In Jewish folklore, the dybbuk is an evil spirit or doomed soul that possesses a person body and soul, speaking through the person’s mouth and causing such torment and anguish that another personality appears to manifest itself. Such evil spirits have existed in Judaism since the earliest times but they were called evil ibbur (spirits) until the 17^th century. At that time, the term “dybbuk” (also spelled dibbuk) was coined from the language of the German and Polish Jews. It is an abbreviation of two phrases:  dibbuk me-ru’ah and dibbuk min ha-hizonim (“dibbuk from the demonic side” of man).

In early folklore, dybbukim were thought only to inhabit the bodies of sick persons. Possessive evil spirits appear in the Old Testament, in Samuel I, which describes the possession of Saul and how David exorcised the spirit by playing the harp. In the Book of Tobit, the Angel Raphael instructs Tobit in the ways of exorcisms. In the rabbinical literature of the first century, exorcisms called for the ashes of a red heifer, or roots of certain herbs, burned under the victim, who was then surrounded with water. Other methods included incantations in the name of Solomon, repetition of the Divine Name, reading from Pslams, and the wearing of herbal amulets.

By the 16^th century, the concept of possessive evil spirits changed. Many Jews believed the spirits were transmigrated souls that could not enter a new body because of their past sins, and so were forced to possess the body of a living sinner. The spirits were motivated to possess a body because they were tormented by other evil spirits if they did not.  Some thought the dybbukim were the souls of people who were not properly buried and thus became demons.

The Kabbalah, a body of medieval esoteric and mystical writings of Judaism, contains many procedures and instructions for exorcising a dybbuk, which are still employed in modern times. The exorcism must be performed by a ba’al shem, a miracle-working rabbi. Depending on how the exorcism is done,  the dybbuk either is redeemed or is cast into hell. It usually exits the body of its victim through the small toe, which shows a small bloody hole as the point of departure.

Resource: The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, pg. 114, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, 1992

The dibbuk box ...

A ‘Dibbuk Box’ is a box, commonly a wine cabinet or container, that is used to seal away a Dibbuk so that it can’t do any more harm. To seal away the Dybbuk, one must give up something very personal to put into the box. Generally giving up a personal item, something you are connected to, lends a lot of power to a ritual because it holds on a lot of intent and aura. Then a Rabbi must perform a ritual to cleanse you of the spirit, and seal the Dibbuk away. It stays in the box until it is opened.

However, as we know, curiosity is in human nature. And if a person is told not to open a box…. well the box is opened fairly quickly. So demons, or malevolent spirits, contained in something are bound to somehow break free. I would like to briefly touch upon some more famous cases involving a Dibbuk box.

First is the well known Dibbuk box that originated in Portland, Oregon. An antique shop owner had gone to an estate sale and bought a lot of antiques. Among the lot was a wine cabinet. When he picked it up, a woman said “So you bought the Dibbuk Box.” He was Jewish, knew what a Dibbuk was, but didn’t pay much mind to her. When he got to his shop, he broke the lock and opened the box. Inside he found a host of odd items: a lock of blonde hair bound with a cord, a lock of black hair bound with a cord, two pennies dating back to the 1920s, a small statue engraved with the Hebrew word “Shalom”, one dried rose bud, a single candle holder, a small golden wine goblet and four octopus-shaped legs. Apparently these are all important to Jewish lore in that they ward off evil. Thinking it was unusual, he put it aside for the moment and went on a business run. He left his employee, Jane, in charge of the shop. Allegedly, while he was gone, the salesperson in his employ experienced lightbulbs breaking, voices, and electronic failure. The door to the exit had locked, leaving her helpless. When the shopkeeper arrived after receiving a frantic phone call, she was inconsolable, the place smelled of cat urine though animals were not kept in the building, and every bulb in the place had been shattered. The employee never returned. The man was not sure what the think, but blamed the incident on her because that was the only logical explanation with the locked door. Following that incident, he gave the box to his mother as a gift. After interacting with the box, the woman said she felt an evil presence and suffered a stroke. Still unsure of what to think of the box, the man kept it in his possession. He suffered from severe night terrors filled with a hag like evil entity, and woke up with bruises. Scared, he tried to get rid of it. Every time he sold it in his shop, it was promptly returned with a message that it had darkness within. He decided to sell it on ebay, and list all of his experiences so that a person who bought it would not go unaware.

A College student bought it, thinking that it was a hoax. He decided to log his experiences in a blog. Curiously, he experienced nothing until he opened the box. Then sprees of electronic failure throughout the dorm occurred, bug infestations in huge numbers, and hair loss. The events escalated until he also was forced to sell the box on ebay.

The last reported owner of the box was a museum curator. He had it sent to his workplace, and was examining it. He found the items inside odd, and found wax on the door of the cabinet like it had been used in a ritual. Finding nothing else of interest, he went on with his work. However, lightbulbs around the box began bursting, computer failure occurred, and his coworkers complained of exhaustion and sickness. He was forced to take the box home. There things just got worse. He had the same nightmares the antique shopkeeper had reported, and it kept him up through the night. He began coughing up blood, as well as his wife. When he and his son were watching a movie in the living room, they saw a black flame-like mass. Most alarmingly, he started to vomit up a gelatinous mucus-like substance and his wife got “weeping” blisters (bleeding blistered rashes). Realizing the seriousness of the situation, he got in contact with the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper went to the house where he had purchased the box from. At first he was turned away, but then a woman named Sophie wished to talk. Apparently she was the cousin of the woman who died, Havela, and knew the origins of the box. They were both Jewish Holocaust survivors from Poland, and at the time seances where popular in Europe. Havela had made a homemade ouija board and they did a ritual. They knew whatever they had come into contact with was evil, and suspected a Dibbuk. So Havela came up with a plan to seal it in the wine cabinet where it stayed until her death. She had warned her children and grandchildren never to open it, and kept it out of reach. She even requested to be buried with it, but since it was against Jewish beliefs, that request was unfortunately not heeded.

With this new information, the museum curator then found a Rabbi that sealed the Dibbuk back in the box, and kept it in his possession. The location of the box is kept secret, and he refuses to sell it for any price. He even wrote a book about his experiences.

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