Golem by David Wisniewski

I heard about the word Golem long time ago when I was fourteen and reading Isaak Bashevis Singer's novels.
At that time I did not understand what it represented.   This was the reason book draw my attention. Piter Sis mentioned Golem as one of the old legends of Prague in his picture book "The Three Goldern Keys" Illustration in the book are very beautiful. The story is based on the old Jewish legend created by the man to help prosecuted people imprisoned in the ghetto of Prague.  Golem grew too big, too strong and misused his powers. In the end he had to be destroyed by the same man who created him. The very idea that rabbi created Golem by reciting combination of letters of Hebrew alphabet  to create life seems very interesting. But not everybody could create life, only the most pious and righteous man.  The book inspired me to look more into the legends inspired by Cabala, Jewish mysticism, what kind of things they believed  and they created in the medieval times. I am not a believer, but the idea that uttering certain combination of letters can give humans certain powers seems very creative and appealing.
In oder to introduce and teach this story to children I would have to give some explanation of the Cabala, historical background of the legend of Golem.   Then I would explain the folktale genre to the students and the purpose it served in society. We would have discussion about universal truth or moral for the story.  Then I would encourage student to research other versions of Golem and  compare and contrast one of these versions to David Wisniewski's story.  I would ask students to describe the magical elements in the story and to determine how  they contribute to the story's resolution.