Golem

In Jewish folklore, a golem is an animated being created entirely from inanimate matter, usually clay, and given life through magic. The key to making this magic work, according to legend, was to inscribe the Hebrew word "emet" or "aemaeth" (God's truth). The golem was originally intended to protect the Jews from oppression of the ruling Gentile class. However, golems tended to take instruction literally, and so were (unwittingly) quite destructive. By removing the first letter of "emet", the word is changed to "met", meaning death.

Golem in "In This Season"
A golem was sent to save the three Jewish families of Puck, Poland in 1939 from the fate the Nazis had in store for them. After joining the three families for Chanukah meal, the golem revealed to them the Holocaust, and offered to lead them to safety. The three families escaped aboard a neighbor's boat. The golem killed several German soldiers, but a luck shot from a dying German erased the first letter of "emet" inscribed on the golem's head. The golem "died".