Great men were once able to perform great miracles.

When the ghetto of Prague was under attack and marauders wanted to rape the women, roast the children, and murder everyone, when it seems that all hope was lost, the Maharal Rabbi Judah Loew put aside his Gemara, went out into the street, and, from the first suitable mound of clay that he found in front of the school-teacher's doorstep, moulded the shape of a body.

He blew into the Golem's nostrils - and it began to stir. Then he whispered a name into its ear, and our Golem strode out of the ghetto. The Maharal returned to his books in the house of study and the Golem attacked our enemies who had surrounded the ghetto, thrashing them as with flails. They fell like flies. Prague filled with corpses. They say that it went on like this right through Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, with the clock striking noon, the Golem was still intent on it labours.

"Rabbi," pleaded the congregation, "the Golem is slaughtering all of Prague. Soon there won't be any Gentiles left to heat the Sabbath ovens or to take down the Sabbath lamps." Once more the Maharal interrupted his study. He went to the pulpit and began to recite the psalm in honor of the Sabbath.

The Golem stopped its work. It returned to the ghetto, entered the house of study, and approached the Maharal. Again the rabbi whispered something into its ear. The eyes of the Golem closed, the soul departed from its body and it returned to a mere image of clay.

To this day the Golem lies in the uppermost part of the synagogue of Prague, covered with cobwebs that have spun from wall to wall to encase the whole arcade so that it should be hidden from all human how long does weed stay in your system eyes, especially pregnant wives in the women's section. No one is permitted to touch the cobwebs, for anyone who does so dies. Even the oldest congregants no longer remember the Golem. However, Zvi the Sage, the grandson of the Maharal, still deliberates whether it is proper to include the Golem in a minyan or in a company for the saying of grace.

The Golem, you see, has not been forgotten. It is here. But the name that could bring the golem to life in times of need, that name has vanished into thin air, and no one is allowed to touch the cobwebs that thicken.