Mystical systems
Dybbuk
Direct answer
Dybbuk: A dybbuk, in Jewish folklore, is the restless soul of a dead person that enters and clings to a living one, speaking through them until it is sent out.
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At a glance
- Also called
- dibbuk
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Demonic Possession, Exorcism, Ghost, Reincarnation
A dybbuk, in Jewish folklore, is the restless soul of a dead person that enters and clings to a living one, speaking through them until it is sent out.
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What is a dybbuk?
Dybbuk comes from the Hebrew root for clinging or attachment. The belief rests on the kabbalistic teaching of gilgul, the passing of souls from life to life. A soul too burdened by its deeds to move on, and barred from rest, was thought to seek shelter in a living body. The person then spoke in a strange voice, revealed hidden things and suffered fits.
Accounts of such cases describe a public rite. A rabbi, with ten men present, questioned the spirit, learned its name and its sin, and ordered it to leave, with prayers and the blast of the ram's horn. The spirit was often promised prayers for its own repair. The tradition also knows the ibbur, a benign joining, in which a righteous soul lends its strength to a living person for a time.
On the tree of the hidden arts: The spirit realm.
What sets Dybbuk apart
A dybbuk has a biography. In the recorded cases the spirit gives its name, town and offence, and bystanders sometimes recognise the dead person described. It also has a motive beyond harm: refuge from punishment, or unfinished business with the living. The rite therefore proceeds like a court hearing, with questions, terms and a negotiated exit, traditionally said to be through the little toe.
- Word: Yiddish dibek, from Hebrew davak, to cling
- Underlying idea: gilgul, the transmigration of souls, in Kabbalah
- Early cases: sixteenth century, around the kabbalists of Safed
- Rite: questioning by a rabbi before ten men, with psalms and the ram's horn
- On stage: S. An-sky, The Dybbuk, premiered Warsaw 1920
- Benign form: ibbur, a righteous soul joining a living person for a time
Often mistaken for something else: In Christian possession the intruder is a demon to be cast out and condemned; a dybbuk is a human soul, and the rite often seeks its repair as well as its departure.
The story behind Dybbuk
Written accounts of spirit possession among Jews multiply in the sixteenth century, especially around the kabbalists of Safed and the circle of Isaac Luria. The word dybbuk itself came into use in the seventeenth century in Germany and Poland. S. An-sky's play The Dybbuk, first staged in Warsaw in 1920 and filmed in Yiddish in 1937, made the figure known worldwide. The modern story of the dybbuk box dates from the early 2000s and is not part of the older tradition.
Why Dybbuk matters
The dybbuk is a rare case of possession by the human dead, not by a demon, which changes both the explanation and the remedy in the stories.
How to read Dybbuk
It is studied in Jewish history and literature, and the word is used in Yiddish and English for a fixed idea or grief that will not let go.
Dybbuk in practice: an example
In An-sky's play a bride speaks at her wedding in the voice of the dead student who loved her, and the rabbi's court is called to part them.
Where readings of Dybbuk go wrong
Behaviour once put down to a dybbuk would today call for medical and psychological care, never a forced rite.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- dybbuk meaning, dibbuk, what is a dybbuk, dybbuk possession, jewish dybbuk, dybbuk box
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What is a dybbuk?
In Jewish folklore it is the soul of a dead person that takes hold of a living one and speaks through them. The name comes from the Hebrew for clinging.
Is a dybbuk a demon?
No. A dybbuk is a human soul that cannot find rest. Jewish lore has demons too, called shedim and mazzikim, but they are a separate class of being.
Is the dybbuk box real?
The dybbuk box is a modern story that dates from the early 2000s. It is not part of the older Jewish tradition of the dybbuk.
