The Return of the Dybbuk: Between Ritual Healing and Stage Performance

The two performative genres of the dybbuk constitute a reciprocal system—as a Jewish possession illness and as a canonical play. Tracking the two highlights the dialectical relationship between the dybbuk-as-illness and the Dybbuk-as-play. Dybbuk possession cases reemerged in Israel at the end of the 20th century; one new and highly publicized case in particular kindled opposing moral crusades.