{"id":269,"date":"2017-11-12T17:27:43","date_gmt":"2017-11-12T17:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress_bw2\/3-19-leviathan-created-as-a-golem-like-adam\/"},"modified":"2017-12-19T18:34:35","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T18:34:35","slug":"3-19-leviathan-created-as-a-golem-like-adam","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bitterwaters.com\/bw_12_21_2018\/the-case-for-lilith\/the-biblical-case-for-lilith\/3-19-leviathan-created-as-a-golem-like-adam\/","title":{"rendered":"3.19 Leviathan Created as a Golem like Adam"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are three Biblical passages that indicate that Leviathan was created from the soil of the ground in the same fashion as Adam.\u00a0 They were both created as golems.\u00a0 In the Talmud and Kabbalah, golems are artificial men made by powerful rabbis from dust and water and supernaturally animated to life.\u00a0 The earliest Talmudic concepts of a golem are based largely on observations of how Jehovah created Adam and how the promised seed of the bitter water trial came about.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Talmudic use of the term golem<\/em> to describe Adam\u2019s pre-animated body stems from Psalm 139:16.\u00a0 There the Talmud holds that the psalmist David is quoting Adam in describing his own marvelous creation.\u00a0 That the psalm concerns Adam is virtually certain, for in verse 15 what other man was made in secret and finely woven in the lower parts of the earth?\u00a0 Adam declares that while his body was being formed in secret in the earth, his substance was not hidden from God.\u00a0 In verse 16 he declares that God\u2019s eyes saw golem\u2019y<\/em> (\u201cmy golem\u201d).\u00a0 Golem<\/em> (Mlg<\/span> – Strongs 1563, 1564) means \u201cto twist\u201d, \u201cto turn\u201d, and hence \u201cto shape.\u201d\u00a0 Hence, Adam is declaring that God saw his shaped body while it still resided in the earth.\u00a0 He concludes by stating that all of his twists and moldings were recorded in God\u2019s book on the days of their shaping.\u00a0 There is \u201cnot one\u201d of them that was failed to be recorded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
Ps 139:14-16 (KJV)<\/strong><\/div>\n
14 \u00a0I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and<\/em> wonderfully made: marvellous are<\/em> thy works; and that<\/em> my soul knoweth right well.<\/div>\n
15 \u00a0My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and<\/em> curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.<\/div>\n

16 \u00a0Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members<\/em> were written, which<\/em> in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was<\/em> none of them.<\/p>\n

Ps 139:14-16 (My Literal)<\/strong><\/div>\n
14 \u00a0I will praise you; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are your works; and my soul knows it very well.<\/div>\n
15 \u00a0My substance was not hid from you, when I was made in secret, and finely woven in the lower parts of the earth.<\/div>\n

16 \u00a0Your eyes saw my golem; and upon your book all them is written of the days they were formed, and there is not one in them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The literal Hebrew of Job 26:13 in Table 3\u201112 can support the notion that Leviathan was made much the same way as Adam.\u00a0 Under one interpretation, the passage states that God\u2019s hand had chullah<\/em>, or “twisted” the fleeing serpent.\u00a0 Chullah<\/em> implies a kneading and twisting, like a potter with clay.\u00a0 This word brings to mind the twisting and kneading creation of Adam\u2019s golem from the dust of the earth.\u00a0 The use of chullah<\/em> in Job 26:13 implies that the serpent Leviathan underwent a creation as a golem similar to that of Adam.\u00a0 This is what we would expect from the Lilith legend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is more Biblical evidence establishing that Leviathan\u2019s creation is as a golem similar to that of Adam.\u00a0 The literal Hebrew of Table 3\u201115 shows that in Psalm 104:26 God yatsarat (had formed) Leviathan to become a derision in the sea.\u00a0 Yastsarat is the singular perfect tense form of the verb yatsar<\/em> (ruy<\/span> – Strongs 3335), which means to form through squeezing into shape, much as does a potter.\u00a0 Thus, yastsarat<\/em> means \u201cyou had formed\u201d, and its meaning implies a creation similar to that of Adam\u2019s.\u00a0 Indeed, the first use of yatsar<\/em> in the Bible comes in Ge 2:7.\u00a0 There the passage states that God yatsar<\/em> (formed) the man Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.\u00a0 Thus, yatsar refers to the creation of Adam\u2019s golem, before it yet had the soul of life in it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is yet another clue that Leviathan was created as a golem.\u00a0 It comes in Isa 27:1, which calls Leviathan a \u201ctwisted\u201d serpent.\u00a0 As can be seen from Table 3\u201113, the Hebrew word for twisted is aqallathown<\/em> (Nwtlqe<\/span> – Strongs 6129).\u00a0 It comes from the root aqal<\/em> (lqe<\/span> – Strongs 06127), which means \u201cto bend\u201d or \u201ctwist.\u201d\u00a0 Thus, the second title of Leviathan as the twisted serpent implies a creation similar to that of Adam as a golem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In summary, there is much Biblical evidence supporting that Leviathan was the Serpent Lilith and created like Adam as a golem.\u00a0 Out of the seven mentions of Leviathan in the Bible, three discuss the nature of its creation.\u00a0 All three supports the notion that its creation was of similar nature to Adam\u2019s, namely a twisting and shaping of soil from the earth like a potter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Golems in Rabbinic Tradition<\/h2>\n

Based on the Adam and Lilith creation mythos and the rituals of the bitter water trial (see 3.20.3), rabbis came to believe that they could create artificial men by mimicking the means by which golems were animated in the Bible.\u00a0 Therefore, the rabbis could create artificial men using dust and water and certain animating forces.\u00a0 However, such efforts were not without pitfalls.\u00a0 For the rabbis, Adam and Lilith represented the ultimate extreme outcomes from such an endeavor.\u00a0 Adam was the flawless man created in the perfection of God\u2019s image.\u00a0 Lilith was the imperfect man, created by a process that had gone awry and created a being lesser than human and not in the image of God.\u00a0 Because of this, in rabbinic tradition Lilith\u2019s failed creation emphasized the importance of purity for the two main ingredients in creating a golem.\u00a0 Both the dust used to make the body and the water\/breath used as animating forces must be pure.\u00a0 Lilith was made with defiled waters that animated her with evil spirits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Jewish tradition of the golem is a vast topic upon which many books have been written.\u00a0 In the Talmud and Kabbalah, golems are artificial men (and in at least one other case an artificial calf) made from dust and water and supernaturally animated to life by powerful rabbis.\u00a0 These creatures were not fully normal.\u00a0 Golems lacked the power of speech and had tendencies to go out-of-control on destructive rampages.\u00a0 This erratic, even demonic, behavior was often fueled by the rabbis\u2019 mistakes in handling the golem, especially in its creation.\u00a0 The creation of a golem followed very strict procedures.\u00a0 The overriding principle was purity of ingredients and purity of purpose.\u00a0 First, the rabbi mixed clay, dust, and pure water, and then fashioned this into the image of a man.\u00a0 The statue was then animated by placing the written name of Jehovah in its mouth or elsewhere in its body.\u00a0 The rabbis were also recorded as sometimes animating the golem by placing other mystical Hebrew words or letter combinations upon the golem\u2019s body. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The resulting golem was a brutish creature, with no soul, and no ability to speak.\u00a0 It had the ability to hear and obey simple commands from its rabbi creator.\u00a0 Often golems obeyed these commands in a blindly literal manner, much to the detriment of their creators.\u00a0 A common feature of golems is that over time they steadily grew larger and more powerful.\u00a0 Eventually, the rabbi had either to destroy the golem, or be killed by it.\u00a0 The rabbi could de-animate the golem by removing or erasing certain of the animating letters upon its body.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first evidence the sages saw for golems was in Adam\u2019s creation.\u00a0 The Talmudic Aggadah asserts that after Adam was fashioned by God from the dust of the adamah (ground), but before he became nefesh (soulish) by the breath of Jehovah, he was a golem.\u00a0 He was aware on a limited level, and able to receive visions from God, but he did not yet have a soul.\u00a0 In Sanhedrin 38b, Aha bar Hanina said that in the first hour of Adam\u2019s creation the earth was piled up.\u00a0 In the second hour, Adam became a golem, a still unformed mass.\u00a0 In the third hour, his limbs were stretched out, and in the fourth, his soul was cast into him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Talmudic Aggadah even goes so far as to say that Adam was created from the dust of the earth on the Temple mount \u2013 the same locale from which is taken the dust of the Sotah trial.\u00a0 The Midrash HaGadol says, \u201cFrom what is clearest in the earth He created him, from what is most excellent in the earth He created him, from what is finest in the earth He created him, from the place of divine worship [in Zion] He created him.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Philo wrote, \u201cIt is conceivable that God wished to create his man-like form with the greatest care and for that reason he did not take dust from the first piece of earth that came to hand, but that from the whole earth he separated the best, from pure primal matter the purest and finest parts, best suited for his making.\u201d<\/p>\n

The history of the golem can be traced back to the Sefer Yesirah (Book of Creation, 2nd<\/sup> century B.C.E. or older).\u00a0 The book in turn was referenced by the rabbis of the Talmud (4th century C.E.).\u00a0 Perhaps the most striking example in the Talmud comes in Sanhedrin 65b.\u00a0 There the creation of a golem by Rabbi Abba ben Rav Hamma (“Rava”) is recorded.<\/p>\n

\n
Sanhedrin 65b<\/strong><\/div>\n

Rava created a man. He sent it before Rav Zera. He spoke to it, but it did not answer. He said, “You must have been created by one of my colleagues. Return to dust.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In Sanhedrin 65b is another related incident.\u00a0 There instead of creating a man, Rabbis Hanina and Oshaia used the \u201cBook of Creation\u201d, or Sefer Yezirah, to create a calf.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
Sanhedrin 65b<\/strong><\/div>\n

Rabbi Hanina and Rabbi Oshaia spent every Sabbath eve in studying the ‘Book of Creation’, by means of which they created a third-grown[2]<\/a> calf and ate it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Sefer Yezirah is the title of two esoteric books.\u00a0 The newer (early centuries of C.E.) added extra content to the more ancient version.\u00a0 The older, used by Hanina and Oshaia, is the oldest and most mysterious of all the Kabbalistic works.\u00a0 It was also known as Hilkoth Yezirah (Laws of Creation).\u00a0 Portions of the book may be quite ancient.\u00a0 However, the completed version has affinities with Babylonian, Egyptian, and Hellenic mysticism and its origin has been placed in the second century B.C.E., when such a combination of influences might be expected (J.E., XII, 602).\u00a0 According to Rashi, the Hilkoth Yezirah is the same means by which Rava created his golem.\u00a0 Rashi also claims that all the sources agree that the Hilkoth Yezirah explains how a golem is made.\u00a0 This is important in that the Sefer Yetzirah is a mystical work, and never describes or delves into literal instructions for making a golem. \u00a0The procedure derived from the Sefer Yetzirah is described by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan.\u00a0 First, the creator should not do it alone, but should always be accompanied by one or two colleagues.\u00a0 The golem must be made of virgin soil, taken from a place where no man has ever dug.\u00a0 The soil must be kneaded with pure spring water, taken directly from the ground.\u00a0 If this water is placed in any kind of vessel, it can no longer be used.\u00a0 The people making the golem must purify themselves totally before engaging in this activity, both physically and spiritually.\u00a0 While making the golem, they must wear clean white vestments.\u00a0 Creating a golem was primarily not a physical procedure, but rather, a highly advanced spiritual and meditative process.\u00a0 This involved chanting appropriate letter arrays together with the letters of the God\u2019s holy name.\u00a0 Once the golem\u2019s body was completed, this spiritual potential could be transferred to the clay form and animate it.\u00a0 This was the process through which a physical golem would be brought to life.\u00a0 One must not make any mistake or error in the pronunciation of the rites.\u00a0 No interruption whatsoever may occur.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To the Sages of the Talmud, the creation of a golem was not in and of itself particularly remarkable.\u00a0 The Talmud mentions the above episodes in Sanhedrin 65b in passing, during a discussion of other topics.\u00a0 Anyone who could cleave to God sufficiently would be able to perform such a feat.\u00a0 According to Jewish tradition, many other holy rabbis and sages also created human and animal Golems, such as Rabbis Channina and Hoshia, Ben Sira, Joseph’s eleven brothers, and the Patriarch Abraham.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The formula for creating a Golem has proliferated over the ages.\u00a0 However, the original formulas all used clay, dust, water, and empowering words.\u00a0 The essential ingredients are:\u00a0<\/p>\n