Shirl Solomon's Creative Works

Goylem

A “Golem” is an incomplete form created through prayer and intended to serve a master. This watercolor depicts the story of a European rabbi who,  tormented by anti-Semitic attacks against his people, instructs members of his synagogue to go to the river and build from the sand an amorphous mass.  With passionate pleading prayers, the mass of sand comes alive and goes forth to destroy those who had transgressed upon the ghetto Jews. The Golem’s rampage is indiscriminant, and the Rabbi cannot control the powerful amorphous form.  Seeing no alternative, the despairing rabbi then prays for the Golem to be destroyed.  The prayers are answered, and the ferocious aggressor returns to its original form, an inert mass of sand.