The Golem: A Jewish Fairy Tale of Language, Identity, and Responsibility

The Golem, a famous Jewish fairy tale, involves an animate being, created from inanimate matter to protect a community, who becomes a threat to that community. The story raises a host of philosophical questions: the relationship of language to human understanding, perception, and identity; what it means to be a human being; what moral principles should constrain technological advancement; and the potential effects of technological innovation on our lives and identities. The Golem is a warning about human hubris. Human intellectual and communicative powers are at the core of human identity, but our enormous inventive capabilities have the potential to lead to destructive and destabilizing results. The fairy tale invites us to consider what it is about who we are, as individuals and as societies, that is most valuable and worth preserving.