Evan Deck

November 23, 2009

9:30am
The Dybbuk

Religion has a deep affect on man with faith, one’s belief affect

life in every way possible and how they relate and interact with their

surroundings. The Dybbuck depicts this relationship from the perspective of

a small Chassidic community who has deep religious ties with there church.

The religious views of this small community have deep beliefs of the

supernatural and the ideas of mysticism with miracle workers or Balshem.

Though, the Dybbuck depicts this, it’s also ties in a dramatic love story into

the mix; bringing the idea of love is bound even through death. S. Ansky

does a wonderful job of bringing this time frame, ideology, and this small

village to the stage allowing us to put ourselves in their shoes and view the

way life was for Jews of that period.

The relationship between man and God is one that is strong and is held

with great value, the faith of man back in the “old world” or during the time

of “The Dybbuk”, was what allowed man to understand their environment

and surroundings. Science was not as developed as it is now, the idea of

reasoning and experimenting was still developing from an idea to actual

process. For man, religion was a way to bring understanding with what was

happening around them, especially things that seemed to be out of this

world or supernatural, especially in a society where the common man was

illiterate and remained in ignorance of the world around them. The ones who
contained the knowledge and insight of the world were the educated

scholars, who studied their bibles and religions deeply and passed their

interpretations to the rest of the world. The Chassidism movement was a

wave of new ideas, philosophy, and ethics revitalizing the religious views and

morals problems of the time. This was greatly welcomed, as pre- Chassidic

Judaism was quickly becoming outdated and tiresome for the rest of the

followers as they believed that only the scholars and priests could be close to

god, interpret his word, while the had to feel the weight and pains of the

world’s sin.

Before the movement of Chassidism came across Europe, the common

Jew felt the immensity of the sin of the world and where in a constant

shadow as they were kept close minded just following the usually traditions.

In the back of their head they felt the constant guilt of the sin and

persecution as their race felt they were a scar upon the gracious world that

god had created and where un-worthy of the return of the Messiah. This led

some Jews who were deeply affiliated with their beliefs on personal quests to

lighten the load of sin upon the world. Some of these Jews would spend their

days travelling from village to village, dressed in ragged and torn clothing,

and act as beggars feeling that they were unable to experience any joy in

the world, this group of deep religious fanatics were called “Golos abrichten.”

There were other extreme forms of these ascetic practices, even people

fasting throughout there entire lives just cause the felt such guilt for the sin

and evil of mankind.

 Ansky’s play shows the involvement of religion from the stance of the

church and from the lives of the village people and how the traditions of the

town also show deep affiliation between the living and the dead how they co-

exists, yet are so far away separated by boundaries and planes. For

example, in the play “The Dybbuk,” a story goes that in the history of the

village there was a great massacre of Jews from a bandit chieftain named

Chamilouk and on this day a wedding was supposed to take place. The bride

and groom who were suppose to wed, were also murdered along with the

rest of the village and the two lovers were buried along side each other to

keep their souls in unison for eternity. The rabbi of the small community,

would always hear cries from the grave of the couple, so from there on to

keep the souls happy after every wedding ceremony the people would go out

and dance in the graveyard to cheer the spirits up.

The idea of this greatly reflects from the evolving religious belief, as

stated before, prior to the Chassidic movement only scholars and those who

understood the books of religion, such as the Torah or understand the

Talmudic, where able to understand and manipulate the boundaries between

the living and the dead. Now with the movement of Chassidism, people were

able to explore these boundaries themselves gain deeper insight to the world

around them. This is also observed in ACT I of “The Dybbuk,” where the idea

of the dead and the living intertwine with each other, as the play goes, an

elderly woman enters the synagogue in the middle of the night to asks for

help as her daughter is come down with a grave sickness for two days. A
messenger takes notice of this and believes that there is a relationship with

the daughter of this lady and a woman who has been rumored to have been

in labor for the past two days trying to give birth to her child. The messenger

takes notice of this and interprets it as a struggle between two souls one that

is trying to come to life, and the other which is trying to fight for survival.

Even in Act 4 of the play where there is a trail held between the spirit

of Nissin ben Rifke father of Channon, who is a young scholar, and Sender

father of the beautiful bride Leah, the court recognizes a spirit as being able

to give a liable testimony of a pact that was broken between the two fathers

from a point in time before Nissin ben Rifke death. Only in a time period like

this where high priest and scholars were thought of the only ones able to

communicate with the dead, would a trial like this take place.

So as the story continues the two fathers had both agreed that their

children would both wed with each other once they were older and had

matured, though soon after that pact was made between the two, Nissin had

disappeared and no news had been heard of from Sender whether he had

father a child, so gradually has any human would, the pact was forgotten.

Though as one reads through or views the plays, a realization is met, that it

is not mere coincidence that Sender happens to meet Channon out of no-

where one day or just takes him in as a son-in-law, even in death the pact

between Nissin ben Rifke and Sender still takes hold. As if he is spiritual

guided Channon falls in love with Leah at the beginning of the story and
some how feels the Leah is his predetermined wife to which he must marry.

As Channon wishes to marry her the marriage is disapproved by Leah’s

father, as he wishes her to wed with someone of wealth, a rich suitor who he

has already accepted to be her groom.

The Dybbuck” does a great job of tying fiction and non-fiction together

as it brings the reader a story of history and also a story of love and passion

between two lovers who even in death are tied together. The reader will

keep their eyes glued to the pages or to the stage as the mystery of Leah

unfolds to them with great dramatic suspense, and brings the world of the

Chassidic views to the stage of the modern world.