{"id":443,"date":"2010-11-26T09:59:12","date_gmt":"2010-11-26T13:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.summerofjim.com\/?p=443"},"modified":"2010-11-26T09:59:12","modified_gmt":"2010-11-26T13:59:12","slug":"the-golem-of-carthage-rd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=443","title":{"rendered":"The Golem of Carthage Rd"},"content":{"rendered":"

This happened years ago.\u00a0 It was a grey March Sunday, and I can remember it like it was yesterday.<\/em><\/p>\n

“How manifold are Thy works, O Lord!<\/p>\n

In wisdom hast Thou made them all;<\/p>\n

The earth is full of Thy creatures.<\/p>\n

Thou openest Thy hand, they are satisfied with good.<\/p>\n

Thou hidest Thy face, they vanish;<\/p>\n

Thou withdrawest their breath, they perish,<\/p>\n

And return to dust.<\/p>\n

Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created;<\/p>\n

And thou renewest the face of the earth.<\/p>\n

May the glory of the Lord endure forever;<\/p>\n

Let the Lord rejoice in His works!”<\/p>\n

“Geeze, Uncle Saul… do you always say that prayer before making meat loaf?”<\/p>\n

Maybe it was the novelty of seeing Saul doing the food prep for Sunday’s dinner. There he was in this silly apron, with the fixings for meat loaf arrayed before him, looking to the ceiling and reciting this prayer. Uncle Saul in gingham should have been enough to fix the memory in my mind.\u00a0 But it would be the careful orchestration of the afternoon that ensured this Sunday spent on <\/em>Carthage Rd<\/em>, would earn a place in my personal pantheon of unforgettable days.<\/em><\/p>\n

He had moved the assembly from the kitchen counter to the breakfast nook and to the table that had been cleared for his use.\u00a0 With sleeves rolled up he looked down at\u00a0a rather large bowl…\u00a0to the side a\u00a0quantity of chopped chuck, two eggs, quaker oats, chopped onion, grated carrots, worcestershire sauce, kosher Salt and pepper.\u00a0 He combined the ingredients and dug his hands into the bowl and began kneading the mixture.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Jimmy… this isn’t just a meat loaf.\u00a0 It’s going to be a golem<\/em>.\u00a0 I need you to walk around the table seven times counter clockwise.”<\/p>\n

I did this. It seemed harmless enough.\u00a0 Saul busied himself with blending the meat.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Good afternoon to you Lord of the Universe.\u00a0 This is Saul, your devoted servant, Son of David, Son of Sarah who is speaking.\u00a0 I have come with a claim against you on behalf of my beloved wife,\u00a0Miriam.\u00a0 Why do you permit Assistant Principal Simmons to vex her?\u00a0 I shall not move from here!\u00a0 From this very spot, on Carthage Rd in Woodbury, I shall not move!\u00a0 This travesty must come to an end.\u00a0 Magnified and Sanctified is Your Name!”<\/p>\n

Miriam?\u00a0 I called her Meggie.\u00a0 So look, I had no clue what was going on.\u00a0 I was following Saul’s instructions.\u00a0 You know… he was a neat guy… even in a gingham apron.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Jimmy… this time walk seven times around the table clockwise.”<\/p>\n

OK. By this time, Herschel, Meggie and Saul’s Miniature Schnauzer, joined me on the clockwise circuits.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Uncle Saul… what’s a golem?”<\/p>\n

“A golem?”<\/p>\n

He took a pause from his mixing and blending.<\/em><\/p>\n

“There was a famous Rabbi in Prague in the 1500s… Judah Loew ben Bezalel.\u00a0 He was known as the Maharal.\u00a0 <\/em>Remember, any Rabbi worth his salt had to have another <\/em>name.\u00a0 That’s how you know that they were good!\u00a0 And this Rabbi was plenty good!\u00a0 Back then the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II didn’t care for the Jews… although that by itself\u00a0wasn’t too unusual.\u00a0 But folks were being killed, which was a little harsh,\u00a0or forced to leave Prague, which, even then, was a pretty good town.”<\/p>\n

“Uncle Saul, I’m confused.”<\/p>\n

“OK.\u00a0 Rabbi Loew got tired of the Jews being pushed around.\u00a0 Simple.\u00a0 He wanted the suffering to end.\u00a0 He decided that what was needed was a super hero <\/em>to help protect the Jews.<\/em>\u00a0 This was in the day before you could buy<\/em> cops and judges.\u00a0 He, Rabbi Loew, would have to make an enforcer<\/em>.\u00a0 Of course, with God’s help!”<\/p>\n

“I’m still confused…”<\/p>\n

Uncle Saul resumed working on the meat loaf.\u00a0 He began to shape it into a large baking pan.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Rabbi Loew had the recipe<\/em> for making a golem<\/em>!\u00a0 He went with one of his students to a clay bed by\u00a0the River Vltava. He tore clumps of clay from the bed, said special prayers and incantations, had\u00a0the student walk counter clockwise seven times around him, then seven times clockwise… from the clay he formed a figure with a head, legs. arms and bulging muscles, said more prayers, chanted more incantations\u00a0and brought life<\/em> into it: the Golem<\/em> of Maharal! It grew in size ’til it loomed over the Rabbi and his student… stand back oppressors!”<\/p>\n

This sounded very, very scary.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Uncle Saul… I’m not sure on this… you’re making a golem<\/em> out of the meat loaf?”<\/p>\n

“Yes… I don’t like the way clay tastes.\u00a0 After\u00a0the golem<\/em>\u00a0serves its purpose, we can eat it!<\/p>\n

Uncle Saul continued to shape the meat loaf into a rather stout figure.\u00a0 To me (and Herschel) it looked like a meat loaf gingerbread man. What transpired next deepened this journey into the strange.\u00a0 Uncle Saul entered what appeared to me as a one sided conversation with the meat loaf.\u00a0 Herschel and I could only watch and listen and guess the nature of the meat loaf’s side of the conversation.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Help me!” Saul announced to the ceiling.<\/em><\/p>\n

{“If you bring life to me, my rage will consume the living, my strength will lay waste to Assistant Principal Simmons!”}<\/p>\n

“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy!\u00a0 The Lord has commanded me to bring you forth!”<\/p>\n

{“Verily, it’s the Lord’s decree!”}<\/p>\n

“Then obey it!\u00a0 You must arise from the pan and do as I bid!\u00a0 You must be our strength, our champion!”<\/p>\n

{“With an out stretched hand, with a clenched fist, a hulk, a GOLEM!”}<\/p>\n

“Yes!\u00a0 A Golem; but one who works the Lord’s will and still helps the unfortunate to cross the street!”<\/p>\n

{“I obey the decree!”}<\/p>\n

“Simmons… Simmons, Simmons!\u00a0 Send her plagues… non-stop humming in her ears, painful rectal itch, ill-fitting brassieres!”<\/p>\n

This sounded serious to me.\u00a0 Meggie taught science in <\/em>Bridgeport<\/em>; but I didn’t know this Assistant Principal Simmons.\u00a0 But for sure, I didn’t want to be in her shoes and neither did Herschel!<\/em><\/p>\n

“Jimmy… we’re almost ready.\u00a0 Get the Heinz ketchup from the fridge.”<\/p>\n

This I did.\u00a0 And Saul put some on a plate, took his finger and then began a meticulous application of ketchup on the ‘forehead’ of the Golem. Saul explained…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u05d0\u05de\u05ea<\/p>\n

“Jimmy… this is the Hebrew word ’emes’.\u00a0 It means truth.\u00a0 Now let’s put the Golem<\/em> in the oven at 375 and we can sit down to dinner at 5:30.”<\/p>\n

I wish I could tell you what effect all this had on the life of Assistant Principal Simmons.\u00a0 But I can’t.\u00a0 It would be in\u00a0my nature to make stuff up.\u00a0 Particularly regarding the ill-fitting brassieres.\u00a0 But I will resist.<\/em><\/p>\n

I think it is fair to ask how can I remember a day from my childhood in such clear detail?<\/em><\/p>\n

So… I ask you.\u00a0 Could you forget a day like that?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This happened years ago.\u00a0 It was a grey March Sunday, and I can remember it like it was yesterday. “How manifold are Thy works, O Lord! In wisdom hast Thou made them all; The earth is full of Thy creatures. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meggie-saul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=443"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions\/445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}