A few years ago, an unusual lot was posted on an online auction. It was owned by a certain Joseph Netzke, a student from Missouri. He called it "the spell wine box." It contained two curls, a granite figurine, a withered rosebud, two coins, and a candlestick. Netzke honestly warned: the box brings misfortune and a dybbuk may have settled in it.
Dybbuk is an evil spirit in Ashkenazi Jewish folklore, which is the soul of a deceased evil person. The dybbuk soul cannot part with earthly existence because of its crimes and is looking for a living organism that can inhabit.
The unusual lot aroused considerable interest. Within two days, the symbolic starting price increased from one dollar to 50. A couple of days later, it was offered for 200 dollars. As a result, Jason Huxton, curator of the University museum from Missouri, became the owner of the dibbook, paying $ 286 per box.
Haxton was overwhelmed by numerous questions and suggestions regarding the dibbook. In the end, he asked to remove the home address from the directories, changed the email address and created a site dedicated to the box. Visitors to the site complained of headaches and asked to remove the image of the box, blaming it for their sudden illness.
Haxton found the previous owner of the dibbook. It turned out to be the owner of a small furniture repair and restoration workshop Kevin Mannis from Portland, Oregon. And he told this terrible story.
Once Kevin got to the sale of the property of a certain Havela, who died at the age of 103. He drew attention to a wooden box that was intended for storing wine. Mannis learned from Havela's granddaughter that the Jewish grandmother was born in Poland at the end of the 19th century. and lived a very difficult life. She bought the box in Spain, where she fled from a German concentration camp.
Havel's treasured box was kept closed in her room, away from children and grandchildren. Once the granddaughter became interested in him, and then an elderly woman spat three times through her spread fingers, uttered the strange words "dibbuk" and "kelesim" and made her swear that she would never open it in her life. Before her death, Havel asked to put a box in the grave, but this turned out to be impossible according to the laws of Judaism. And the granddaughter kept her word and never opened the drawer.
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Kevin Mannis went to his workshop, deciding to restore the box and give it to his mother. He took the purchase to himself in the file and, leaving in his place the receptionist, went on business. Half an hour later, the assistant reported by phone that someone had climbed into the workshop, smashing windows, swearing loudly, and besides, she was … locked. Alarmed, Mannis rushed to work.
The front door was locked. The girl was crying in the corner. After making sure she was okay, he pulled out his pistol and rushed to the stairs leading to the basement.
The light for some reason did not burn, although an hour ago everything was in perfect order. Turning on the flashlight, Kevin saw that not a single intact light bulb remained in the basement. The assistant took the sound of breaking light bulbs for the sound of breaking glass.
As soon as Kevin entered the workshop, the stench of cat urine hit him in the nose, although he did not keep animals. The intruder disappeared without a trace … Kevin went upstairs. The girl said she was leaving, flatly refusing to answer questions. Since there was no damage other than broken light bulbs, he did not go to the police.
Two weeks later, Mannis restored the wine box. It turned out to be not simple, but with a mechanism: as soon as one door was opened, the second one opened itself and the drawer slid out.
Inside were two cents from 1925 and 1928, two curls tied with an elastic band, a small granite figurine with the word “shalom” carved in Hebrew, a withered rosebud, and an old cast-iron candlestick with legs in the form of octopus tentacles. Kevin also noticed an inscription in Hebrew on the back wall.
The mother liked the gift. While she was looking at the box with a smile, Mannis went to call, and when he returned five minutes later, he saw that his mother felt bad.
The elderly woman sat with an absent expression on her face, tears streaming down her cheeks. The doctor said that she had a stroke that left her partially paralyzed and speechless. Mrs. Mannis communicated with paper and pen. The next day, the woman unexpectedly wrote: "No gift needed." Deciding that she just forgot about the wine box, Kevin said that this is the gift. To which she replied: "Hate."
Deciding that his mother did not like the wine box, Massine gave it to his sister, but she returned it a week later: she could not close the doors in any way. My brother had a box even less delayed: three days later he returned it. It seemed to him that the box exuded the scent of jasmine, and his wife fancied that it smelled of cat urine. A friend to whom Massine gave the box, two days later, asked her to get rid of it as soon as possible.
On the same day, Kevin sold it to a married couple, but three days later he found an unfortunate box in front of the door of the workshop with a strange note: "There is an evil darkness in it." The buyers refused to take back the money. Mannis brought the box home. On the first night, he had a nightmare, which then repeated almost every day.
Allegedly, he is walking down the street with one of his close friends, looks his companion in the eyes and realizes that something is wrong with his friend. At this moment, the friend turns into a terrible witch, who immediately pounces on him with fists. Waking up in a cold sweat, Kevin was horrified to find bruises on his body from blows.
After a while, the mother, sister and brother and wife came to visit. They spent the night with him. At breakfast my sister complained of a bad dream. Explaining that this was not the first time she had seen him, the woman recounted Kevin's nightmare word for word. The brother and wife listened to her with open mouths.
There was fear in their eyes: they were dreaming the same nightmare! And this is not the first time either.
Then Kevin Mannis felt uneasy. The idea that the box was to blame for all the troubles grew into confidence when it turned out that the relatives had had nightmares before, when he was in their house.
A week later, something strange began to happen to Mannis. It seemed to him that with peripheral vision he sees some incomprehensible spots, similar to shadows. People who came to his house noticed the same spots. Kevin took the box to the barn, and at night he was awakened by a fire alarm. There was no fire or smoke, but cat urine smelled a kilometer away. Mannis brought the box into the house.
At 4.30 I woke up from a familiar nightmare. The room smelled strongly of jasmine. He thought he saw a huge shadow running down the corridor. In the morning, Kevin decided to burn the terrible box, but at the last moment he changed his mind: he was afraid that something living in the box would then stay with him forever …
"Of course, these events can be found reasonable explanations that have nothing to do with the box, - says Mannis, - but when you remember everything, the thought creeps in: are there too many coincidences?"
And yet Mannis's patience ran out, and he decided to get rid of the box. Netzke offered the most for him and in the end received a box with all its contents
According to paranormal experts, an ectoplasmic uninvited guest lived in the box. Now, troubles hit Netzk: a 20-year-old guy began to lose his hair, strange odors appeared in the room, Joseph lost his lateral vision: he was blocked by large vertical dark spots …
Jason Huxton did not escape the fate of the previous owners of the box. The very next morning after the purchase, he woke up with bloodshot eyes, and his right eye was severely swollen, as after a blow. Other ailments followed the eye: fatigue, a metallic taste in the mouth, a runny nose, which did not help medicine, a severe cough. The house smelled of flowers and cat urine
Huxton turned to a Jewish friend, Rebecca Edery, for help. Her father was an expert on Kabbalah and before his death he passed on his knowledge to his daughter. Edery is convinced that the box was a sacred item of some Jewish family and that it was possessed by a spirit. To drive him out, in her opinion, it is necessary to conduct a minyan - a ceremony during which ten people read special prayers.
And George Ellis, a specialist in Jewish culture, believes: if people found a coin whose year of issue coincided with the year of, say, the birth of their child or the death of a close relative, they put it aside. Apparently, the cause of all the misfortunes lies in the coins in the box.
Skeptics are sure that the dybbuk is just someone's clever trick …
P. S. Haxton found Havela's younger sister, and she revealed that they often attended séances. During one of them, an evil spirit got into our world through the negligence of a medium, which refused to return. Havela caught him, kept him in a glass vessel for a long time, and then transplanted him into a wine box.
“Interesting newspaper. Magic and mysticism №5