Jewish mysticism features the legend of the Golem of Prague, a giant clay automaton supposedly brought to life in the 16th century by Rabbi Judah Loew to protect the local ghetto.

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Jewish mysticism features the legend of the Golem of Prague, a giant clay automaton supposedly brought to life in the 16th century by Rabbi Judah Loew to protect the local ghetto. The creature was animated by writing a mystical Hebrew word on its forehead, but it eventually went on a violent rampage and had to be deactivated by erasing a single letter. While the story sounds ancient, historical records show the legend was actually invented by German writers in the 1830s, long after the rabbi's death, to sell sensationalist novels. It is the 19th-century equivalent of creating a fake historical creepypasta, proving that people have always loved a good sci-fi monster story masquerading as legitimate religious history