Editing He, She and It (section)

==Plot summary==
The story of ''He, She and It'' takes place in [[North America]] in the year 2059. The economic and political power is held by a few ''multis''—huge [[Multinational corporation|multinational enterprises]] with their own social hierarchies, that are able to produce an affluent society. However, the main part of the population lives in the ''glop'' outside of the multis' enclaves within an environment that has mainly been destroyed. There, life is dominated by poverty, gang wars, and the law of the strongest. An exception to this is the so-called free towns that are able to sell their technologies to the multis but remain [[autonomous]]. Communication is handled via a network that allows the participants to project themselves into [[Cyberspace]].

When the protagonist, Shira, loses custody of her son Ari to her ex-husband Josh, she returns from her multi, Yakamura-Stichen (Y-S), to her hometown Tikva (Hope in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]) - a [[Jews|Jewish]] freetown. There, she starts working on the socialisation of the [[cyborg]] Yod (the tenth letter in Hebrew and a symbol for God in [[Kabbalah]]), who has been created illegally by Avram to protect the city. Yod is the tenth cyborg (a robot with human appearance and programmed human characteristics) in a row of previously failed experiments whose programming has partially been completed by Malkah, Shira's grandmother. Shira and Yod build up a (sexual) relationship between them and Shira's childhood sweetheart Gadi, Avram's son, also comes back to Tikva, due to his banishment for sleeping with a young girl. During the time when Malkah is working on a [[chimaera]] (security software) to protect the city from an online attack, she is attacked by Y-S, but Yod is able to stop the attack.

Eventually, Y-S invites Shira to a new custody hearing for her son. Shira, newly reunited with her mother, Riva, attends the hearing at a communications blackout spot, accompanied by Yod, Riva, and Nili (a biotechnologically enhanced woman from nuclear-devastated Israel), attends. The situation escalates into violence, resulting in casualties among the Y-S delegation and Riva. In response, Shira, Malkah, and Yod decide to infiltrate the Y-S network base successfully, obtaining personnel files that unveil a [[conspiracy]] against Shira and Tikva.

In the next phase, Shira, Yod, Nili, and Gadi enter the Glop, connecting with an underground group where they discover Riva alive and involved in resistance activities. Venturing into the Y-S enclave in Nebraska, they aim to kidnap Ari, resulting in Yod killing Josh. Back in Tikva, Shira's family experiences a brief respite before Y-S invites them to a net meeting, demanding Yod for its technology. Avram agrees, hoping to create another cyborg, but Yod ensures that his self-destruction causes a simultaneous explosion in Avram's lab. Avram perishes, and with his notes destroyed, the creation of another cyborg becomes impossible.

Finally, Malkah leaves Tikva with Nili to visit a secret town in [[Nuclear holocaust|post-nuclear holocaust]] Israel and to profit from the possible biotechnological enhancements. Shira is integrated into Tikva's society further. When she discovers copies of the notes concerning Yod, she initially plans on recreating Yod, but ultimately she respects his wishes and destroys them.

The main plot is interwoven with a story Malkah tells Yod that deals with [[Maharal of Prague|Rabbi Judah Loew]] who Malkah depicts as her ancestor living in the [[ghetto]] of [[Prague]] around 1600. To protect the Jewish community from the [[Christians|Christian]] mob, Loew uses the knowledge of [[Kabbalah]] to create the [[golem]] Joseph from clay. His granddaughter Chava, a highly educated woman, teaches Joseph to read and write. Joseph successfully protects the ghetto and begins to think of himself as human and makes a plea for his right to a human existence. However, when the [[pogrom]] climate calms down, Loew returns Joseph to clay. The two stories are mutually illuminating, both asking what it means to be human, both from the perspective of man-made life, and that of those who love artificial lives.