuschul synagogue in Prague, far from the sight of any mortal.
The Golem is emblematic of the dangers lurking for humanity from technological advances placed in the hands of unscrupulous leaders. The trope of creating living beings from certain substances and magical formulas has been found in the cultures of many peoples since antiquity. The Talmud tells us: "Raba once created a man (it refers to a golem) and sent him to Rabbi Zeira (3rd -4th century C.E.). The latter spoke with him, but since he did not answer, he told him: You surely were created by one of the members of the group (of the Sages). Return to your dust" (b. Sanhedrin 65b).
In the present day, we see the development of cybernetic devices that, while not possessing humanoid features, are capable of competing with humans in terms of learning and of reproducing themselves. The person who coined the term “cybernetics” to designate this new branch of science was one of its founders, Norbert Wiener. He foresaw its development in a book he published in 1964 under the title God & Golem, Inc. In it, Wiener anticipated the use of cybernetics to create prosthetics that could interact electronically with the human nervous system. He also envisaged highly accurate translation machines and electronic medical diagnostic instruments, and more. Many of his predictions are today already a reality or in advanced stages of development.
Wiener offered some debatable comments about God in his book. But the following passages strike me as most eloquent:
For whether we believe or not in God and his greater glory, not all things are equally permitted to us. Contrary to the late Mr. Adolf Hitler, we have not yet arrived at that pinnacle of sublime moral indifference which puts us beyond Good and Evil. And just so long as we retain one trace of ethical discrimination, the use of powerful abilities for vile purposes will constitute the full moral equivalent of Sorcery and Simony. (M.I.T. Press, 1966, p.52)
It is to the body politic that many considerations of ethics must apply, and to that part of religion which is essentially a paraphrase of ethics. (p.93)
No, the future offers very little hope for those who expect that our new mechanical slaves will offer us a world in which we may rest from thinking. Help us they may, but at the cost of supreme demands upon our honesty and our intelligence. The world of the future will be an ever more demanding struggle against the limitations of our intelligence, not a comfortable hammock in which we can lie down to be waited upon by our robot slaves. (p. 69)
It sometimes seems that the specter of the old Golem of Prague is at our backs, warning us about our dangerous actions.
Jorge Luis Borges, the renowned Argentinean writer who was fascinated by Hebrew mysticism, composed a poem in 1959 called, "The Golem". In its final stanza, he writes:
In the hour of anguish and vague light, / He would fix his eyes upon his Golem. / Who will tell us the things God felt, / As He looked at His rabbi in Prague?
Abraham Skorka, Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
Published in the Italian L'Osservatore Romano on page 8. Here is the link to the Italian version: https://www.osservatoreromano.va/it/news/2026-08/quo-179/dal-mito-del-golem-alla-cibernetica.html
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