Dybbuk

In Jewish mythology, a dybbuk (Yiddish: ‫דיבוק‬, from the Hebrew

verb ‫ ָדּבַ ק‬dāḇaq meaning "adhere" or "cling") is a malicious
possessing spirit believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person.
It supposedly leaves the host body once it has accomplished its goal,
sometimes after beinghelped.[1][2][3]

Contents
Etymology
History
In popular culture
Dybbuk, by Ephraim Moshe Lilien (1874–1925).
Film
Print
Television
Theater
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Etymology
"Dybbuk" is an abbreviation of ‫ דיבוק מרוח רעה‬dibbūq mē-rūaḥ rā‘ā ("a cleavage of an evil spirit"), or ‫דיבוק מן‬
‫ החיצונים‬dibbūq min ha-ḥīṣōnīm ("dibbuk from the outside"), which is found in man. "Dybbuk" comes from the Hebrew word
‫ ִדּיבּוּק‬dibbūq which means "the act of sticking" and is a nominal form derived from the verb‫ ָדּבַ ק‬dāḇaq "to adhere" or "cling".[4]

History
The term first appears in a number of 16th century writings,[1][5] though it was ignored by mainstream scholarship until S. Ansky's
play The Dybbuk popularised the concept in literary circles.[5] Earlier accounts of possession (such as that given byJosephus) were of
demonic possession rather than that by ghosts.[6] These accounts advocated orthodoxy among the populace[1] as a preventative
measure. For example, it was suggested that a sloppily made mezuzah or entertaining doubt about Moses' crossing of the Red Sea
opened one's household to dybbuk possession. Very precise details of names and locations have been included in accounts of dybbuk
possession. Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar rebbe (1887–1979) is reported to have supposedly advised an individual said to be
possessed to consult apsychiatrist.[6]

Ansky's play is a significant work of Yiddish theatre, and has been adapted a number of times by writers, composers and other
creators including Jerome Robbins/Leonard Bernstein and Tony Kushner. In the play, a young bride is possessed by the ghost of the
man she was meant to marry, had her father not broken a marriage agreement.

There are other forms of soul transmigration in Jewish mythology. In contrast to the dybbuk, the ibbur (meaning "impregnation") is a
positive possession, which happens when a righteous soul temporarily possesses a body. This is always done with consent, so that the
soul can perform a mitzvah. The gilgul (Hebrew: ‫גלגול הנשמות‬, literally "rolling") puts forth the idea that a soul must live through
many lives before it gains the wisdom to rejoin with God.
In psychological literature the Dybbuk has been described as ahysterical syndrome.[7]

In popular culture

Film
The Malayalam movie Ezra (2017) revolves around a Dybbuk box, with references to Kabbalist traditions and occultism.

Michał Waszyński's 1937 film The Dybbuk, based on the Yiddish play by S. Ansky, is considered one of the classics of Yiddish film-
making.[8]

The dybbuk was featured as the main antagonist in the horror filmsThe Unborn (2009) and The Possession (2012).

In Love and Death, Woody Allen's 1975 satire of Russian literature, Boris (Allen) flirts with Sonja (Diane Keaton), who is with the
fish monger she is set to marry. The fiancée keeps getting in the way of Boris' advances, which leads him to ask Sonja, "Did you have
to bring the dybbuk?"

A Serious Man opens with a story about a couple who suspect that the rabbi they're hosting for dinner is a dybbuk.

Marcin Wrona's Demon is the story of a groom possessed by a dybbuk the night before his wedding.

In the Christopher Guest 1997 movie Waiting for Guffman, dentist Allan Pearl discusses his family history with show business: "I
think I got a, a, an entertaining bug... from my grandfather... uh, Chaim Pearlgut, who was very very big in the, um, Yiddish, uh,
theater, back in New York. He was in the, the very... the sardonically irreverent ..." Dybbuk Shmybbuk, I Said 'More Ham' "... and
that revue I believe was 1914, and that revue was what made him famous. Incidentally, the song "Bubbe Made A Kishke" came from
that revue."

Print
In Romain Gary's 1967 novel The Dance of Genghis Cohn, a concentration camp warden is haunted by the dybbuk of one of his
victims.[9]

In Ellen Galford's 1993 novel The Dyke and the Dybbuk, lesbian taxi-driver Rainbow Rosenbloom is haunted by, and gets the better
[6]
of, a female dybbuk haunting her as a result of a curse placed on her ancestor 200 years ago.

The dybbuk appears in the fictional novel,The Inquisitor's Apprentice (2011) by Chris Moriarty.[10]

In the comic series Girl Genius, the forcible insertion of the mind of Agatha's mother, the main villain Lucrezia Mongfish/"The
Other", into her own was compared to a dybbuk by one of her followers when reporting the situation to someone else.

Richard Zimler's 2011 novel The Warsaw Anagrams is narrated by a dybbuk desperately trying to understand why he has remained in
our world. This is in keeping with kabbalistic belief that dybbuks fail to pass over to the Other Side because of a mitzvah or duty that
they have failed to fulfill.

Television
The Dybbuk is mentioned in the paranormal TV showParanormal Witness, season 2, episode 4, "The Dybbuk Box."

The "Dybbuk Box" was shown on the first episode of Deadly Possessions (spin off of Ghost Adventures), in which the son of the
relative of a holocaust survivor recounts the tale of the Dybbuks' alleged involvement in the deaths surrounding the box.

In the TV show Difficult People, season 3, episode 3 "Code Change", Billy helps his sister-in-law Rucchel exorcise what she believes
to be a Dybbuk from her basement.
In the episode of The Real Ghostbusters, "Drool, the Dog-faced Goblin," the Ghostbusters discuss with Peter Venkman the many
different forms an antagonistic ghost they are facing can take, with Egon Spengler mentioning a dybbuk. Peter asks Egon what a
dybbuk is and Egon replies that it's best if he didn't know. In a later episode titled "The Devil to Pay," the Ghostbusters deal with a
demon named Dib Devlin, who swindles Ray Stanz and Winston Zeddemore into selling their souls to compete in his game show.
Dib Devlin is later revealed to be a dybbuk.

Grandpa Boris tells a scary story to the babies involving a Dybbuk in an early episode of
Rugrats.

In DC's Legends of Tomorrow, episode 407, the team goes after a Dybbuk stuck in a creepy doll.

In The Good Fight, Season 3 Episode 6, Marissa Gold, played by Sarah Steele, refers to a particularly devilish and disruptive
character as a "dybbuk in a suit."

Theater
Few topics in Jewish theater history have inspired as many stage treatments as the Dybbuk. A review of the innovative approaches to
the subject was presented by EgoPo Classic Theater in English translation from the Yiddish, as penned by Joachim Neugroschel and
adapted by Tony Kushner, the production directed by Lane Savadove. Containing detailed background information on the history of
the Dybbuk, "'Don’t ask me what happened. It’s best not to know!': A DYBBUK, or Between two worlds", the article was first
published by All About Jewish Theatre, the world's largest English-language Jewish theater website, before its demise in 2014, but
recently rescued by Drama Around the Globe and republished by Phindie.

See also
Dybbuk box
Kabbalah

References
1. A Psychoanalytic History of the Jews, by Avner Falk, p.538, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1996(https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=z10-Xz9Kno4C&lpg=P A538&ots=aitC-oaSO_&dq=dybbuk&pg=PA538#v=onepage&q=dybbuk&f=
false)
2. "Dybbuk" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/174964/dybbuk), Encyclopædia Britannica Online(http://www.
britannica.com/), retrieved 10 June 2009
3. "Dibbuk", Encyclopedia Judaica(http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0005_0_05197.html)
,
by Gershom Scholem.
4. See A. Sáenz-Badillos & J. Elwolde,A History of the Hebrew Language, 1996, p. 187 (https://books.google.nl/book
s?id=EZCgpaTgLm0C&pg=PA187&lpg=PA187&dq=%22qittul%22+pattern&source=bl&ot s=YfozMVFICC&sig=GDM
Tg-xNYuhKvxBeYSucLRi8VWI&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0CDkQ6AEwBWoVChMIqJilgcWFyQIVC3EUCh2TCgTl#v=onepa
ge&q=%22qittul%22%20pattern&f=false)on the qiṭṭūl pattern.
5. Spirit Possession in Judaism: Cases and Contexts from the Middle Ages to the Present, by Matt Goldish
, p.41,
Wayne State University Press, 2003(https://books.google.com/books?id=CF1C84xHeucC&lpg=P A41&ots=CvbxBG
1z6W&dq=dybbuk&pg=PA41#v=onepage&q=dybbuk&f=false)
6. Tree of Souls:The Mythology of Judaism, by Howard Schwartz, pp. 229–230, Oxford University Press, 1 Nov 2004
(h
ttps://books.google.com/books?id=60iVk1p8Y9IC&lpg=P A229&ots=WYDSSzpy-j&dq=dybbuk&pg=P A229#v=onepag
e&q=dybbuk&f=false)
7. Billu, Y; Beit-Hallahmi, B (1989). "Dybbuk-Possession as a hysterical symptom: Psychodynamic and socio-cultural
factors". Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Science
. 26: 138–149. PMID 2606645 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.go
v/pubmed/2606645).
8. "The Dybbuk" (http://www.jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/dybbuk.html). The National Center for Jewish Film.
Retrieved 29 October 2014.
 9. Schwartz, Howard (1998). Reimagining the Bible: The Storytelling of the Rabbis(https://books.google.co.uk/books?i
d=K8X2DymK5UcC&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=dyke+dybbuk&source=bl&ots=-ODnZU4j5 e&sig=ALuneEdEJb7o71S
3MJRGXjamXO4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2y1RVMv6McflaLHSgNgP&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=dyke%20dybb
uk&f=false). Oxford University Press.ISBN 9780195104998.
10. Bird, Elizabeth. "Books About Young Crimefighters in New York" (https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/books/review/
books-about-young-crimefighters-in-new-york.html). Retrieved 19 August 2018.

Further reading
J.H. Chajes, Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism , University of Pennsylvania Press,
Aug 31, 2011.
Rachel Elior, Dybbuks and Jewish Women in Social History , Mysticism and Folklore, Urim Publications, 1 Sep 2008.
Fernando Peñalosa, The Dybbuk: Text, Subtext, and Context. Jan 2013.
Fernando Peñalosa. Parodies of An-sky’s The Dybbuk. Nov 2012
Yosl Cutler, The Dybbuk in the Form of a Crisis, In Geveb, Mar 2017.

External links
"The Dybbuk" by AnskyJewish Heritage Online Magazine
Spiritual Possession and Jewish Folklore
Encyclopædia Britannica

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dybbuk&oldid=895148205

"

This page was last edited on 2 May 2019, at 09:21(UTC).

Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of theWikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.