Hersh Goldman
Halloween is definitely not a Jewish holiday. But it is as good a time as any for an article on Jewish spooks.
One of the most famous Jewish spooks is the Dybbuk. “Dybbuk”, comes from the Hebrew root consonants corresponding to the English letters, DBK. When these root-letters are used to form part of a noun word it can mean glue. When used to form a verb/action word it means to cling or to take hold.
The Dybbuk is a wandering disembodied spirit that enters into and takes control of another’s living body.
A dybbuk may seize its opportunity to enter a body when the spirit is too weak to resist a takeover. A person is most vulnerable when asleep or unconscious. People who worry over the danger of a dybbuk take-over may recommend closing the bedroom windows at night and not sleeping with one’s mouth wide open (not to tempt the dybbuk to access into the body through the mouth).
Spiritualists will cite cases of people awaking with a totally changed personality when recovering consciousness from a head injury. Doctors may explain the change as a brain injury. But dybbuk-believers will decry the “ignorance of science” for refusing to recognize the invasion of the dybbuk.
There is a classic play of the Yiddish theater, “Der Dybbuk.” In the play, the lovesick dybbuk-spirit of a dead man takes possession of a lovely young maiden because he believes she had been promised to him as a bride. The play thrilled audiences when the delicate girl comes out of a faint and suddenly speaks in a loud thundering masculine voice. In the end venerable rabbis team up and are able to communicate with the invading spirit and exorcize the dybbuk from the troubled girl. I think that it is very likely that the movie horror classic, The Exorcist, consciously borrowed from the Yiddish play.
I once read an essay of a Jewish writer’s boyhood recollection of “dybbuk” issues. I forgot the name of both the writer and the book. But I remember the basic story-line of the memoir. The writer was raised by very pious parents but as he entered adolescence he started having independent ideas. He no longer listened to his parents about keeping many of the Jewish traditions.
The boy’s father brought him to the rabbi and said, “ He used to be so good, so pious. I don’t know what has come over him. He no longer listens to his parents. He no longer keeps the Jewish laws. I no longer recognize my son.
“He has become a stranger. He has become someone else. I think there’s a dybbuk in him.”
The rabbi placed both his hands on the boy’s head, stared directly into the youth’s eyes and said three times, “Dybbuk, leave this boy”. When the rabbi had finished the boy put his hands on the rabbi’s head and said three times, “Mishegas, [craziness] leave this rabbi.”
Although the above collection of folk-beliefs, definitions, literary sources, and memoirs may be real source-material, any of the suggested serious belief in the actual existence of dybbuks is, of course, all in fun. But why take any unnecessary chances? It may be a good idea to face away from any open window when sleeping.
Hersh Goldman is a Swampscott resident.
