The Golem of Chicago: Rahm Emanuel

Is Rahm Emanuel a golem?

Short answer? Yes, definitely. I will expand on my answer, and then talk about certain specific Chicago issues which involve this golem.

I will start by invoking, in Dubya's infamous words, "my instincts."

QUOTE [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html ]

''I was in the Oval Office a few months after we swept into Baghdad,'' [Joe Biden] began, ''and I was telling the president of my many concerns'' -- concerns about growing problems winning the peace, the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanding of the Iraqi Army and problems securing the oil fields. Bush, Biden recalled, just looked at him, unflappably sure that the United States was on the right course and that all was well. '''Mr. President,' I finally said, 'How can you be so sure when you know you don't know the facts?'''

Biden said that Bush stood up and put his hand on the senator's shoulder. ''My instincts,'' he said. ''My instincts.''

:UNQUOTE.

RE: The highlighted part above:

In the case of the golem Rahm Emanuel, I do know the facts. But not in any way that would logically convince others, satisfy a court of law or any rabbinical court imaginable. So, if you want to proceed to read this, humor me, indulge me, but most of all, keep an open mind.

What was a Golem?

Maybe I should have headed this section with these words instead: "What was a golem and what has he evolved to in this modern age?" The following material, referenced by Footnote 1, attempts to answer both questions with the original wikipedia text addressing "What was a Golem?" My comments, inserted as paragraphs, the first words of which are highlighted in green, address the second question as well as include thought-provoking observations.

QUOTE (see Footnote 1):

In Jewish folklore, a ''golem'' is an animated anthropomorphic being, created entirely from inanimate matter. The word ''golem'' occurs once in the Bible in Psalms 139:16, meaning "unshaped form", connoting the unfinished human being before God’s eyes.

Here's Psalms 139:16, as indicated in my Footnote 2: "Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed."

Keeping in mind that these words were directed by the psalmist (speaking of himself!) to God, it's hard to see how the folklore (and rabbinical commentary!) which follows could have arisen. [NOTE: I'm not clear on which "book" the psalmist is referring to.]

The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late16th-century rabbi of Prague. There are many tales differing on how the Golem was brought to life and afterwards controlled. Similarly, it is often used today as a metaphor for a brainless lunk or entity who serves man under controlled conditions but is hostile to him under others.

Why should the Golem, created by man and therefore inferior to any human created by God, ever become "hostile to him?" When man creates a golem, is there a built-in resentment in the created entity? If so, that could be said to parallel the built-in resentment which exists toward God by the humans made by that God. Interesting.

In the Talmud, Adam was initially created as a golem when his dust was "kneaded into a shapeless husk." Like Adam, all golems are created from mud.

Obviously, some liquid had to be added to "his dust" in order to obtain the mud which was "kneaded." Was this liquid merely water or tears of joy from God's eyes?

They were a creation of those who were very holy and close to God. A very holy person was one who strove to approach God, and in that pursuit would gain some of God's wisdom and power. One of these powers was the creation of life. However, no matter how holy a person became, a being created by that person would be but a shadow of one created by God.

Why would any such holy person seek to imitate God so badly? How would they "gain some of God's...power" by merely striving to approach God? Wouldn't anything they'd gain be solely obtained by the grace of God, irrelevant of their striving? Wouldn't these holy ones be far holier by worshipping God, keeping his Law, and ministering to his creations (among them, other humans) rather than trying to create lifeforms (and grossly inferior ones at that) which (as you'll see below) can be malevolent?

Early on, it was noted that the main disability of the golem was its inability to speak.

This is how the modern golem is different: He can speak, quite fluently in some cases. Since it's apparently easy to create a golem (see below), maybe they can be made to speak by means of appeals to the Prince of Lies. So that would make the Rahm Golem a hybrid - initially created by means allowed by God but "improved" with a little help from the Devil. It is said: Politics make strange bedfellows. Indeed!

Indeed, the modern Golem can even be made far more handsome (better sculptors of "mud"?) than their freakish looking predecessors.

Rav Zeira said [to a golem], "You were created by the magicians; return to your dust."

But Rav, isn't it claimed that these "magicians" of which you speak are "very holy and close to God?" If so, then why should the golem commit suicide by returning to his dust?

During the Middle Ages, passages from the ''Sefer Yetzirah" (''Book of Creation'') were studied as a means to attain the mystical ability to create and animate a golem.

Wait a minute. I thought the ability to create a golem wasn't mystical but was instead a matter of a person becoming "very holy and close to God." Can merely studying passages as one studies magical recipes allow one to create a golem or must one, instead, be very holy and close to God?

It was believed that golems could be activated by an ecstatic experience induced by the ritualistic use of various letters of the Hebrew Alphabet forming a "'shem'' (any one of the Names of God in Judaism). The ''shem'' was written on a piece of paper and inserted either in the mouth or in the forehead of the golem, thus bringing it into life and action.

That last sentence indicates a very crude approach. For if these holy men who were so close to God had obtained a share of God's power, why would writing on a piece of paper and stuffing it into an inanimate mouth be necessary? Wouldn't the sheer force of their will be sufficient to create the golem, in much the same way as the sheer force of God's will created man? This "paper" and ritual business sound like conditions mandated by God so that He, in reality, creates the golem after the "holy" ones follow His protocols for doing so. In other words, the golem is still God's creation and the "holy" ones deceive themselves thinking they were directly responsible.

A Polish Kabbalist, writing in about 1630–1650, reported the creation of a golem by Rabbi Eliyahu thus: "And I have heard, in a certain and explicit way, from several respectable persons that one man [living] close to our time, whose name is R. Eliyahu, the master of the name, who made a creature out of matter [Heb. 'Golem'] and it performed hard work for him, for a long period, and the name of 'emet' was hanging upon his neck, until he finally removed it for a certain reason, the name from his neck, and it turned to dust."

Apparently this R. Eliyahu created a slave. What kind of a holy man creates a being only to labor for him, while not receiving his kindness and wise instruction?

Rabbi Jacob Emden (d.1776) elaborated on the story in a book published in 1748: "As an aside, I’ll mention here what I heard from my father’s holy mouth regarding the Golem created by his ancestor, the Gaon R. Eliyahu Ba’al Shem of blessed memory. When the Gaon saw that the Golem was growing larger and larger, he feared that the Golem would destroy the universe. He then removed the Holy Name that was embedded on his forehead, thus causing him to disintegrate and return to dust."

This Gaon was guilty of having a massive ego. For how could anything he'd create "destroy the universe," which was made by God and is His creation?

The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th century rabbi of Prague, also known as the Maharal, who reportedly created a golem to defend the Prague ghetto from antisemitic attacks.

There was a time when pious Jews would pray to God for protection - which was granted - instead of taking matters into their own hands. Why did Judah Loew ben Bezalel abandon prayer?

Depending on the version of the legend, the Jews in Prague were to be either expelled or killed under the rule of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor. To protect the Jewish community, the rabbi constructed the Golem out of clay from the banks of the Vltava river, and brought it to life through rituals and Hebrew incantations.  It was said that [this Golem] could make himself invisible and summon spirits from the dead.

So a Golem can make himself invisible and, yet, is a creature inferior to any that God could make even though His creatures can't become invisible or summon spirits from the dead? These two traits are, apparently, due to some kind of evolution in Golem creational technology. The modern Golem makers have become quite sophisticated indeed.

Some strictly orthodox Jews believe that the Maharal did actually create a golem. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (the last Rebbe of Lubavitch) wrote that his father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, told him that he saw the remains of the Golem in the attic of Alt-Neu Shul.

Only "some strictly orthodox Jews" believe this? I think Schneersohn was lying about what he saw - but found it useful to do so.

There is a similar tradition relating to the Vilna Gaon (1720–1797). Rabbi Chaim Volozhin (Lithuania 1749–1821) reports that he once presented to his teacher, the Vilna Gaon, ten different versions of a certain passage in the ''Sefer Yetzira'' and asked the Gaon to determine the correct text. The Gaon immediately identified one version as the accurate rendition of the passage. The amazed student then commented to his teacher that, with such clarity, he should easily be able to create a live human.

Why shouldn't the Gaon be able to easily pass such a test, which could be passed by anyone with a mind for detail? How does this (easily) "amazed student" jump to the conclusion that this feat of memory means he should "easily be able to create a live human." I'm surprised no one questions this nonsense.

The Gaon affirmed Rabbi Chaim’s assertion, and said that he once began to create a person when he was a child, under the age of 13, but during the process he received a sign from Heaven ordering him to desist because of his tender age.

So it would have been okay, after his Bar Mitzvah, to create a person because he no longer would be of a tender age and would be, under Jewish tradition, a man?

The Vilna Gaon wrote an extensive commentary on the ''Sefer Yetzira'', in which it is said that he had tried to create a Golem to fight the power of evil at the Gates of Jerusalem. As far as we know, the Vilna Gaon is the only rabbi who has actually claimed that he tried to create a Golem; all such stories about other rabbis were told after their time.

It was not necessary for the Vilna Gaon to create a Golem to fight the power of evil at the Gates of Jerusalem. God would have been more than equal to the task.

The existence of a golem is sometimes a mixed blessing. Golems are not intelligent, and if commanded to perform a task, they will perform the instructions literally. In many depictions Golems are inherently perfectly obedient.

I don't buy the part about Golems not being intelligent. In order to perform a task, they have to have some degree of intelligence. If the instructions provided are in sufficient detail - which we've learned to do as our computer programming skills have become more profound - then the "perfectly obedient" golem,  much like the perfectly obedient computer, will perform instructions not only literally but with the appearance of great underlying intelligence.

:UNQUOTE.

So how does all this apply to Rahm?

The anonymous powers who really control our politics need frontmen - mouthpieces to do their deeds. But they've reached a degree of sophistication beyond stuffing pieces of paper bearing God's name into mouths of clay. They've gone beyond being holy ones close to God to ones who fail to believe in God at all and think their prominence depends on a variety of techniques which elevate them to a God-like level.

The modern Golem doesn't come in one crude, clumsy form. He is "born" and goes through growth development stages as would any human. This is because he has to be made to fit in. The older model of a lumbering, clumsy creature that could summon the spirits of the dead and become invisible was no longer suitable for modern needs. For those needs involve, not the need for crude slave labor or physical defense of an embattled community,  gaining political control in order to push an agenda.

But the modern Golem Rahm Emanuel still shares some of the traits of the old. He is aggressive, aberrational in behavior to the point of being mentally disturbed, and totally dedicated to his programming. And worst of all? He is not religious - but master-dedicated instead and doesn't even know he's a Golem.

Why Chicago is perfect for Rahm as Mayor

Rahm Emanuel was groomed very early on to launch his ultimate bid for the US presidency by first becoming mayor of Chicago, a city with a long history of strong mayor v. weak city council government. After Mayor Daley was ordered to retire, the path was cleared for Rahm's ascendancy. Personally, I don't believe he won the 50% of the vote necessary to avoid a runoff in the election. And even if he did, those who count the votes had some illicit ones set aside just in case the vote turned out to be too close.

So Rahm Emanuel is in a perfect position in a not-so-perfect environment. In order to run for the presidency, he'll have to at least generate the illusion that he was a good mayor able to turn things around in this town. But that's all that will be needed - an illusion. Trying to beat down his main opponent - the Chicago Teachers' Union - by privatizing more schools and closing 50 public ones will aid his cause. That will gain him points from people who think public service unions are too strong and government is too (inefficiently) involved in education.

And it won't matter that Rahm, who knows nothing of educational reform, won't be able to point to a better educated youth as his legacy. He'll merely claim that the fruits of his reforms are pending, while encouraging us to look at how much money we saved by closing all those schools.

A Basketball facility for DePaul University

Rahm Emanuel, in his quest to appear as a stimulator of Chicago's economy, proposed a new facility which will house DePaul's basketball games and double as a convention facility for clients needing a facility smaller (and presumably cheaper) than nearby McCormick Place.

For one thing, DePaul doesn't need a new basketball court. The Chicago Bulls have offered to let the Blue Demons play in their house rent free. For another, this whole idea of needing extra convention space is a myth. Vendors will make increasing use of virtual conventioning online to introduce their wares in an interactive, cheaper, and convenient manner to clients.

So why does Rahm want this new facility? Speculation is that it will be able to house concerts which will increase the attractiveness of a gambling casino which he hopes will be approved by the state legislature.

About that casino

Mayor Emanuel wants to have total control over any Chicago-based gambling house. It remains to be seen if Governor Quinn will oppose this by insisting on transparency and sufficient oversight. He could use his amendatory veto power over any legislation passed by the Illinois congress, which could then approve such a casino but only under the conditions listed in his veto. And he might well try to do that, though I doubt it. I'm convinced the congress will be poised to override his veto and give Rahm the casino he so desperately yearns for, making any such cautionary approach by Quinn a moot point.

Once the casino is in place with the attendant hoopla and lack of oversight, uncountable and unaccountable millions will start to pour into the mayor's coffers. And with money comes the ability to buy off opponents and market one's agenda.

About the proposed change in Chicago's Parking Meter deal

This quote shows the power of Chicago's mayor and the uselessness of the City Council;

QUOTE [Footnote 3]:

[Chicago aldermen], we have some questions for you [about the proposed revision of the] parking meter contract that was announced 19 days ago.

Have you seen an audited financial statement yet? Have you confirmed what this will really cost people who park in the city? Have you read every line of the 350-plus-page revised agreement?

Didn't think so.

A group of 24 [out of 50] Chicago aldermen signed onto a press release supporting the agreement's promise of free parking on Sundays. The aldermen professed their unbridled enthusiasm just one day after they received a copy of the contract. Sure, they had been briefed by the major's staff. But they didn't see the new contract language on paper until the day before they gave a thumbs-up.

[and]

One more time: The disastrous 2008 parking meter deal was announced on a Tuesday, passed out of committee on Wednesday and approved by the full council on Thursday. In less than three days, the council managed to approved one of the dumbest giveaways in city history. Aldermen, pressured by [Mayor] Daley allowed a private company, Chicago Parking Meters LLC, to pay $1.2 billion up front to take over the city's parking meters, a deal that will pay itself off over and over - and possibly over - during the next 71 years of the contract.

:UNQUOTE.

I'm convinced that Mayor Daley was paid off by the LLC to foist this incredibly bad deal off on Chicago's citizens. I'm also convinced that Golem Rahm is similarly being paid off. For why would a company that got such a great deal from the first mayor be willing to negotiate a new deal? The true irony of all this, of course, is that Chicago is full of lawyers and finance people who could efficiently analyze this new contract for pitfalls. But they won't. Not a single one. For to do so might reveal details embarrassing to the mayor. And nobody does that to Rahm Emanuel - nobody who cares about career advancement...or living a good long life.

On a more wistful note

I remember reading a headline in a Chicago newspaper using this coined term - "Rahm bomb." That was in reference to Rahm having been momentarily barred from being on the ballot for mayor. However, I got the little joke behind the headline, which was in reference to rambam (pronounced same as "Rahm bomb"). This was another name for the famous 12th century rabbi and physician, Maimonides, of whom Wikipedia has this to say:

"Nevertheless, he was posthumously acknowledged to be one of the foremost rabbinical arbiters and philosophers in Jewish history, his copious work comprising a cornerstone of Jewish scholarship."

I'm sad to report that our very own Rahm Bomb is nothing like the noble spirit of Maimonides. For that's what the 12th century had, while we only have the spectre of an arrogant, self-posturing little prick.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Steven Searle, former candidate for US President (2008 and 2012)
Founder of The Independent Contractors' Party

"Admittedly, my track record on predictions is pretty spotty - but I'll offer one anyway. Hillary Clinton won't run for president in 2016 - but Rahm Emanuel will."

Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com

Footnotes

Footnote 1: This link is the source of the text I quoted, though I took substantial liberties by not using ellipsis marks or other indicators to show missing text and I quote some of the material out of order - none of which, however, alters the underlying meaning of the original wording:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem

Footnote 2: This link provides an interesting analysis of 139:16:
http://www.crivoice.org/psa139.html


Footnote 3: Selected quotes above are from this link:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-05-17/opinion/ct-edit-meters-20130517_1_meter-deal-chicago-parking-meters-llc-aldermen