Week 4 Story: The Rabbi's Automaton

(Clockwork Girl & Boy by Milo)

“They call me a magician,” he grumbled to himself as he stared down into the Jewish ghetto below. Beyond the ghetto stood the towering heights of the city-proper. He sat in his leather chair in his dimly lit study twirling the end of his bushy mustache around the tip of his finger.  The Sabbath was approaching and he had no one to assist him. The people feared him - so much that none would work for him. 

They were afraid not because he was an evil man but because he was a learned man, a man of science. Drawings of fantastical flying machines on yellowed parchment littered his desk. The people feared Rabbi Lion and his experiments. His genius was not yet understood. Bright flashes of light sometimes shone from his windows. The lay people attributed these flashes of light to demons so none were willing to enter his service. 

“Pfft, if I were able to wield magic why would I not just command someone to serve me,” he thought.

“I shall make my own servant!” he exclaimed triumphantly. He hastily sketched a design. He worked diligently throughout the night until he collapsed with exhaustion. He worked for several weeks becoming somewhat of a recluse. 

Finally, his creation was complete. He had made a woman. Not a woman of flesh, blood, and bone - but a woman of cog, gear, and steam. She was a large working machine-woman, but that is all she was - she had no life. The Rabbi wracked his brain for an idea. She was but a machine, the small steam-powered engine he had built powered her but she could only function through manual operation. She needed a life-force. He again became annoyed. After many days of wallowing in self-doubt, he finally had it.

“The Almighty!” he exclaimed. The only being capable of giving life was our holy God. He carefully inscribed the unpronounceable name of the holy God onto a golden key. This key fits a keyhole on the back of his servant. He inserted the key and turned - his creation sprang to life. 

She could walk, run, and do household duties controlled only by his thoughts. The machine-woman ran the Rabbi’s errands and tended his fire on the Sabbath, but she did all in silence, for she could not speak. The sight of the Rabbi’s machine-woman filled the ghetto’s residence with awe and fear.  However, his creation was growing increasingly unruly. He decided to remove the key from her back each night before he slept.

One evening while the Rabbi was giving a sermon in the synagogue his creation stood watching for him through an open window. Children stood outside staring at the machine-woman. Eventually, the bravest of the children said, “come and play with us.” The machine-woman obeyed. She jumped through the window to join the children in the street. The children asked if she might build them a fire to warm themselves. Silently, she agreed. She built the biggest fire any of the children had ever seen in the middle of the street. Child and machine played and danced around the fire. The fire soon grew out of hand. A nearby house caught fire and soon half of the ghetto was a blaze. 

By the time the Rabbi had been informed of his creation’s actions many houses had been reduced to smoldering heaps. He went searching for his creation and found nothing but a pile of gears and springs. He also found the golden key inscribed with the name of God, for it could not burn. 

The king was informed of the Rabbi’s creation and the destruction she had wrought. Rabbi Lion was promptly arrested. He was brought before the king and made to explain his actions -  it was a sin to create life. The Rabbi tried desperately to explain that he had not created life, he had simply created a machine that was powerless without the name of God. The king commanded Rabbi Lion to build another creature so that he may judge this for himself. The Rabbi went to work immediately - it took him but a few hours to build another machine. This time it was a man - larger than the woman. The king looked upon the creation and command the Rabbi to make him work. Just as before the Rabbi placed the golden key in the machine's back - his creation once again sprang to life. The king was amazed. 

“I want this machine-man for myself. Give him to me.” commanded the king. But the Rabbi refused. 

“The machine-man must only be under my control, it would be too dangerous otherwise,” the Rabbi protested, even if it meant invoking the wrath of the king. The king conceded and the Rabbi returned home to the still smoking ghetto. For awhile the machine-man did just as the woman had. But he grew bolder by the day until one day he learned to speak. Much to the Rabbi’s displeasure and astonishment the machine-man proclaimed,

“I wish to be a soldier!” 

The Rabbi forbade this wish. The machine-man spoke no more of his desires until one night while the Rabbi slept he crept out of the study window and down into the streets. The Rabbi was awoken to the cries of the people. The machine-man had escaped and was trying to break down the doors of the synagogue. The Rabbi had forgotten to remove the key.

“What are you doing!” Rabbi Lion cried when he reached the synagogue doors. 

“I will destroy the Holy Laws so that I may be a soldier and destroy the Jewish people!” the machine cried.

“I will kill you first!” shouted the Rabbi.

They grappled in the streets. Man against machine. Finally, the Rabbi was able to pull the key from his creation. The machine-man collapsed on the ground in a pile of scrap metal.

For many years hence the cogs and gears of Rabbi Lion’s machine-man were displayed in the synagogue as a reminder of what happens when man tries to create life, of what happens when man tries to play God. 

Author's Note:

"The Rabbi's Bogey-Man," tells the story of a golem of sorts that Rabbi Lion invents to work for him as a servant. Eventually, the first golem, a woman, is incinerated by a fire she built that gets out of control. The second machine he builds, a man, eventually grows to hate the Rabbi and his people and tries to destroy the Holy Laws that control him so that he may "destroy the Jewish people." I wanted to update the story just a little bit and put it in an alternate Victorian era of sorts and give it a little steampunk twist. I wanted to make Rabbi Lion a crackpot inventor of sorts and his golem into an automaton. This story was really perfect for a steampunk vibe.

Bibliography: Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertrude Landa (1919)