Nazis Attempt to Uncover the Golem of Prague During WWII

Episode 231: "Nazis Attempt to Uncover the Golem of Prague During WWII"

Welcome to our weekly program, "The Insight Story of Chabad in America," through the Mindel Archives.

This Shabbos is Chai Elul, the eighteenth day of the month of Elul. There are twelve days from Rosh Chodesh Elul [to Yud Beis Elul], and there are twelve months in the year, so every day we do a cheshbon [an accounting] for a month — for example, Sunday we do a cheshbon for one month, Monday for another, and so on.

Also, this is the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov and of the Alter Rebbe. As you read in the Hayom Yom, it's very important to read that when the Baal Shem Tov was born, his neshama came down into this world, and you can always look it up in the Hayom Yom.

Also, this is the yahrzeit of the Maharal. The Alter Rebbe comes from the Maggid, and we know that the Maggid comes from the Baal Shem Tov, so the Rebbe comes from the Alter Rebbe. Since this week is the yahrzeit of the Maharal, I want to share with you a fascinating story. The Rebbe looked over this story and said we should write it down — a story that Rabbi Mindel heard from the shamash of the shul of the Maharal, in the year 1969.

I remember the shamash, and I remember he was in shul with Rabbi Mindel. He started to tell him the story, but then Rabbi Mindel asked him to come to his house later, because he wanted to sit down with him and hear the whole story. So I didn't hear the complete story while he was telling it to Rabbi Mindel, but I remember he started to tell the story. Before I tell you the story — and by the way, at the end of this program I will tell you what the Rebbe said about the Maharal and about the Golem, and what [unclear] said.

My wife and I, a few weeks ago, went to Prague, and we saw the oldest shul in Europe — that's the Maharal's shul. Many religious Jews, many non-religious Jews, many non-Jews go there every single day, thousands of people, and you can see that they — even the non-Jews — know that in the attic there is something holy, that there is a Golem there, and they believe it. But I do want to say, unfortunately, in talking with many religious Jews, some of them have doubts as to whether the Maharal ever made the Golem. That's why, at the end of this program, I want to tell you what the Rebbe said, and what [a Gadol/unclear] said about the Maharal and the Golem.

Now I want to read to you the story that this shamash — the spiritual caretaker — told. He said like this: this shul is called the Altneushul, the "Old-New Shul." Why is it called "old"? Because the shul was built in the thirteenth century — many years ago — and there was no other shul, so it was called the "New Shul." Then, in the sixteenth century, many years later, more shuls were built, so this shul came to be called the "Old Shul" — so together they called it the Altneushul, the "Old-New Shul." Excuse me, I have a cold.

There's another reason the shul is called "Altneu": "Alt" means old, and "tnai" means condition. After the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, some of the stones were brought to Prague, and the shul was built with those stones. The people said, when it was built, that it was built "al tnai" — on condition — that the shul would later be brought [to Yerushalayim] when Moshiach comes. So that's another reason why it's called "Altneu."

Now I want to tell you what the shamash told Rabbi Mindel, which the Rebbe looked over. The shamash's name was Rim [?], and he came to New York in 1969. Rim said that he was the shamash, the caretaker, of the Altneushul, and twice a year he would put shaimos into a big barrel — shaimos meaning old, worn-out holy writings piled up — and carry the barrel up to where the Golem is, the Golem that the Maharal made. The Maharal had said that the Golem should be placed in the attic, and that shaimos should be put on top of him. Rim did not actually see the Golem himself — he only saw shaimos, because the Maharal said the Golem should be covered with shaimos. So he put shaimos on top of the other shaimos. The Golem was in the attic, under the roof; an iron fence was around the Golem. The custom was instituted by the Maharal almost four hundred years ago that shaimos should always be on top of the Golem — the Golem should never be left uncovered.

Although it's a miracle — although so much shaimos had been piled onto the Golem over the centuries that it should have filled up to the rooftop — strangely, the pile never seemed to rise above its usual height. He said it was amazing: whenever he went to put the shaimos, it stayed at the same level, never piling up higher. Amazing, he said — he saw it himself.

The last time Rim carried the shaimos to the attic was in 1939, before the Nazis took over Czechoslovakia. During the Second World War, Rim was taken as a slave laborer to a concentration camp — the Holocaust — and by a miracle he survived. As soon as he was freed, he said he wanted to go back to Prague to see the Altneushul — it was the first place he wanted to go. So he went to the shul. This is what he was telling to Rabbi Mindel: he stood outside and said, "Thank G-d the Nazis did not destroy the oldest shul in Europe." Then he knocked on the door of the caretaker. There was a caretaker there, a non-Jewish man, a very nice person, who took care of the maintenance and other such things. He knocked on the door, and the old caretaker opened it and looked at him. He was shocked to see him, because he saw him looking healthy — this was after the concentration camp, where he had suffered a great deal, had been tortured — so the caretaker was shocked at how he looked. He asked the caretaker, "Can you please open the door of the shul? I want to see what's going on inside." So he opened the door. He looked around — no changes, except for two changes.

You know, years ago in the old shuls — I know, I was also in Amsterdam, where they have an old shul — years ago there were no light bulbs, so the shamash used to place a candle at every seat. Before davening, the shamash would go around and light a candle by every seat — that's how they had light. This shul also had that, but now it was changed — they had bulbs instead of candles. That's one change he saw in the shul. Another change was that the floor had been made of cement. Those were the two things — everything else stayed the way it was from before he had gone to the concentration camp.

So Rim asked the caretaker about these changes, and the caretaker told him: the Nazis wanted to show the world that they were not as bad as people thought they were, so they made improvements in the shul. They filled the shul with Jews from the concentration camp and ordered the Jews to put on [tallis and tefillin], and they took pictures of the whole scene — the Germans wanted to impress the world that they were cultured people, that they knew how to cherish synagogues, and that's what they did. That's why they put in the bulbs and the cement floor. But he was glad that the Germans had not attempted to do anything else — everything else stayed the same.

He asked the caretaker, "Now tell me, what's upstairs by the Golem — what's going on there in the attic?" So the caretaker said to him, "Come with me, I want to show you." The caretaker opened the iron door leading to the stairs, and they went up to the attic where the Golem was. Rim walked around the attic; suddenly he stopped, he stared, he trembled, his heart filled with awe. He saw a strange object sticking out of the pile of shaimos covering the resting place of the Golem — it was the handle of a bayonet, with part of the blade buried in the pile of shaimos. Rim asked the caretaker, "What is this?"

So the caretaker answered: the morning after the Germans occupied Prague, two generals with armed soldiers came to the synagogue. The older general said to the caretaker, "We heard about the legend of the Golem. Is it true that the Golem's resting place is in this attic, in this synagogue?" So the caretaker answered, "It's not a legend — unbelievable as it is, he is in the attic." He said he had seen it himself.

So they said to him, "Please take us up." The caretaker tried to discourage them, but he couldn't. "Where is the Golem?" they asked. "So I pointed to the resting place of the Golem" — this is all the shamash telling Rabbi Mindel. The generals came close to the fence and were disappointed: "We only see rubbish — we want to see the Golem." (The Golem was covered with shaimos.) The caretaker said, "G-d forbid, it's not rubbish — it's sacred things, worn out by usage. The remains of the Golem are buried underneath." "Clear the rubbish," they said to him. The caretaker said, "It is absolutely forbidden to touch it. These are orders from the holy rabbi who created the Golem and later laid him to rest. I cannot desecrate this holy place."

So the younger general pulled out a pistol and pointed it at the caretaker: "Clear it now." The caretaker said, "I cannot, I must not," and he pleaded with him. The older general standing there said to the younger general, "If that's the case, order one of the soldiers to clear the pile." The soldier immediately took out his bayonet and stuck it into the pile of shaimos, but the very next moment he let out a piercing scream, let go of the bayonet, fell backward, and died. This is what happened, and they were all shaken, and they all left. The other two soldiers carried the body out of the attic and ran away. After this, no Germans ever dared set foot in the attic again.

This is what Rim told Rabbi Mindel, and the Rebbe looked over this account. I want to tell you — he stayed in America, and he always thought about this whole scene, and his name was Rim. I remember this from years ago.

Now I want to tell you two things that the Rebbe said. Number one, I want to tell you what the Rebbe said about the Golem — the Rebbe wrote this in Yiddish; I'll have to translate it into English — and then I'll tell you what he answered.

Years ago, our Rebbe related that the Rebbe Rashab — the Previous Rebbe's father — went with the Previous Rebbe to Prague, and they were in the Maharal's shul. The Previous Rebbe wanted to go up [to the attic]; of course, probably they didn't want to let him, so he bribed the shamash, because he wanted to go up — and he went up. Our Rebbe is telling this story: when the Previous Rebbe told the story, the Rebbe Rashab asked the Previous Rebbe what he saw there; he didn't answer him. [The Rebbe Rashab] found out — he hadn't known. Later he found out that his son had gone up there. He [unclear — possibly "reprimanded"] his son. Later on he told him he had given him [certain instructions] of what to do, it seems, in order to fix it, so that nothing should harm him — he had to work hard so that nothing should harm him. This is what the Rebbe says.

Now, there is also — before I get to the other letter from the Rebbe — a [citation], from the Sdei Chemed [?], and this is an answer for people who don't believe that there is a Golem, and who don't believe that the Golem is in the attic. The Sdei Chemed [?] writes — this is in Hebrew, I'm translating into English — in Chapter 30, I'm reading from the Hebrew: Rabbi [unclear] explains how one is able to create a Golem, based on [the Sefer Yetzirah], which we know [the Maharal] wrote about; this is brought down by [unclear, heard as "K yud"] and [unclear, heard as "Kari M"], siman 25 — that's number one.

Then this Sdei Chemed [?] writes that it is also known that the Maharal of Prague created a Golem to save the Jewish people. Daniel [?] writes in a responsum, siman 93, about his grandfather, Rabbi Eliyahu [?], who created a Golem, and the Yit [?] also writes about this Golem, which his great-grandfather created — the Yit [?] was the son of the [previous person mentioned]. So we see that [tzaddikim] have made [Golems] — even the Sdei Chemed [?] writes about this.

Now I want to read to you a letter of the Rebbe — this is in Hebrew, but I want to read to you in English what the Rebbe writes about this — and this is an answer also to people who have doubts regarding the book "Niflaos HaMaharal" ("Wonders of the Maharal"). It's also written in Hebrew: "And the letters which you mentioned, I have not properly read them, and will therefore not say an opinion about them."

Next paragraph, the Rebbe writes: "Regarding the matter itself, namely the fact that the Maharal made the Golem — I have personally heard from my father-in-law, the [Previous] Rebbe, that he saw the Golem's remains in the attic of the shul of the Maharal of Prague, and he discussed the matter with his father, the Rebbe Rashab. The doubts on the above-mentioned book do not pertain whatsoever to the matter itself, because for tens of years before the publishing of this book it was common knowledge among Jews — and even amongst non-Jews — that the Maharal made the Golem."

So people who have doubts should know that the Maharal made the Golem, and that it was well known — even non-Jews knew about it.

Now, I was told — I think maybe [the Baal Shem Tov] said — that one should tell a story of the tzaddikim. It says that there are three loves — not necessarily [exactly] three loves — one should tell a story every night, for all good things. The [Baal Shem Tov] used to say that whoever comes from him — we [benefit/eat] from that. So when it is the yahrzeit of the Maharal, like today, like this year, we should relate stories of the Maharal and of the Golem — whatever it may be — and that's good for children. Somebody mentioned this to me, and there is the [unclear] — I never heard the Rebbe say that, but that's the way tzaddikim used to say, so it would be a good idea — this story that I read today — it would be a good idea to put it out again this coming Shabbos.

Now, one more thing: you know, the whole world now accepts one song — the song [unclear, heard as "Rash"] — everybody knows it. I have a problem with my throat now, but this song was composed by the Maharal, and everyone, all of Yidden in the world, sing this song. So it's good to know, it's good to tell this over.

Now I want to say that everybody should have — and as [the Rebbe] always used to say this — we should merit good from our children. As I've mentioned a few times, first, children should have a good life, but when a person has good children and raises good children, that is higher than [anything else] — and we should all have good [nachas] from our children.

We should all have a good Shabbos. Next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.