Dybbuk!

Recently, I was reminded of a story which happened in 1999.

In spring of 1999, the news of an exorcism rite dominated Israeli television. During that year I facilitated a monthly book review club for Jewish books in the Barnes and Noble of Aventura, Florida.

Being personally interested in the topic, I arranged to do a book review of Gershom Winkler's "Dybbuk".  To add on nice effects, I played a tape of the recent exorcism.  While it played out for the audience, a few Israeli youths cried on each other, "Oh no...the Torah is real! We need to change our ways!"

Truthfully, not being a native Hebrew speaker, it’s difficult enough for me to understand Modern Hebrew when calmly spoken. So, among the shrieks, wails and howls, I certainly couldn't clearly decipher the dybbuk’s utterances. However, one thing stuck with me. To my ears, the tone of the dybbuk's voice sounded eerily electric. Spooky!

A mere two months later, my life had changed very drastically. I found myself living in Brooklyn, NY and was commuting via the F Train to Manhattan for a writing course. One evening on my way home, I sat next to a fellow student on a fairly crowded train. A homeless man ambled his way down the car in plain view of all the passengers. As he was muttered away unintelligibly, he quickly gained an unintended audience. While he passed by me, I heard the same eerily electric voice I heard on the dybbuk tape.

My fellow student blurted something like, "Oh what a deranged character!"

I am sure that most people on the train felt the same way. Maybe, they were right. However, I was left wondering whether we had just witnessed a victim of spirit possession. And yet, because of our modern cultural conditioning we weren't able to notice.

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