The Letter of the Maharal on the Creation of the Golem: A Modern Forgery

The always excellent Seforim blog‘s latest entry analyzes a letter that was presented by Chaim Bloch in 1923 as from the Maharal himself on the Golem and its creation. Through literary comparison and other methods they conclude it is a forgery. Well worth to read the whole piece.

1 Response

  1. Gabor Por says:

    Shnayer Leiman’s article on the same topic at ou.org:
    “In this essay, Shnayer Leiman, professor of Jewish history and literature at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, explains how the legend of the Golem of Prague is largely based on a literary hoax known as Niflaot Maharal, falsely ascribed to Maharal’s son-in-law. The work, which claims to be an eyewitness account of how Maharal created the Golem, was really authored by Rabbi Yudl Rosenberg, who published it in 1909. Ed.”

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