DYBBUK/DIBBUK BOX

This is a true story which has recently become very popular. Even if you’re a skeptic, you must take the time to give this one to sink in. Sure, many legends have become popular, and never a word of truth was in it but this is something in a different class.
It was published in book form first, then it became a film. Recently, I was viewing a new series on television called, “Paranormal Witness”. The program showcases true stories. Just a couple of weeks ago it was about a Dibbuk Box. This was the first I had ever heard of such a thing. But, I thought it was similar to other objects which held spirits, so why couldn’t it be true.
Then last night I watched “The Possession”. This was the real deal!

SYNOPSIS: Based on a true story, THE POSSESSION is the terrifying story of how one family must unite in order to survive the wrath of an unspeakable evil:
Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Stephanie Brenek (Kyra Sedgwick) see little cause for alarm when their youngest daughter Em becomes oddly obsessed with an antique wooden box she purchased at a yard sale. But as Em’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic, the couple fears the presence of a malevolent force in their midst, only to discover that the box was built to contain a dibbuk, a dislocated spirit that inhabits and ultimately devours its human host.

The Actual Advert in– Los Angeles Times [link]
A jinx in a box?
Maybe mischievous spirits do haunt this Jewish scroll cabinet, or maybe it’s just another Web-spawned legend run wild.
A small wooden cabinet went up for auction on EBay. Inside were two locks of hair, one granite slab, one dried rosebud, one goblet, two wheat pennies, one candlestick and, allegedly, one “dibbuk,” a kind of spirit popular in Yiddish folklore.
The seller, a Missouri college student named Iosif Nietzke, described the container as a “haunted Jewish wine cabinet box” that had plagued several owners with rotten luck and a spate of bizarre paranormal stunts.

In an recent interview by Meredith Woerner with Jeffery Dean Morgan (the troubled girl’s father): [link]

Calis: So this is based on a true story?
JDM: I’m a skeptic, look I’m not going to lie. That being said, there was some weird goings on on set. Lots of light bulbs exploding. Just overall kind of creepiness… “Don’t mock the box,” was sort of the mantra that we lived by while we were filming this. And yes loosely based on a true story. There was an LA Times article about a box that was bought on ebay. And then the people who owned the box some scary stuff started happening to them. We’ve taken some slight creative…
Calis: It’s scarier, I mean the events are true.
Did you meet anyone associated with the box?
JDM: No I didn’t want to. I like being a skeptic, I didn’t want to get scared. It might have freaked me out a little bit too much to be honest. It might have freaked me out a little bit too much. Somebody wanted to bring the box to the set, the real box. I was adamantly against it. If you go and you look at what has happened to people that have had contact with an actual dybbuk box, it’s not good stuff. It’s not like demons flying around but it’s like trees crushing your house, weird rashes. Why risk that?
Calis: There are a lot of great exorcism movies out there. Besides the actual box, how else is this movie going to stand out from other possession films?
JDM: It’s a little Jewish.
Calis: It has a different feel to it because it’s a Danish director and a Danish Director of Photography. So it has a different feel and beautiful scenery.
JDM: They shot the heck out of it, certainly. She’s right in the fact that it’s going to look a lot richer than a lot of the horror movies that have come out, especially in the last 20 years. But this really is a throwback to The Exorcist, The Omen. A lot of the stuff that we see in the genre now is a lot of found footage, shaky camera. That drives me crazy, that’s not the movie I certainly wanted to go in and make. This had a story, the script had a story. It’s not just a bunch of jump scares. There’s a story, you become invested in the characters, hopefully. In the end, all the elements that Natasha was talking about as far as camera and sets. You mix that with a good story and some really descent actos and a performance from this lady that is really mind blowing. I’ve never been more impressed with a young actor in all my life. The stuff that she had to do. The chops to be possessed. You wonder where has your life… where do you get this from? For god’s sake. It was truly, there were a couple moments that she scared the crap out of me. I was worried about her, I thought she was going to explode. END

A comment by the Executive Producer:
At our first “Dibbuk Box” production meeting, Sam Raimi said it would be best to have the actual box in our possession while we worked on the movie. The question was raised about who would be the caretaker for the box while it was here. In a room of ten, nobody would volunteer, each using a different excuse to avoid exposure to the box’s curse.
—Stan Wertlieb, Executive Producer of “Dibbuk Box” aka The Possession

Here is the story of the haunted wine box, exactly as it appeared on eBay. You form your own opinion. [link]

The first buyer an antique buyer-refinisher
All of the events that I am about to set forth in this listing are accurate and may be verified by the winning bidder with the copies of hospital records and sworn affidavits that I am including as part of the sale of the cabinet.
During September of 2001, I attended an estate sale in Portland Oregon. The items liquidated at this sale were from the estate of a woman who had passed away at the age of 103. A grand-daughter of the woman told me that her grandmother had been born in Poland where she grew up, married, raised a family, and lived until she was sent to a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. She was the only member of her family who survived the camp. Her parents, brothers, a sister, husband, and two sons and a daughter were all killed. She survived the camp by escaping with some other prisoners and somehow making her way to Spain where she lived until the end of the war. I was told that she acquired the small wine cabinet listed here in Spain and it was one of only three items that she brought with her when she immigrated to the United States. The other two items were a steamer trunk, and a sewing box.

I purchased the wine cabinet, along with the sewing box and some other furniture at the estate sale. After the sale, I was approached by the woman’s granddaughter who said, I see you got the dibbuk box. She was referring to the wine cabinet. I asked her what a dibbuk box was, and she told me that when she was growing up, her grandmother always kept the wine cabinet in her sewing room. It was always shut, and set in a place that was out of reach. The grandmother always called it the dibbuk box. When the girl asked her grandmother what was inside, her grandmother spit three times through her fingers said, a dibbuk, and keselim. The grandmother went on to tell the girl that the wine cabinet was never, ever, to be opened.
The granddaughter told me that her grandmother had asked that the box be buried with her. However, as such a request was contrary to the rules of an orthodox Jewish burial, the grandmothers request had not been honored. I asked the granddaughter what a dibbuk, and keselim were, but she did not know. I asked if she would like to open it with me. She did not want to open it, as her grandmother had been very emphatic and serious when she instructed her not to do so, and, regardless of the reason, she wanted to honor her grandmother’s request.
I finally ended up offering to let her keep what seemed to me to be a sentimental keepsake. At that point, she was very insistent and said, No, no you bought it!
I explained that I didn’t want my money back, and that it would make me feel better to do what I thought was an act of kindness. She then became somewhat upset. Looking back now, the way she became upset was just plain odd. She raised her voice to me and said, you bought it! You made a deal!
When I tried to speak, she yelled, we don’t want it! She began to cry, asked me to leave, and quickly walked away. I wrote the whole episode off to the stress and grief she must have been experiencing. I took my purchases and politely left.

At the time when I bought the cabinet, I owned a small furniture refinishing business. I took the cabinet to my store, and
put it in my basement workshop where I intended to refinish it and give it as a gift to my Mother. I didn’t think anything
more about it. I opened my shop for the day and went to run some errands leaving the young woman who did sales for
me in charge.

After about a half-hour, I got a call on my cell phone. The call was from my salesperson. She was absolutely hysterical and screaming that someone was in my workshop breaking glass and swearing. Furthermore, the intruder had locked the iron security gates and the emergency exit and she couldn’t get out. As I told her to call the police, my cell phone battery went dead. \ I hit speeds of 100 mph getting back to the shop. When I arrived, I found the gates locked. I went inside and found my employee on the floor in a corner of my office sobbing hysterically. I ran to the basement and went downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs, I was hit by an overpowering unmistakable odor of cat urine (there had never been any animals kept or found in my shop). The lights didn’t work. As I investigated, I found that the reason the lights didn’t work also explained the sounds of glass breaking.

All of the light bulbs in the basement were broken. All nine incandescent bulbs had been broken in their sockets, and 10 four-foot fluorescent tubes were lying shattered on the floor. I did not find an intruder, however. I should also add that there was only one entrance to the basement. It would have been impossible for anyone to leave without meeting me head-on. I went back up to speak with my salesperson, but she had left.
She never returned to work (after having been with me for two years). She refuses to discuss the incident to this day. I never thought of relating the events of that day to anything having to do with the cabinet.
Then, things got worse.

As I already indicated, I had decided to give the cabinet to my Mother as a birthday gift. About two weeks after I made the purchase, I decided to get started refinishing it. I was surprised to find that the cabinet has a unique little mechanism. When you open one of the doors, the mechanism causes the opposite door, and the little drawer below, to open at the same time. It is very well made. Inside the cabinet, I found the following items: 1 1928 U.S. Wheat Penny; 1 1925 US Wheat Penny; One small lock of blonde hair (bound with string); One small lock of black/brown hair (bound with string); One small granite statue engraved and gilded with Hebrew letters (I have been told that the letters spell out the word SHALOM); One dried rosebud; One golden wine cup; One very strange black cast iron candlestick holder with octopus legs.
I saved all of the items in a box intending to return them to the estate. The family has refused the items, so they will be included in this sale of the cabinet.
After opening the cabinet, I decided not to refinish it. I cleaned it, and rubbed in some lemon oil. It was at this time that I noticed that there was an inscription in Hebrew carved into the back of the cabinet. I have no idea what it says or if it is significant. I have included a picture of that inscription below. On my mother’s birthday, October 28, 2001, my mother called to tell me that she was going out of town with my sister for three days, and we postponed celebrating her birthday together until she returned. On October 31, 2001, my mother came to my shop. We were going to have lunch together, but before we were going to leave, I gave her the wine cabinet. She seemed to like it. While she examined it, I went to make a phone call. I hadn’t been out of sight more than 5 minutes when one of my employees came running into my office saying that something was wrong with my mom.

When I went back to see what the matter was, I found my mom sitting in a chair beside the cabinet. Her face had no expression, but tears were streaming down her cheeks. No matter how I tried to get her to respond, she would not. She could not. It turns out that my mother had suffered a stroke. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance. She ended up suffering partial paralysis, and losing her ability to speak and form words (she has since regained the ability to speak). She could understand things being said to her, and could respond by pointing to letters of the alphabet to spell out words she wanted to say. When I asked her the following day how she was doing, she teared up and spelled out the words: N-O G-I- F-T. I assured her that I had given her a gift for her birthday, thinking that she didn’t remember, but she became even more upset and spelled out the words: H-A-T-E G-I-F-T. I laughed and told her not to worry. I told her I was sorry she didn’t like the cabinet, and that I would get her anything she wanted if she would promise to get well soon.

Still, I didn’t associate anything that had happened with the cabinet itself or anything paranormal. Frankly, I don’t think I ever even used the term paranormal until this last month.
I’ll try to make this short now. I gave the cabinet to my sister. She kept it for a week, then gave it back. She complained that she couldn’t get the doors to stay closed and that they kept coming open. There are no springs in the door mechanism and I have never found that the doors come open. I gave it to my brother and his wife who kept it for three days and then gave it back. My brother said it smelled like Jasmine flowers, while his wife insisted that it put out an odor of cat urine. I gave it to my girlfriend who asked me to sell it for her after only two days. I sold it the same day to a nice middle aged couple. Three days later, when I came to open the shop for the day, I found the cabinet sitting at the front doors with a note that read, This has a bad darkness. I had no idea what that meant. Anyway, I ended up taking it home.

Then, things got even worse.
Since the day I brought it home, I began having a strange recurring nightmare. Every time I have the horrible dream it goes something like this: I find myself walking with a friend, usually someone I know well and trust at some point in the dream, I find myself looking into the eyes of the person that I am with. It is then that I realize that there is something different, something evil looking back at me. At that point in my dream, the person I am with changes into what can only be described as the most gruesome, demonic looking Hag that I have ever seen. This Hag proceeds then, to beat the living tar out of me. I have awakened numerous times to find bruises and marks on myself where I had been hit by the old woman during the previous night. Still, I never related the nightmares to the cabinet, nor do I think that I ever would have.

About a month ago, however, my sister, and my brother and his wife came over to my house and spent the night. The following morning, during breakfast, my sister complained that she had had a horrible nightmare. She said that she recalled having had it a couple of times before, and went on to describe my nightmare exactly to the last detail. My brother and his wife froze as they listened, and then chimed in that they had both had had the exact same dreams during the night as well. The hair was standing up on the back of my neck and still is. As we talked, it became clear that the common denominator was that each of us had had the nightmare during the times that the cabinet was in our respective homes. I called my girlfriend and asked if she could recall having any nightmares recently. She described the same nightmare, same Hag, everything. When I asked her if she remembered the date when she had the nightmare, she said she did not. Then I asked if it happened to be the night before she gave me the cabinet back to sell for her. She said, Yeah! Hey, how did you know that?!!!

Now then, since my family discussion, it seems like all hell is breaking loose. For a week afterward I started seeing what I can only describe as shadow things in my peripheral vision. In fact, numerous visitors to my house have claimed that they have seen these shadow things. I put the cabinet in an outside storage unit and was awakened when the smoke alarm in the unit went off in the middle of the night. When I went to see what was burning, I opened the door and didn’t see any smoke. However, I did get hit with the smell of cat urine. When I went back inside, the smell was there in my house. I DO NOT OWN A CAT AND I NEVER HAVE. I went back outside and grabbed the cabinet. I brought it back inside and tried to research it on the Internet. While I was surfing the net, I fell asleep and once again had the same freakin nightmare. I woke up at around 4:30am (when it felt and smelled like someone was breathing on my neck) to find that my house now smelled like Jasmine flowers, and just in time to see a HUGE shadow thing go loping down the hall away from me.

I would destroy this thing in a second, except I really don’t have any understanding of what I may or may not be dealing with. I am afraid (and I do mean afraid) that if I destroy the cabinet, whatever it is that seems to have come with the cabinet may just stay here with me. I have been told that there are people who shop on EBAY that understand these kinds of things and specifically look for these kinds of items. If you are one of these people, please, please buy this cabinet and do whatever you do with a thing like this.
Help me.
You can see that I have no reserve price or minimum bid. If I can make things any easier let me know and I will do everything within my abilities.
One more note. On the same day my Mom had her stroke, the lease to my store was summarily terminated without cause.
The measurements are 12.5″ x 7.5″ x 16.25″
ALL OF THE ITEMS THAT I ORIGINALLY FOUND INSIDE THE CABINET ARE INCLUDED IN THE SALE AND WILL BE DELIVERED WITH THE CABINET.

On Jun-12-03 at 02:15:30 PDT, seller added the following information:
There is no way that I can respond to all of the e-mails I’ve received since I put this thing on-line. I’ll try now to update and answer the most common questions I’ve been receiving.
1. No, I am not religious.
2. No, I do not wish to have or participate in any sort of exorcism, or case study, or photo sessions at my home.
3. No, I will not sell any of the individual pieces which were originally found separate from the other pieces and the cabinet.
4. No, I do not speak Hebrew nor do I know what the word “keselim” means. I don’t know that the word is even
or or a Hebrew word.
5. At the end of the auction, I have decided to take an opportunity to speak with the winning bidder for two reasons: a.)To make sure that the winning bidder is a serious adult who has employed some valid reasoning skills in making the decision to accept whatever this is. I will not be judgmental. Do whatever you want or need after the sale. b.)To offer full details of the events that have transpired. After I have carried out those responsibilities, and upon payment, I will have the cabinet and its contents delivered by U.S.MAIL, FED-EX, or UPS to the winning bidder. At that point, I will have no further involvement with the matter in any way, shape, or form. Period.
6.) To all of you who have offered to pray, I may not be religious, but I am certainly open to the possibilities –no matter what your religion might be. THANK YOU!
——————————————————————————–

On Jun-14-03 at 05:216 PDT, seller added the following information:
Here is another update for everyone following this listing.
NO! No, I will not circumvent, or make any deals outside of EBAY – EVEN FOR MORE MONEY THAN THE FINAL AUCTION PRICE!!! If you want to win the auction and have the kind of money some of you are offering, there shouldn’t be any reason why you cannot simply place your bid in an open honest fashion. I’m sure you can understand why I might be suspicious.
ALSO….
For those of you wanting to know if I am still experiencing anything out of the ordinary, I thought everything was going OK until I got home on Friday – the 13th of June – and found that the fish in my fresh water aquarium – all 10 – were dead.
I’m still hoping that all of this is coincidental crap.
——————————————————————————–
More here> [link]

The Hebrew on the box is likely a mirror image of regular Hebrew. If read R-to-L the words mean nothing, and constitute gibberish. If read L-to-R, one character at a time, you do get translatable Hebrew: “See you the evil of the punishment”. On the ends of the box is the single word which again is mirror image of normal Hebrew, an incorrect Hebrew spelling of the word “Dybbuk” (if one were to spell “dibbuk” backwards there would not be 2 letter vav’s).

“[The previous Dibbuk box owner Iosif] Nietske experienced…strange odors in his house, a bug infestation, malfunctioning electronic devices and a ‘sort of like large, vertical, dark blurs in [his] peripheral vision.” The Los Angeles Times; July 25, 2004

“..when a Dibbuk speaks, the ill host’s stomach is raised up, but the lips do not move, and a voice comes out…” Rabbi Eliyahu Hakohen Dushnitzer

“I could never say that [the existence of Dibbuks] Is impossible because…there’s precedent for these things that are recorded in different religious traditions, including my own.” Rabbi Eli Schochet, The L.A. Times – 6/25/2004

“The Dybbuk is drawn to someone who is in the state where their soul and their body are not fully connected with each other… where you’re not integrated.” -Rabbi Gershon Winkler

“The Rabbi… had received in coded form the key to the exorcism: the demon’s name, Baalberith.” – From ‘CASE STUDY: DEMON POSSESSION 1999’

“Reports say that the dibbuk started coming up through the throat, as his voice changed and he started choking…”

“My sister, my brother, his wife and I… each of us had had the same exact nightmare [of a gruesome, demonic looking Hag] during the times that the cabinet was in our respective homes.” – Former Dibbuk box owner Iosif Nietzke

“Exorcising the ghost is particularly difficult because the Dibbuk is a transitory spirit, bound to the mortal plane only by its unfinished business.”

“Dibbuk” is derived from the Hebrew דיבוק, meaning “attachment”; the Dibbuk attaches itself to the body of a living person and inhabits the flesh…

POSSESSED
Spirit Possession: “whereby gods, demons, animas, or other disincarnate entities may temporarily take control of a human body…
Signs of Possession:
Severe Agitation: The suspected victim of possession will exhibit changes in attitude and behavior, usually becoming increasingly hostile.
Signs of Spiritual Possession: Xenoglossia – The sudden and abrupt ability to speak in multiple languages, previously unfamiliar to the victim.
Signs of Possession:
Preternatural Occurrences – In some instances the possessed victim is able perform supernatural acts, seemingly imposed in a psychic manner, which can result in the movement of physical objects and even levitations.
Signs of Possession: Corporal Transcriptions – Writing or symbols may appear on the body in the form of welts and scratches, especially in areas the alleged victim of possession could not reach.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES
We are told to look for signs. This can mean looking to the skies for changes, looking at earth and its changes, and also viewing society as a whole and the world we live in and analyzing it for signs of the things Jesus Christ warns us of.
But, the main issue in the Bible we must remain vigil about is the demonic activity. I think this is the big SIGN! When the Bible speaks of these things it uses words like ‘stranger’, ‘familiar spirit’, ‘daemon’, and others. When we were warned of the Nephilim, we were told they were here then (in the days of Noah), and also now. They are here in the flesh and spirit. We have fallen angels, and demons too. Some believe in ghosts of dead loved ones, or people who have died and didn’t cross over…for one reason or another…but I tend to think these DEMONS use this as a façade to possess a host. They can possess a human and animal. Below in the Scripture noted, it speaks of locusts…and when you hear of a ‘haunting’, you hear of insect infestations. And I think the Bible is warning us of this because where there is smoke there is fire! These are descriptions of demons/fallen angels/Nephilim. There is a reason these things are increasing! We are in the last days!

Exodus 10:3-6 (KJV) [link]
(KJV)
3 And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.
4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:
6 And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.

Proverbs 30:27 (KJV)
The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands;
Nahum 3:15 (KJV)
There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts.
Nahum 3:17 (KJV)
Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.
Revelation 9:3 (KJV)
And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
Revelation 9:7 (KJV)
And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.