Yaarel
He Mage
The clay golem derives from the Bible, where the first human (whose name is ‘Human’, Adam) is shaped out of wet clay − namely a ‘lump’ of ‘dirt’ made moist by a ‘mist’ from the ground. God brought this reddish clay statue to life, by breathing Divine breath into it. This is understood as the ‘dirt’ of physical molecules being mysteriously entangled with consciousness.
There is a tradition that when humanity is without sin, then it will become possible for humans to create new human life in a similar way.
There is a story in the Talmud where the golem looked exactly like a human, but was recognized as being nonhuman, and only animalistic, because of the inability to speak and reason.
There is also a story of two rabbis who created a living cow. They understood the miracle had to be for a good purpose, so they cooked it for a feast for Shabat.
It seems to me, the rabbinic traditions are more about creating life than creating robots. Nevertheless, there are rabbinic traditions today that connect computers and artificial intelligence with the golem. There is even a famous case where several descendants of the Maharal of Prague (a rabbi credited with creating a golem), who were pioneers in the field of computers.
Keep in mind, most rabbis dont create golems. This is a rare but famous case concerning a handful of individuals. In D&D terms, these are probably standard Wizards or Artificers who happen to have a Rabbi background.
