Dybbuk

Dybbuk, by Ephraim Moshe Lilien (1874–1925).

In Jewish mythology, a dybbuk (Yiddish: דיבוק‎, from the Hebrew verb דָּבַק‬ dāḇaq 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 being helped.[1][2][3]

Etymology

"Dybbuk" is an abbreviation of דיבוק מרוח רעה‬ dibbūq mē-rūaḥ rā‘ā ("a cleavage of an evil spirit"), or דיבוק מן החיצונים‬ dibbūq min ha-ḥīṣōnīm ("dibbuk from the outside"), which is found in man. "Dybbuk" comes from the Hebrew word דִּיבּוּק‬ dibbūq which means "the act of sticking" and is a nominal form derived from the verb דָּבַק‬ dāḇaq "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 by Josephus) 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 a psychiatrist.[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 an hysterical syndrome.[7]

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 films The 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 of, a female dybbuk haunting her as a result of a curse placed on her ancestor 200 years ago.[6]

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.

Television

The Dybbuk is mentioned in the paranormal TV show Paranormal 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 accounts the tale of the Dybbuks' attachment to the deaths relating around the box.

In the TV show Difficult People, season 3, episode 3 "Code Change", Billy helps his sister-in-law Rucchel exorcise what she perceives 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 with Egon replying 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.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 A Psychoanalytic History of the Jews, by Avner Falk, p.538, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1996
  2. ↑ "Dybbuk", Encyclopædia Britannica Online, retrieved 2009-06-10
  3. ↑ "Dibbuk", Encyclopedia Judaica, by Gershom Scholem.
  4. ↑ See A. Sáenz-Badillos & J. Elwolde, A History of the Hebrew Language, 1996, p. 187 on the qiṭṭūl pattern.
  5. 1 2 Spirit Possession in Judaism: Cases and Contexts from the Middle Ages to the Present, by Matt Goldish, p.41, Wayne State University Press, 2003
  6. 1 2 3 Tree of Souls:The Mythology of Judaism, by Howard Schwartz, pp. 229–230, Oxford University Press, 1 Nov 2004
  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.
  8. ↑ "The Dybbuk". The National Center for Jewish Film. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  9. ↑ Schwartz, Howard (1998). Reimagining the Bible: The Storytelling of the Rabbis. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195104998.
  10. ↑ Bird, Elizabeth. "Books About Young Crimefighters in New York". Retrieved 2018-08-19.

Further reading

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