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In Kabbalah and European Jewish folklore, a dybbuk is a malicious possessing spirit, believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person that must wander restlessly, burdened by former sins, until it inhabits the body of a living person

Dybbuk

Nature

Origin

There are various origins attributed to these spirits. The earliest description usually hinted that they may be nonhuman demons. Later it was assumed they were the spirits of persons who have died and escaped from Gehenna, a Hebrew term very loosely translated as "hell." The dybbuk may be the soul of a sinner, who wishes to escape the just punishment meted to it by the angels of the grave who seek to beat them, or to avoid another form of soul punishment, which is wandering the earth. Last but not least, it is also considered as a soul that has not been able to fulfill its function in its lifetime is given another opportunity to do so in the form of a dybbuk.


Etymology

The word "dybbuk" is the Hebrew word for "cleaving" or "clinging

Behavior

A dybbuk may seek revenge for some evil that was done to it while it lived. Alternatively, it may be lost, and will enter a body simply to seek a rabbi who would be able to help it and send it on its way. The living person may or may not know that a dybbuk is occupying his or her body, or it may be tormented by it. This depends on the intent of the possessing soul.the dybbuk attaches itself to the body of a living person and inhabits it. It will leave once it has accomplished its goal, sometimes after being helped.

Powers

Belief in such spirits was common in eastern Europe in the 16th–17th century. Individuals thought to be possessed by a dybbuk were taken to a ba'al shem, who would carry out a rite of exorcism. The mystic Isaac ben Solomon Luria helped promote belief in dybbukim with his doctrine of the transmigration of souls. The folklorist S. Ansky depicted such a spirit in his classic Yiddish drama The Dybbuk (c. 1916).

The Jewish exorcism ritual is performed by a rabbi who has mastered practical Kabbalah. The ceremony involves a quorum of 10 people who gather in a circle around the possessed person. The group recites Psalm 91 three times, and the rabbi blows the shofar -- a ram's horn. The point of the exorcism is to heal the person being possessed and the spirit doing the possessing.

History/Beliefs

The Talmud refers to the spirits of the dead and to exorcism, but the concept of transmigration is not part of mainstream Judaism. In the Old Testament of the Bible, in the Book of Samuel (18:10), a bad spirit is briefly described as attaching itself to King Saul, the first king elected chieftain of the ancient tribes of Israel: "And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul..." Later in the Bible, in the Book of Kings, the prophet Elijah is possessed by the spirit of a dead man who is trying to get the prophet to trick the King into going to war when he wasn't supposed to. The earliest versions are traced to various non-Jewish sources, including Greek, Indian, Gnostic, Christian, and the Islamic Mutazila sect.

The concept entered Judaism in earnest only during the 8th century and by the 12th century it became an established part of the Kabbalah. The 16th century schools of mysticism embraced it, including the Safed circle headed by Isaac Luria. When Hasidism developed, the belief took final hold. There is a vast body of Jewish literature that dwells on the transmigration of souls, and it spans the centuries mentioned above.


Family

In this entire body of myth and legend, which includes books, folktales, and plays, the souls described can be roughly divided into three forms, depending on each soul's origin and intent.

  • The first form is the Gilgul, which is the Hebrew word for "rolling," but means, in this context, the transmigration of the soul. Generally, it is represented as a natural sequence in the life of the soul, who must occupy various bodies to learn the many lessons it needs before it can be free to reunite with God. The soul simply enters the body at birth (not at conception), just as the infant is about to leave the mother's body, and prepares to live whatever normal life span has been allotted to it.
  • The second form of transmigration is the Dybbuk, a disembodied spirit possessing a living body that belongs to another soul.
  • The third form is the Ibbur ('sod ha'ibbur'). The literal translation of the word from Hebrew means "impregnation." Ibbur is the most positive form of possession, and the most complicated. It happens when a righteous soul decides to occupy a living person's body for a time, and joins, or spiritually "impregnates" the existing soul. Ibbur is always temporary, and the living person may or may not know that it has taken place. Often the living person has graciously given consent for the Ibbur. The reason for Ibbur is always benevolent -- the departed soul wishes to complete an important task, to fulfil a promise, or to perform a Mitzva (a religious duty) that can only be accomplished in the flesh.


Art/Fiction

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