golem

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The Golem’s Breath is Simultaneousness And Synesthesia

"The body, upon retiring from the objective world, will drag the intentional threads that link it to his immediate context and will reveal us, finally, to the subject percipient as well as to the perceptual world . . .. To be adapted intellectually to reality is to build that reality within one’s self."
- Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of perception


There are as many realities and worlds perceived as persons there are. How we could describe and know the world without our senses?

The mystical believe that God\'s spoken words were the origin of the creation of the world is related with the believing that God gift us with our fifth senses and ability to experience the dimensions, quality and quantity, space and time.

From this point, also we are gifted with the ability to unite the result produced from our senses in tough and develop our knowledge in art and science. The Creator made us creative.

The believe of creation of the world from the God spoken words could be find in many myths as well as base in many world religions, arts and also there is a link to the modern science theory as synergetic, string theory, memetics.

Probably one of the first cousins to this myth is the legend of creation of golem from clay simply with the creative power of the words.

If we may conclude that the issue is the creation of the world from the word, we could be seduced to explore an interesting approach to this old believe and especially to the Golem legend. This approach is provided by the phenomena of synesthesia.

If the world is created by God\'s spoken words thus those words are the origin of the creation of sound, colors, odors as gifts of our senses.

The effect of the words is powerful as sounds for the listener as well as written text for the reader, but the power of the words and creative character of verbalization is not captured only in the dimension of certain art as experience in the literature, poetry and philosophy. It is extended to the music, visual art. From synestesia we could learn that the magic of the word or alphabet possess color and odor. There are not strict borders and limits dividing our receptors and senses.

The experience of the human senses is a simultaneously experience.

The simultaneousness of our perceptions blends our knowledge and emotions with the pleasure of quality.

Our perception is not only quantitative collection of data but quality expression. The category of the quality and quantity as well the category of time and space are not divided. They are connected as well are connected our senses and our brain’ sphere. The voluntary desire of many artists to put aside analytic explanations and move themselves and their audience closer to the quality of direct experience is involuntary experience in the synesthesia state of mind.

Synestesia - the phenomena where two or more types of perception are joined is the clear example for that simultaneous connection which we could define as the quality of the quantity.

Synestesia is quality of the quantity of human senses. Receiving a stimulus in one sense cause simultaneously experience a sensation in another. People with synestesia may “hear” colors or “visualize” music. Synestesia may involve the joining of all five senses, but most commonly the visual and auditory senses are involved.

The term “synæsthesia” means the joining of senses, union of the senses. Synesthesia is a Greek word meaning “joint perception.” (Greek, syn= together + aisthesis= perception). Synesthesia is an involuntary physical experience of a cross-modal association were stimulation of one sensory modality reliably causes a perception in one or more different senses. It is not illness, just the phenomena is very rare. One in 25,000 people are thought to experience synesthesia.

In the field of synesthesia – an challenge for the measurement of the meaning, someone may explore the color of odor or the odor of color, to taste of the colored hearing, may smell the colors.

Goethe noted color correspondences in his 1810 work "Theory of Colors."

The great Russian composer Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) expressed his own synesthesia in his 1910 symphony Prometheus, The Poem of Fire, for orchestra, piano, organ, and choir. For the performance of Prometheus he included a mute keyboard, which controlled the play of colored light and flooded the concert hall with his colored symphony.

Vasilly Kandinsky (1866-1944) explored the harmonious relationship between sound and color with deep sympathy for sensory fusion, both synesthetic and as an artistic idea. He used musical terms to describe his paintings, calling them "compositions" and "improvisations." His own 1912 opera, Der Gelbe Klang ("The Yellow Sound"), specified a compound mixture of color, light, dance, and sound typical of the Gesamtkunstwerk. Kandinsky desired to push aside analytic explanations and move himself and his audience closer to the quality of direct experience that synesthesia typifies.

Kandinsky famous dictum, "stop thinking!" relates to one of synesthesia\'s implications in reversing the roles of reason and emotion. The art work and the creativity is an experience, not an abstract idea and there is no need of a mind to analyzes what is there impedes that experience.

Kandinsky teach "lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and . . . stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to \'walk about\' into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?"

The most famous synesthetic family case is that of the Russian novelist Valdimir Nabokov. Nabokov\'s wife was also aynesthetic also his son Dimiti. Valdimir Nabokov as a toddler complained to his mother than the letter colors on his wooden alphabet blocks were "all wrong." He experienced the conflict between the color of the painted letters and his lexically-induced synesthetic colors.

The phenomenal, simultaneousness and synesthetic in its nature power of the words and alphabet is well illustrated by the legend of the Golem.

The Golem legend explore the typical synesthetic approach to the relationship between reason and emotion were the emotion are the reason. For someone Golem could be seen as artistic expression but it is more than art and story. The journey looks like more as study, but actually it is beyond the study.

If we apply an synesthetic approach to the story of Golem we could see the creation of the Golem as an multisensory response.
Same as synesthesia, the creation of Golem is a violation of conventional perception.

If synestheisa is involuntary experience, the creation of a Golem is an voluntary physical experience of a cross-modal association.

The creation of the Golem is result of the act and process of cross-modal association were sensation produced in a part of the body via a stimulus applied in a differing part, were an image or sensation that is produced in a sense as a consequence of a stimulus which acts upon another, different sense.

The secret of creation of Golem seems quit open by Kandinsky dictum “Stop thinking” which reversing the roles of reason and emotion. The creation of Golem is an experience, not an abstract idea. Carlos Castaneda’ teacher Don Juan Matus suggestion to the his student “to stop the world” and avoid “me” and “I”, and “do” and “go” in “doing” and “going” sounds very neighboring to Kandinsky’ dictum, thus to the art of Golem making. Let us lend our ears to the sound and open our eyes to the color and shape, let us taste, smell and touch and . . . stop thinking too laud. Let just ask ourselves whether the Golem art work has enabled us to \'walk about\' into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?

The letters of the Hebrew alphabet! What color they are? What odor they have? How they taste? What is the color of those sounds? Are those questions relevant?

Yes. Because “these were not words as we know them, but instead were a system of pronunciation based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The Hebrew letters have substance within the world, which can be harnessed to generate great power.” This power requires deep meditation (“stop thinking” techniques), which is believed by Kabbalists (1) to assist in cleaving to God, thus getting a broader look at His plans for creation. The mystical believe that God\'s spoken words were the origin of the creation of the world, thus the Golem and the Golem’ world inhabits the Sefer Yetzirah.

The creation of golems is outlined in the Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Creation. This book is generally grouped with Kabbalistic texts, and it describes the mystic way to create a golem.

There are, throughout the history, numerous legends of Rabbis creating golems with recitation and by hand from clay. Words of power are inscribed on paper or upon the golem’ forehead. The words of power are in Hebrew. Inscribing the word “true” (emet) on the forehead of the clay golem make him alive.

Inscribing “emet” on the golem forehead is stamp for granting life. If the Rabbi is threatened when the golem became overwhelmingly huge and dangerous his creator may destroy the golem by erasing the first letter aleph from “emet”, making it “meth” - the word for death, From the synesthesia point of view it seems the sound and word emet provide not only the color, but something more dimensional – a life.

The golems were created to prove a Rabbi\'s mastery of the Sefer Yetzirah. This was a way to cling or cleave to God and hopefully gain further insight into God\'s plan.

Making the golem Rabbis serve the God Creator same as the golems are bond to serve their creator Rabbi.
The common opinion, which profane the divine role of the golems, say that golems were made to perform simple tasks like drawing water from a well or protect villages from attack. Golems follow the instructions of their master without question, but also golems are considered to be extremely powerful, and control of them can be easily lost. The danger usually is related with the requirements to the golem to perform low, menial tasks. These tasks could make golem uncontrollable. These task would show an impurity in the purpose of the creator and would be against the set tenets for spiritual purity in golem creation.

The longer the golem is used for such impure purposes, the larger it grows and the more unwieldy it becomes. Golems seem more uncontrollable the longer they have been in existence. Thus, the longer you use the golem, the more likely it will rampage.

Golems are traditionally incapable of speech and doesn’t have a soul. Made in the image of man and not in the image of God, they can\'t speak and can’t have a soul. Golems are gender-less but commonly referred to as male.

The old manuscript related to the life of Rabbi Shelemo ben Gabirol evidenced that there was one female golem created by a Rabbi ben Gabirol and even rumors said that she was his concubine.
One of the most famous legend of creation of golem is born in 16th century Prague and the creation of the golem Joseph by Rabbi Low ben Bezaleel, also referred to as the Maharal (1525-1609). Rabbi Low ben Bezaleel with bthe assistance from his son-in-law Rabbi Isaac ha-Kohen and disciple Rabbi Ya\'aqov Sason ha-Levi, created a nine foot tall golem named Joseph from dust and clay. Joseph was the one-eyed golem who patrolled the city streets of Prague as protector of Jewish people. One Shabbat night, the golem began a rampage. Rabbi Low crushed the golem by writing the name of God on paper and placing the paper within the golem\'s mouth. The remains were placed within the attic of the synagogue, the Alt Neu-schul, which can still be seen today.

The golem creation requires both physically and spiritually purity.
In Golem creation are involved learned the most righteous of believers. Only wise and devoted men are allowed to create golems. Those who are near to God and his wisdom will be able to follow the ritual to completion. Usually golem masters are rabbis, who have dedicated their life to God and the Torah. The process of golem making is generally reserved for them. Those Rabbis who have been attributed with golem creation are considered to be very holy and spiritual. Golems are created to prove one\'s mastery of the Sefer Yetzirah. The golem making process is considered as purification and holization. If you can\'t successfully create the golem, either you have made a slight mistake in pronunciations or you have not achieved the proper state of holiness. There are also certain religious and spiritual requirements for the behavior of golems. The golem is allowed and required to observe the Sabbath every week. The Rabbi must temporarily de-animated the golem at night and reanimating his creature after Sabbath passed. The legend tell us about the busy Rabbi who forgot to set his golem for Sabbath and the golem became violent and uncontrollable, rampaging through the village and destroying half of the homes.

The Rabbi was forced to destroy the golem by erasing the first E from the eritten on forehead "EMET", causing it to read METH or "death".


Where is the Golem, when "emet" doesn\'t exist anymore?

Probably in our senses and receptions, probably in our reaction to the world surrounded us.