It could be fake but it’s still creepy. I’ve had a shadow-thing-in-my-room-at-night feeling, once it even sat down on my bed and I was completely awake! I saw nothing where it was, I felt the bed move as if someone had sat down on the edge. It wasn’t very dark in my room, the streetlight was just outside my window.
I asked my grandmother (whose house it was) about it and she said it happened before. My cousins moved into the house next and they told me later they used to be terrified of going to bed due to the “thing” in their rooms.
Had a friend who had something in her house, too. I was over one day at her place playing. We were alone, watching cartoons in her parent’s room. Then we went to get a snack and I walked back down the hall to get my shoes from my friend’s room and pass by the closed door of the parent’s room when it started to shake uncontrollably on its hinges. It kept getting more violent, banging against the door so hard I thought the door was going to break loose.
My pal ran down the hall and pulled me away (I was riveted in awe at first, I guess), and made me go straight home! She was almost crying she was so scared and made me leave as fast I could. I tried to look back and she got hysterical. I could not get her to talk about it at school for weeks! It was very odd and scary, and no matter how much I begged her to tell me what it was, she refused.
About a month or two later, her family moved away and I still, to this day, have NO clue what it was.
So I can believe the story about the box, in a way, because strange things do happen.
This is the part I love.
This guy believes this chest is responsible for busting up his shop, sending his longtime salesperson fleeing from his employ, terminating his lease, stroking out his mom, beating him, his girlfriend, and just about his entire extended family up in their sleep, and killing his fish.
So what does he do?
Does he toss the thing out with the trash? Burn it? Send it special delivery to George Bush?
Nah. He puts it up on ebay and hangs on to it for a week so he can get a whopping $142.50.
Sounds reasonable to me!
A PBS special on the history and cultures of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the Middle East(IIRC the series was called Legacy), included a segment on a method similar to the cabinet.
If your house is beset by an evil spirit, make a clay bowl. Inside the bowl, inscribe a comman exorcising the spirit. It should begin at the lip of the bowl and spiral down to the center. At the end of the spiral, draw a picture of the spirit. Seal the bowl, upside down, inside a wall near the front door. Upon trying to enter the house, the spirit will see the charm and follow the spiral to read it. It will thus follow the spiral up and be trapped inside the bowl.
The legend of Lilith originated in the Middle East. Jews carried the legend and the folk practices surrounding it into Europe. Though I haven’t found references to dybbuk cabinets, it’s possible that they are simply the descendants of the demon bowls.
The really fun part about the story is how the plotline adheres so closely to classic horror tales where a suspected cursed object is not thrown away or destroyed, but goes through serial adventures or ownership, each time inflicting new horrors on the hapless victims.
“Hmmm…let’s see this cursed cabinet make a cat pee stink, breaks thing and gives people the creeps… What to do with it? I’ve got it! Gift for mom!”
Jasmine has been used in love charms for a long time, but has also been said to draw money and cause prophetic dreams. (according to Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs) Incense (which must be made from the essence rather than the bloom) made from jasmine is used for many things, including dreams, happiness, love, meditation, prosperity, sensuality, and sleep. (according to Wylundt’s Book of Incense) Dreaming of jasmine means good fortune, good news for lovers, and the prophecy of an early marriage. (according to Jeanne Rose’s Herbal) Wylundt marks jasmine flowers and nectar as being “highly toxic”, but the only case Grieve’s Modern Herbal (modern at about the turn of the 20th that is) lists is that of a child.
Cat pee and jasmine don’t smell all that different, surprisingly enough. When we still had night-blooming jasmine growing at my parents’ house, every night I would smell it and start looking around to see if one of the cats had had an “accident”. It’s just a lot sweeter than cat pee, and not as … I dunno, sharp?
Too bad we had to get rid of the night-blooming jasmine. They’re beautiful flowers, but I’m allergic to 'em.
The inventory of what the writer found inside doesn’t seem to include the brass object on the shelf in the lefthand door – looks like a cup or a snuffer or something. In any case, if the owner was scared/superstitious enough not to just throw the thing out or burn it, I’m surprised he didn’t think to take it to a rabbi. A well-crafted tale, but there’s no way to tell if it’s real.
My reward for emailing both the seller and buyer of said creepy eBay item? Nothing back from either yet, blast it! I won’t give up, ne’er fear! I shall prevail! Oh, verily!
Nah. Even if the story were true, that dybbuk would have been born a looong time ago.
In my experience, living Jews in the fifties or before have enough problems using computers or the web.
“Look Mameh! Ruthie sent you an e-mail!”
“Hello, Ruthie!”
“Mameh, she can’t hear you.”
“Oh. HELLO! RUTHIE!”
“No, Mom. You have to type what you want to say.”
“Oh. Okay. Now, where’s the H?”
Not to mention that a dybbuk from the old country likely speaks no English.