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Sorry about the picture, it was taken with my cellphone.

Here's the deal: I started reading the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and I learned that there was this fable of a Golem in Jewish history. A Golem is some kind of clay superhero man that fought for the Jews in Prague.

I never knew this before, and I know a few things! Where have I been?

So here I found this children's book today.
It has a shiny medal on it, a caldecott award!

Does anyone have any comments or further info on this myth? It sure is interesting!

When I was living in Prague, I frequently visited the grave of Rabbi Low, the creator of the Prague Golem, and, as tradition states, I, like many thousands of others, left a wish written on a small piece of paper scrumpled up on his tomb. Tradition states that if you tell no one the content of your wish, it will come true. (The spirits there must be polyglot!) As I left the cemetery, ravens gathered on the walls. It was as if the spirits of the dead were discussing the wishes of the living. Incidentally, my wish came true.
As for the Golem itself, the problem with it was that it took people's commands too literally, and that could lead to disaster, even when its avowed aim was to protect the Jews of Prague. The Golem legend inspired Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and therefore all the Hollywood movies based on that. You can read several very interesting retelling of the legends in books available only in the Czech Republic which have been translated into English. Also, Gustav Meyrink wrote a classic expressionist novel based on the legend of the Golem, though it is very, very dark; and several classic movies have been made about the legend.