Tablet reviews "The Golem"

CINEMA AND THEODICY: Jewish Horror. Judaism offers the same baroque supernatural possibilities that Christianity does. So why is it rarely a universal source for genre filmmakers? And what does it say about human evil? (Ed Simon, Tablet Magazine). This is a review of The Golem, but the subject matter ranges from the Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls, to the film, to Kafka, to metaphysics and theology.

Monotheistic horror plumbs the depths of the Shema’s darkest conclusions, where the ultimate origin of terror must be reconciled with the fundamental truth of “the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” In monotheistic horror, regardless of whether a book or movie has superficial markers of Jewishness or not, where it leads is to that gnawing wisdom of the prophet, who writes in Isaiah 45:7 “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”

The ur-text of Jewish horror, and what I would argue is perhaps the most terrifying story every told, is the biblical Book of Job. ...

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