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“Ansky’s The Dybbuk is a wonderful play. It is pleasant to be reminded of its dark grandeur again. . . . All the wonder, faith, piety and terror of the story are woven into [the] last act as if it were a religious tapestry.” ― Brooks Atkinson The Dybbuk , regarded as the classic drama of the Yiddish stage, has long frightened yet fascinated audiences throughout the world. Based on Jewish folklore, its dark implications of mysterious, other-worldly forces at work in a quaint and simple village make for gripping, suspenseful theater. To the Chassidic Jews of eastern Europe, a dybbuk was not a legend or a myth; rather it remained a constant and portentous possibility. During that age of pervasive mysticism, when rabbis became miracle workers and the sinister arts of the Kabbala were fearsomely invoked, it was never doubted that a discontented spirit from the dead could cross the barrier between the “real” and the “other” worlds to enter a living human body. The Dybbuk is a masterful play, full of deep-rooted obsessions and dramatic suspense, fascinating for the glimpse it provides of the rich, poetic, and often tragic culture of the Chassidim. In this classic translation by Henry Alsberg and Winifred Katzin, the authentic cadences of the original Yiddish are deftly preserved.
148 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1914
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About the author
S. Ansky
23 books8 followersShloyme Zanvl Rappoport (1863 – November 8, 1920), known by his pseudonym S. Ansky (or Semyon An-sky), was a Belarusian Jewish author, playwright, researcher of Jewish folklore, polemicist, and cultural and political activist. He is best known for his play The Dybbuk or Between Two Worlds, written in 1914. [Wikipedia.]
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
September 2, 2019
A Dybbuk is a haunting and beautiful and haunting combination between a love story and a ghost story, growing out of the tradition of Yiddish theatre.
The main story revolves around a young rabbinical student, Channon, whose beloved and promised bride, Leah, is denied to him, because of his poverty. He dies as a result of his misuse of the holy texts of the Kabbalah. His soul invades the body of his intended bride, as a Dybbuk - which is a spirit in Jewish mythology that invades other people's bodies. When he is exorcised from Leah's body, she makes a pact with her beloved to unite her soul with his spirit, and so she departs the earth too- so strong was the love of Leah and Channon that their spirits would not be kept from each other even in death.
This volume contains some of the richest treasures of old Yiddish mythology and literature , much of it involving rich Chassidic mysticism.
The main story revolves around a young rabbinical student, Channon, whose beloved and promised bride, Leah, is denied to him, because of his poverty. He dies as a result of his misuse of the holy texts of the Kabbalah. His soul invades the body of his intended bride, as a Dybbuk - which is a spirit in Jewish mythology that invades other people's bodies. When he is exorcised from Leah's body, she makes a pact with her beloved to unite her soul with his spirit, and so she departs the earth too- so strong was the love of Leah and Channon that their spirits would not be kept from each other even in death.
This volume contains some of the richest treasures of old Yiddish mythology and literature , much of it involving rich Chassidic mysticism.
August 17, 2018
I read this play because I was curious as to how literature embraces Jewish mystical concepts, but it turned out that the author’s biography interested me more. He was raised religious in Eastern Europe, and it’s clear that he knew Hasidic history and thought. In the very first scene, the characters are arguing about the splendor of the Rizhiner Rebbe versus the poverty of the Rebbe, Reb Zusia. Another religious argument that I liked even more came a few pages later. “Talmud ties you too much to this world,” says the ‘hero’ of the story, Elchonon. “Kabbala lets your soul soar.” As Elchonon comes to a bad end, I’d say Talmudic earthiness is a good thing. But the author, S. Lansky, rebelled against Judaism for a long period of his life, so he might regard Elchonon as heroically defiant. Religious Jews protested the play in its time, and if you’re Orthodox and you read it, you’ll understand precisely why.
But as I said, I was most fascinated by S. Lansky, first a Hasid, then a maskil, and in the end, not just a Jewish ethnographer and folklorist, but someone who loved his people enough that he advocated and fundraised for them through World War One, which wasn’t as devastating as the Holocaust of World War Two, but was most definitely the precursor to it. So while I didn’t think the play was all that great, it did give me what I was looking for: an example of a writer who could weave Jewish faith and legend into his work.
But as I said, I was most fascinated by S. Lansky, first a Hasid, then a maskil, and in the end, not just a Jewish ethnographer and folklorist, but someone who loved his people enough that he advocated and fundraised for them through World War One, which wasn’t as devastating as the Holocaust of World War Two, but was most definitely the precursor to it. So while I didn’t think the play was all that great, it did give me what I was looking for: an example of a writer who could weave Jewish faith and legend into his work.
January 2, 2021
The Dybbuk is a Hasidic star-crossed love story with elements of mysticism. The dybbuk is a very interesting figure, a malicious possessing spirit and the play makes use of this motif.
But it's also more than that. The story of the play, and more importantly its many stagings is very rich. Ansky had problems getting it accepted for staging, he wrote it originally in Russian instead of Yiddish probably because he wanted to draw the attention of Konstantin Stanislavski. He drew inspiration from many sources. He was inspired to write about a star-crossed lover in one house he stayed at during his journeys - the father, a rich man put an end to a silent love affair between his daughter and a poor student, and as the girl cried into the night, Ansky reportedly wrote it all down, as it impressed him greatly.
The theme of the bride and the groom could also be for Ansky a metaphor for the Jewish nation. Similarly to Oskar Kolberg, he did ethnographic field research, travelled around to gather folkloric material and he was told this story of the bride and groom who were murdered approaching their wedding canopy by Khmelnytskyi. They were like a tree cut in just as they were blossoming and this metaphor described, to Ansky, the story of the Jewish nation - this is what he reports in his diaries from the period.
An interesting read immersed in Jewish culture and folklore, with a very rich and turbulent history behind it.
But it's also more than that. The story of the play, and more importantly its many stagings is very rich. Ansky had problems getting it accepted for staging, he wrote it originally in Russian instead of Yiddish probably because he wanted to draw the attention of Konstantin Stanislavski. He drew inspiration from many sources. He was inspired to write about a star-crossed lover in one house he stayed at during his journeys - the father, a rich man put an end to a silent love affair between his daughter and a poor student, and as the girl cried into the night, Ansky reportedly wrote it all down, as it impressed him greatly.
The theme of the bride and the groom could also be for Ansky a metaphor for the Jewish nation. Similarly to Oskar Kolberg, he did ethnographic field research, travelled around to gather folkloric material and he was told this story of the bride and groom who were murdered approaching their wedding canopy by Khmelnytskyi. They were like a tree cut in just as they were blossoming and this metaphor described, to Ansky, the story of the Jewish nation - this is what he reports in his diaries from the period.
An interesting read immersed in Jewish culture and folklore, with a very rich and turbulent history behind it.
August 12, 2023
Read Around the World: Belarus
I had never heard of this when I went looking for a book for Belarus, but it was short, seemed interesting, and so I picked it. It WAS interesting, that is for sure.
I know little about Jewish Mysticism, but it is very interesting to me and this audiobook just tweaked that even more. A very interesting story, done as a play with an awesome cast, it is difficult [for me] to even write what it was about. It was so good. And weird. And strange. And I am OH SO GLAD that I didn't listen to this at night.
I highly recommend this.
I had never heard of this when I went looking for a book for Belarus, but it was short, seemed interesting, and so I picked it. It WAS interesting, that is for sure.
I know little about Jewish Mysticism, but it is very interesting to me and this audiobook just tweaked that even more. A very interesting story, done as a play with an awesome cast, it is difficult [for me] to even write what it was about. It was so good. And weird. And strange. And I am OH SO GLAD that I didn't listen to this at night.
I highly recommend this.
May 3, 2019
Not at all what I expected, but it drew me in (not literally, I hope!).
February 1, 2023
Takie Żydowskie "Dziady"... nic dodać nic ująć.
October 22, 2019
Reading The Dybbuk in a second hardback printing was a revelation. Unlike with many modern editions, which leave photographs of how the play was staged out of the edition because of cost, this was very much a reader's rather than performer's edition of the play (think Samuel French for performers).
The photos show a play that had 12 people performing it--a reality that now exists only on Broadway. The play itself is, of course, one of the classics, but it is also the embodiment of a whole religious tradition, Hassidim, the great Jewish religious revival arising out of the ashes of the heresies of Jacob Frank and Sabbatai Sevi that includes ideas that were once heretical to mainstream Judaism, such as metempsychosis, which is a thematic anchor in the play.
After almost 100 years, The Dybbuk is still wonderful to read, and one can't help but feel this translation continues to do it justice. Even if overwritten by the standards of today's terse dialogues, the piece resonates with a culture, while not exterminated, that has been utterly changed by the Holocaust and the ensuing migrations.
The photos show a play that had 12 people performing it--a reality that now exists only on Broadway. The play itself is, of course, one of the classics, but it is also the embodiment of a whole religious tradition, Hassidim, the great Jewish religious revival arising out of the ashes of the heresies of Jacob Frank and Sabbatai Sevi that includes ideas that were once heretical to mainstream Judaism, such as metempsychosis, which is a thematic anchor in the play.
After almost 100 years, The Dybbuk is still wonderful to read, and one can't help but feel this translation continues to do it justice. Even if overwritten by the standards of today's terse dialogues, the piece resonates with a culture, while not exterminated, that has been utterly changed by the Holocaust and the ensuing migrations.
March 15, 2019
(Szkoda wielka, że nie można tutaj wkleić linku do albumu na Spotify ... Dwa lata temu wznowiona przez DG płyta z 3 Symfonią "Kaddish" i Dybbuk Suite Leonarda Bernsteina byłaby idealnym dopełnieniem...)
Ciężko cokolwiek napisać o tej niezwykle przejmującej opowieści / sztuce / dramacie.
Jak o tych wszystkich innych ocalałych fragmentach tego niezwykłego dziedzictwa, jakie pozostawili nasi ... Sąsiedzi. Zamordowani, wypędzeni i niemal do ostatka zapomniani. Dziedzictwa, do którego zaczynamy się przyznawać teraz, na samym końcu, kiedy jego śladów nad Wisłą i Bugiem skutecznie się niemal pozbyliśmy. Jak potraktowano je gdzie indziej - widać po liczbie tłumaczeń, wydań "Dybuka", liczbie dzieł - jak wspomniana Suita LB - które zainspirował. O innych książkach An-skiego ale w innych językach nie wspomnę...
Tym bardziej cenne takie inicjatywy jak "Biblioteka pisarzy żydowskich Michała Friedmana" czy portal Wolne Lektury.
Ciężko cokolwiek napisać o tej niezwykle przejmującej opowieści / sztuce / dramacie.
Jak o tych wszystkich innych ocalałych fragmentach tego niezwykłego dziedzictwa, jakie pozostawili nasi ... Sąsiedzi. Zamordowani, wypędzeni i niemal do ostatka zapomniani. Dziedzictwa, do którego zaczynamy się przyznawać teraz, na samym końcu, kiedy jego śladów nad Wisłą i Bugiem skutecznie się niemal pozbyliśmy. Jak potraktowano je gdzie indziej - widać po liczbie tłumaczeń, wydań "Dybuka", liczbie dzieł - jak wspomniana Suita LB - które zainspirował. O innych książkach An-skiego ale w innych językach nie wspomnę...
Tym bardziej cenne takie inicjatywy jak "Biblioteka pisarzy żydowskich Michała Friedmana" czy portal Wolne Lektury.
November 16, 2018
Malgrat que avui dia l’ídix sigui una llengua minoritària i en regressió, va tenir una tradició cultural i literària important entre els jueus de l’Europa Central i Oriental, que va culminar amb el Premi Nobel de Literatura per a Isaac Singer el 1978. Entre dos mons: El dibbuq és una obra de teatre que sorgeix a partir d’aquest món de l’ídix que va desaparèixer després de la II Guerra Mundial a causa de l’holocaust i a l’establiment de l’hebreu com a llengua oficial d’Israel.
Podeu llegir completa la ressenya d'Enric Bassegoda a: http://elbiblionauta.com/ca/2018/11/1...
Podeu llegir completa la ressenya d'Enric Bassegoda a: http://elbiblionauta.com/ca/2018/11/1...
July 19, 2023
I actually loved this a surprising amount. It’s so creepy and mystical and enigmatic. It has a deep pulse about it. Made me gasp audibly and feel very deeply for a straight relationship which like never happens. Honestly it feels queer even though it isn’t technically, and I think this is because it is about two people who cannot be together in an actual cosmic sense and not just straight people who can’t be together just cos their families are annoying or whatever
October 22, 2023
This was my joker
October 13, 2025
I’ve heard of this play for years, but I had no idea how completely wild it was. We’ve got some amazing Jewish mysticism and folk magic, great world building; I want to see a dozen writers and artists taking the seeds Ansky planted in a dozen different directions. It’s a bit rough around the edges, and the second half is a total departure in tone, setting and cast from the first part, but it’s also about a century ahead of its time in terms of fantasy world building.
January 29, 2021
A remarkable play dealing with the encroachment of the world of spirit - referred to as the real world - onto the worldly plane of existence, which is seen as somehow fake or unreal. It's seems to be about the potential for a love between sould which exists in all worlds; that love seems to transcend all worldly morals and customs, as the girl and the spirit possessing her are united in death and eternity in the end. In this way, the finale death/love event is a portrayal of the soul returning to the Godhead. The portrait of Shtetl life is haunting and intense. Clearly a huge influence, first hand or otherwise, on Blatty's The Exorcist.
The introduction to Chassidism included in this edition is illuminating and fascinating.
The introduction to Chassidism included in this edition is illuminating and fascinating.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 20, 2024
I admit, for the first two acts I thought it was a comedy, because how else would you classify a history of But then came act III and IV and with the revelation of
April 24, 2018
Perhaps because this is a bilingual edition, the translation is very faithful to the text and does so without being overly literal. This was in its day (early 20th century) a very famous play, one could say a forerunner to "The Exorcist" and similar tales. It contains familiar elements: a love affair ill-fated because of insufficient riches of the man, revenge through spirit possession, a religious hierarchy attempting to reinstate normalcy, etc. But that description makes it sound too ordinary, which it really isn't.
April 12, 2011
I read this play and wrote a review on it for my final paper in my Judaism class. I have to say that I was impressed! It is a pretty short play and is definitely along the tragic hero lines, still it was better than 'The Unborn.' There really was not much to it I don't guess, I would like to see the play now however. And besides, it's the Kabalah and Jewish folklore . . . and you can never go wrong with mythology.
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February 22, 2017Biblioteka pisarzy żydowskich im. Michała Friedmana udostępniana na Wolnych Lekturach kusi mnie już od dłuższego czasu, ale wiadomo, jak to bywa. Ściąga się książki na czytnik, a potem jakoś tak w kolejkę wpychają się inne… Ale w końcu stwierdziłam, że okazja do przeczytania „Dybuka” trafia się idealna. I tak spędziłam wieczór czytając legendę dramatyczną, jak sam pisał o swoim dziele An-ski.
http://pierogipruskie.blogspot.com/20...
http://pierogipruskie.blogspot.com/20...
May 3, 2015
3.6 stars. Really beautiful tale, and full of vibrant cultural details, though I found myself wishing there had been more to it. I almost felt like I had a stronger sense of the nameless characters than I did the people at the heart of the story.
January 14, 2013
i am too dumb to get any of the kabbalah references in this play.
October 2, 2015
This is one of those plays that I want to really like; that I feel I should really like. And yet, I don't. I fear that probably means I'm stupid, but there it is.
June 11, 2024
I didn't love the play, but I certainly see why it became a staple of Yiddish theatre.
I read it in preparation for going to see a 2024 performance of the play by the Arleken Players at the Vilna Shul, a historic synagogue in Boston; they rewrote it for this performance, and I really liked the original better! (Well, the translation of the original.) For a modern audience, they took out all of the Kabbalah references, which I thought was one of the more interesting parts. And without the Kabbalah, Channon just seems crazy, and then they made Leah kind of crazy to match, and the big questions of theology disappeared. Plus they took out the trial scene at the end, which was one of my favorite parts. So I was altogether not a fan at all of the remake, which made me appreciate the original more. Tony Kushner has an adaptation that I'd like to read: Dybbuk and Other Tales of the Supernatural
Part of Channon's dialogue that I want to pass on to my Talmud study group: "So it is with the Talmud. It is deep and glorious and vast. But it chains you to the earth--it forbids you to attempt the heights. But the Kabala, the Kabala tears your soul away from earth and lifts you to the realms of the highest heights. Spreads all the heavens out before your eyes, and leads direct to Pardes, reaches out in the infinite, and raises a corner of the great curtain itself." (46, Act I)
I read it in preparation for going to see a 2024 performance of the play by the Arleken Players at the Vilna Shul, a historic synagogue in Boston; they rewrote it for this performance, and I really liked the original better! (Well, the translation of the original.) For a modern audience, they took out all of the Kabbalah references, which I thought was one of the more interesting parts. And without the Kabbalah, Channon just seems crazy, and then they made Leah kind of crazy to match, and the big questions of theology disappeared. Plus they took out the trial scene at the end, which was one of my favorite parts. So I was altogether not a fan at all of the remake, which made me appreciate the original more. Tony Kushner has an adaptation that I'd like to read: Dybbuk and Other Tales of the Supernatural
Part of Channon's dialogue that I want to pass on to my Talmud study group: "So it is with the Talmud. It is deep and glorious and vast. But it chains you to the earth--it forbids you to attempt the heights. But the Kabala, the Kabala tears your soul away from earth and lifts you to the realms of the highest heights. Spreads all the heavens out before your eyes, and leads direct to Pardes, reaches out in the infinite, and raises a corner of the great curtain itself." (46, Act I)
October 30, 2024
Read in anticipation of Sacha Lamb's The Forbidden Book, found on Hoopla in audiobook. Beautiful performance, tragic romance.
A liminal space play, it opens with men swapping stories within a synagogue and, of one, we learn about Khanen and his love for Leah. It is also debated whether God can be evil, if he has created all things. Dodgy! The news is delivered that Leah is arranged to marry someone else; Khanen drops dead.
Later, at the wedding, Leah grieves Khanen and invites his spirit to the wedding. Instead, he enters her as a dybbuk and refuses to let her marry anyone else. A trial is held for why this happened and how to proceed.
Part of it feels like a possession story, but with more sympathy. The possession isn't random and the two really love each other. Steeped in religious tradition, duty, the supernatural, and, above all, love. I don't know what it means yet but it weighs on me, bittersweet.
A liminal space play, it opens with men swapping stories within a synagogue and, of one, we learn about Khanen and his love for Leah. It is also debated whether God can be evil, if he has created all things. Dodgy! The news is delivered that Leah is arranged to marry someone else; Khanen drops dead.
Later, at the wedding, Leah grieves Khanen and invites his spirit to the wedding. Instead, he enters her as a dybbuk and refuses to let her marry anyone else. A trial is held for why this happened and how to proceed.
Part of it feels like a possession story, but with more sympathy. The possession isn't random and the two really love each other. Steeped in religious tradition, duty, the supernatural, and, above all, love. I don't know what it means yet but it weighs on me, bittersweet.
February 9, 2024
An-sky's classic play about a bride possessed by the spirit of the lonely young man who was obsessed with her in life. Obviously there is an element of fetishisation of the mysticism, superstition and baroque drama of the shtetl, but the story was based on similar ones An-sky recorded from old Jews in Galicia as its Jewish communities were battered and broken by the pogroms of the 1880s, the "Storms of the South", and by urbanisation and emancipation. It still retains the power to shock and is still regularly performed.
April 15, 2025
Suspenseful little play! Short, great pacing, supernatural/religious horror. Reads very fast. Nothing groundbreaking or exciting, but the tropes were executed well. I enjoyed the mystery subplot about Sender's past. I wish the love story between Leah and Channon were fleshed out more (the author could've planted those seeds earlier on in the play to illustrate their past relationship).
Lots of references to Jewish tradition but here are footnotes to help out--I read the new terms almost like how I would read a "fantasy" novel.
Lots of references to Jewish tradition but here are footnotes to help out--I read the new terms almost like how I would read a "fantasy" novel.
December 25, 2023
It was a fun and rewarding challenge to read this classic play in the original Yiddish! An-sky's ethnographic researcher hat is obviously on full display, with this text being largely a repository of collected scraps of Hasidic folklore. But as fascinating as these elements are, they only add rather than detract, because the guy can tell a damn good ghost story with them (and tragic romance, and morality play). Highly recommended.
June 6, 2025
i didnt read it. but rather so the play with efrat ben zur as lea. and it was so powerful. i was surprised that it went into the list of my top played i didnt expect it from an yidish one. but it is structured very well and it is really emotional. and if you see this version of the play as me you will be also amazed by their version of it and ben zur's performance
January 20, 2024
The main beats are somehow stilted, despite the Jewish mythology being beautiful rendered. A middling affair, that transcends 2.5 to 3 stars due to its unique (at least, in my admittedly narrow western exposure) take on possession.
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March 2, 2024We read it together with friends throughout the days after New Years, and it was a really good choice for something to play out :) There's also a 1937 film in Yiddish! Its was a lot of fun to delve into the Chassidic mysticism.
August 29, 2024
The movie adds amazing character depth between Nissen and Sender but still amazing regardless. I love this play. Originally had to read it for a course i took at the university of manitoba (JUD 3010, Jews in Movies) but it's really stuck with me. Classic Yiddish play work.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews