The Dybbuk

Documented Jewish accounts of such possession do genuinely appear in sixteenth-century mystical circles. The phenomenon only reached wide international audiences, however, through a specific early-twentieth-century Yiddish play — most of what now circulates as 'traditional dybbuk lore' actually descends from that one dramatic work, not directly from the earlier folk accounts.

16th-century Safed accounts from Chaim Vital's circle; S. An-sky's play The Dybbuk (written 1913–16, first staged 1920)