Dybbuk Box

Date of Discovery

There is no set year of discovery for the Dybbuk Box as Jewish tails have mentioned it many times through-out various text and from various years. In 1914 a Yiddish play, The Dybbuk, embodied the tail of how the box came into existence, and horror culture has used it ever since. The famous eBay box was auctioned in 2003 which led to the widespread story we all know today surrounding this box.

Name

Dybbuk Box also spelled Dibbuk

Physical Description

The Dybbuk is said to be a disembodied malicious demon that possesses a living person’s soul to gain domain in the mortal world. The box that held the Dybbuk is an old-style wooden wine box that contained various bottles and jars of wine and trinkets.

Origin

                The Dybbuk Box comes from Jewish lore and dates back to the horror story from the Holocaust. There are many tails of these “cursed boxes” through-out time, but the most famous and well-known tale came in 2003. The owner of a furniture shop in Portland Oregon, Kevin Mannis, listed the box on eBay with a fantastic horror story to go with it.

Mythology & Lore

                The famed story of Mannis’s box entails a 103-year-old Grandma bringing the box to America while escaping the Holocaust. When she pasted in 2001 the family sold the box among other things at a yard sale to help with the costs of laying her to rest. Mannis was very interested in the box and was instructed to never open it. Once the box was at his furniture shop strange things began to happen and even caused an employee to quit. The light bulbs would flash and shatter, strange smells, nightmares, doors slamming and moving, as well as a general dark feeling seeming to follow the box. He opened the box to investigate, he found two wheat pennies, two small locks of hair, a statue engraved with Hebrew letters, dried rosebuds, a golden wine cup, and a black cast iron candlestick holder. He gave the box to his mother who died shortly after from a stroke, then the box was giving to other Mannis’s family members who all returned it report the same paranormal experiences he had.

In 2003 the box hit eBay after Mannis couldn’t bare keeping it any longer, Jason Haxton eventually won rights to the box in 2004 with a winning bid of $280. He soon fell victim to the unnerving wrath of the box which lead him to seek help from a Jewish Rabbi to reseal the box and burying it. Haxton recovered his box for a cameo on Ghost Adventures and later went on to publish a book about his experience with the Dybbuk Box.  Now many Dybbuk Boxes are flooding the eBay and Etsy markets with a wide range of prices and tales going along with their demons; however, not all of these boxes are REAL demon holding Jewish boxes many people have found fakes as they become an “in trend” item.  

Modern Pop-Culture References

Books & Literature

• The Dibbuk Box (2011)
• A Dybbuk: Or Between Two Worlds (2017)

Movies

• The Dybbuk (2011)
• The Possession (2012)
• Dybbuk Box: The Story of Chris Chambers (2019)

Television Series

• Ghost Adventures (Season 1, Episode 1)

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