It was the 16th century in Prague and the Jews had their own part of town. But of course, they were forced to live there and they weren't allowed to leave that part of town. And at that time there were pogroms threatening their ghetto. So the Rabbi decided to take action. He created from clay, dust and dirt a creature called the Golem to protect them.
The Golem had the strength of 10 men, and was controlled by Rabbi Loew. The Rabbi would write some symbols and commands on a piece of paper and then he would place the paper in the Golem's mouth to awaken him. Golem would carry out the task. And this worked pretty well for a while.
The only problem was that the Golem did not like being lonely. He was a moody creature. So one day when Rabbi Loew's daughter really needed him (I believe she was having a baby?), the Rabbi left the Golem and forgot to deactivate him by taking the command from his mouth. Well, the Golem went crazy and started wreaking havoc on the surrounding area. Controlling the Golem had been difficult before at times for Rabbi Loew, but nothing bad on this scale had ever happened. So he decided to deactivate the Golem for good this time.
He put the Golem in the attic of the synagogue, where he remains deactivated to this day.
And do you know how we know? During WWII someone wanted to see the Golem. A nosy SS officer decided to go to the attic after they had overtaken the city. AND HE WAS NEVER SEEN AGAIN.
And that, my friends, is the story of the Golem.
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