In Jewish lore, a statue or figure of a man produced from mud or clay, but which can be conveyed to life when certain holy words, carved upon the Golem's brow or hung around its neck, are spoken by a wise Rabbi competent in the ancient and mystical arts of the Kabbalah. If the words are then changed accordingly, the living Golem can be made inanimate once again, or even transformed directly back into clay or dust.

The most notorious and peculiar example in history is the Golem of Prague. According to Czech legend, in 1580 Rabbi Yehudah Loew Ben Bezalel of Prague and two of his colleagues created a life-sized Golem, which they succeeded in animating by inserting in its mouth a slip of parchment bearing the word "shem", which is a kabbalistic interpretation of God's divine name. Under Loew's control, the creature performed menial laboring tasks that required great strength but little intellect. Every Friday evening, since the Jewish Sabbath is on Saturday, the Rabbi would take out the parchment from the Golem's mouth, thus rendering it inanimate again, so that it would not perturb their impending day of rest.

One Friday, however, the Rabbi forgot to take out the parchment from the Golem's mouth, and while he was busy performing the Sabbath service the creature ran amok in a rash of destruction. As soon as the Rabbi found out what was going on, he left the service in search of his creation. When at last he found it, he succeeded in pulling the parchment out of the rampant Golem's mouth, and while it was again inanimate he and his colleagues carried it away. They concealed its powerful form inside the attic of Prague's Old-New Synagogue.

From that day on, the Rabbi forbade everyone from entering the building and even removed the stairs leading up to the attic.

Eventually, most people forgot about the Golem, but even today no one is allowed inside this particular synagogue's attic, although free access is granted to those in the Czech Republic's other Jewish temples. Could someone — or something — strange be hidden in the Old-New Synagogue's mysterious attic?

Another version of the story goes that the Rabbi dreamt that the Lord commanded him to create a creature to protect the Jewish people from those who would do them wrong. The Rabbi then fashioned a giant from clay and, with the help of a kabbalistic spell, brought the creature to life. This version of the legend is said to have served as the basis for the novel Frankenstein.