Possessed Souls: Unraveling Dybbuk Jewish Folklore

Dybbuk or Gimmick?

Folklore has some funny ways of passing through History, adding her unique flavor to what truly took place in the accurate timeline of our ancestors. As you know, Folklore is defined as the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth. If you didn't know, now you do.

Photo byTaylor BrandononUnsplash

If you look at Jewish folklore, you'll find an interesting tale of Ruchim, aka Spirits, aka Dybbuk. A Dybbuk is a ghost or disturbed soul that has possessed the body of a living being. The Dybbuk is known as a "clinging spirit" which is what the word translates in Yiddish. So many stories in Jewish folklore focus on Dybbuks with their special takes on the charisma of a Dybbuk. So the specific details of what a Dybbuk is or even how they came to play still varies from one Jewish home to the next. Each family carrying their own tales and lore of what once was their own history.

WHAT IS A DYBBUK:

Dybbuks are commonly known as the souls of a deceased person, one that is unable to move on for unknown reasons. Though this would be in the stories of those who assume an afterlife where the sinful are punished to suffering and the holy are sent to reign on forever in holy matrimony of grace and eternal life. The Dybbuk would be described as a sinner who was seeking refuge from the eternal punishments of afterlife.

It is beleived that a soul once cut off from God because of evil doings would suffer evermore being trapped to Earth. Other tales state that the Dybbuks as spirits have unfinished unkept business among the living before they can move on to suffer. Though a handful of folklore maintain the spirits are housed inside bodies, wandering to possess as many living forms as possible. In these cases, this could mean people, animals, plants even as small as a blade of grass. Though people are always portrayed as being the most susceptible to the possession, more specificly homes of those that have women and neglected Mezuzot. When the homes seal is broken, and a neglected Mezuzah indicates so, their home is no longer protected by the spiritual world. Left open for possessions to take place and wreck havoc on their lives and souls.

Some stories state that not all spirits that have not left this world are called Dybbuk. As the spirit of a righteous person who lingers to serve as a guide to the living, the spirit is called "Maggid." If this is a spirit of a righteous ancestor, it is called, "Ibbur." The only true difference of the three is how the spirits acts in the story that has been told. Some acting for good and others to hurt and destroy.

MEET PLAY WRITER S. Ansky:

During many travels between the Jweish villages that lied withing Russia and Ukraine, the play writer took many notes of what he learned from the Folklore and wittenessing with his own eyes, to which he wrote "The Dybbuk." A play that featured all he learned in 1914 and later became a Yiddish film in 1937 with many different variations of the storyline.

The Dybbuk, featured two men promising their unborn children will find love and marry. Years went on, and one father forgets his promise and betroths his daughter to the son of a wealthy man. Eventually, the friend's son comes along and falls in love with the daughter. When he learned they could never marry, he invokes mystical forces that kill him and his spirit became a Dybbuk that possesses the bride-to-be.

Sources:

"Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism (Jewish Culture and Contexts)" by Jeffrey Howard Chajes and "The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism" by Rabbi Geoffrey W. Dennis.