Dybbuk- Hebrew/Jewish SpiritSpirit"The Clinging Spirit"

The Clinging Spirit

Dybbuk comes from the Hebrew davak, to cling. The dead do not always leave. A soul severed from its place by violence or unconfessed sin wanders the earth without shelter. In Kabbalistic teaching, such a soul is naked, stripped of the merit that would carry it upward. It drifts through the world looking for warmth. It may hide in a stone or an animal, but what it wants is a human body. When it finds one whose defenses are weakened by grief or transgression, it enters. The host begins to speak in a voice not their own.

Saul and the Evil Spirit

After God's favor departed from Saul, an evil spirit came upon him. The king raged, threw spears at David, wept without cause. When David took up his harp and played, the spirit withdrew and Saul was himself again. The relief never lasted. The spirit returned, and David played again, and so it went until the end of Saul's reign.

The Kabbalists of Safed

The dybbuk took its name in sixteenth-century Safed. Rabbi Hayim Vital, principal student of Isaac Luria, recorded case after case in his Sefer HaHezyonot. A spirit would enter a person and speak through their mouth, giving its name and describing the sin that condemned it to wander. Vital wrote that his master could see these spirits clinging to the afflicted, could identify which transgression had caused the exile, and prescribe the prayers needed for release.

Behind these accounts lay Luria's teaching on gilgul, the transmigration of souls. Every soul has a repair it must complete. Those that fail may return in a new body at birth. But the most damaged souls, too burdened to merit rebirth, are cast out as ruchot tze'akot, screaming spirits. A dybbuk is a screaming spirit that has found a body to scream from.

The Possessed and the Exorcism

The possessed convulsed and spoke in voices not their own, revealing knowledge the host could not possess. When a rabbi confronted the spirit, it would give its name and describe the sin that kept it wandering. This dialogue was the first stage. The spirit had to be known before it could be expelled.

The full ritual required a minyan, ten men gathered in prayer. Black candles were lit. The rabbi recited Psalm 91 and commanded the spirit to depart. Then came the shofar. Its blast carried the authority of Sinai. The rabbi directed the dybbuk to leave through the small toe of the left foot, the path that caused least harm to the host. Before departing, the spirit was told where to go and what tikkun was required to find rest.

The Dybbuk of Koretz

In the eighteenth century, a dybbuk entered a person in the town of Koretz. The spirit identified itself as a deceased Torah scholar condemned to wander for a secret sin. Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz undertook the exorcism, but the spirit resisted. Multiple sessions were needed. The community fasted and prayed, performing acts of collective tikkun on the dead scholar's behalf. When the spirit finally departed, it was not only the host who was freed. The whole community had gathered around a tear between the living and the dead, and the ritual closed it.