Dybbuk Box // 34

We are gonna be talking about the Dybbuk box, which is commonly known as one of the world's most haunted objects. 

I'm gonna start out by telling you what a dybbuk is 

So, a dybbuk is a very restless, typically malicious spirit, usually with unfinished business, in which they can potentially possess the living to finish whatever they needed to do. 

This story is gonna start in September of 2001 when, Kevin  Mannis bought a wine box at an estate sale, in Portland Oregon.

He was told it was a family (herlum), handed down from her grandma, Havaleh (hav-val-a), who passed away at 103. She was born in Poland and got married and raised a family there, but unfortunately was taken to a concentration camp during world War 2. Her ENTIRE family was killed, her kids, parents, brothers, sister, and husband, she was the only one left. She managed to escape with a few other prisoners and lived in Spain until the end of the war. This is where the box comes into play. It was one of the ONLY 3 items she brought with her when she came to the United states, the other two items were a sewing box and a steamer trunk( just in case you were curious, cause I was)

After hearing this, Mannis attempts to give thr box back. The granddaughter of the pervious owner immediately rejected, saying that her family did not want the box that only sat in her grandmas sewing room and was never allowed to be opened, becauseeeee, you guessed it,  a dybbuk lives inside it, which was inadvertently created when Havaleh put all her grief and energy into the box. She was very insistent on not getting it back and kept telling Mannis, "you bought it, you made a deal!" And actually goes on to cry and yells  at him to take it. She then goes on to say that her grandma had been asked to buried with the box, but this was against the Jewish orthodox of the burial process so it was unable to be carried out. When she asked her grandma once, what was inside it, she spit threw her fingers 3 times and said, a dybbuk and a keselim (i look up the definitionfor this and it only kept coming up with dybbuk). Mannis asked if she wanted to open it with him, but she said no, because her grandma was VERY adamant on NEVER opening it, and regardless of that, she wanted to honor that request.

Mannis owned a small furniture refinishing shop and had actually bought the box because he wanted to find something to work on and refurbish to give to his mom as a birthday gift. 

He brings the box home and opens it, inside he finds, 1 1928 wheat penny, 1 1925 wheat penny, a golden wine cup, a lock of blond hair and a lock of black/brown hair, both bound with string, a cast iron candle holder with 4 octopus shaped legs, a dried rose bud, and a small statue engraved with the Hebrew word, "shalom". All items from inside, he attempted to return to the family, but they did not want any of it. 

Once relocated to his shop, it was put in his basement, not to be thought much of... yet... not long after, an employee calls him in hysterics explaining that someone was in the shop and she was hearing light bulbs breaking, someone swearing, and they had locked the iron security gates, that led to the emergency exit, so she was unable to get away.
As Mannis attempted to tell her to call the police, his phone died, so he sped as quickly as possible back to his shop. When he arrived, he found locked gates, and a very terrified employee, sobbing on the floor. As he made his way to the basement, he was immediately hit with the smell of cat urine but... he didn't have any cats or any animal for that matter. He quickly notices the lights are not working and realizes why his employee was hearing glass breaking, every light bulb in the basement, tube lights, regular light bulbs, everything, all shattered in their sockets. With no intruder in site and only one single entrance to the basement, mannis concludes there's no way anyone could have been in there. As he goes to discuss what happened with his employee of his two years, shes gone, never to return to the shop again, nor talk about the incident. 

At this point, he has not thought anything weird or the box, so his intent is to still give it to his mom for her birthday. After opening the box, he decides he no longer wants to refurbish it entirely, but instead, just do a touch up with some lemon oil. His mom was out of town on her actual birthday, so he gifts the box to her 3 days later, on October 31st. She said, "it was like I was looking at the box and it was looking back at me" the door of the box opened and she felt a sort of cold breeze coming from it, she said, ( QUOTE) "I cant describe it, just pure evil" this is only minutes from when she received it and Mannis was on a phone call, as she examined the box. He hears an employee screaming for him, when he runs in the room, he finds his mom, next to the box, unable to move or speak, with tears rolling down her cheeks. She was in the middle of having a stroke. She does survive, but has partial paralysis and temporarily couldn't say or form words. She was completely coherent tho and could understand what was being said to her as well as respond by pointing to the letters of the alphabet. When Mannis asks how she's feeling only a day after her stroke, she spelled out the words, "no gift" when he told her he did in fact get her a gift, she maybe just forgot due to everything happening, she responded with, " hate gift". He laughed it off and told her he was sorry she didn't like it, but as long as she got better, he'd get her anything she wanted. She has said her actual main goal was to tell him to get rid of the box immediately, but wasn't able to get thru to him yet.  

So now he doesn't have a use for the box,  cause his mom hates it and he still isn't associating anything weird with it at this point. Sooooooooooo he gifts it to his sister. She gives it back after just a week and claims that the doors on the box keeping popping open, which doesn't make sense as there's no spring mechanism. Finding nothing wrong with it, he gifts it to his brother and wife, who kept it an even shorter time, which was only 3 days. His brother said it smelled like jasmine, but his wife swore it had a really strong odor of cat urine. Sooo theennnn, he gifts it to his girlfriend, who only has it TWO days, and asks him to sell it because she doesn't want it anymore. Hes over giving it to family at this point, so He sells it to a middle aged couple, who kept it 3 days, before leaving it at the front door of his shop with a note that said, this has bad darkness.

So instead of doing the smart thing, and getting rid of the fucking thing for good and not pawning it on his family, HE TAKES THE DAMN BOX HOME. 

He immediately begins having a horrible recurring nightmare, which he says goes like this, (quote)" i find myself walking with a friend, usually someone I know well and trust at some point in the dream, I find myself looking into the eyes of the person that I am with. It is then that I realize that there is something different, something evil looking back at me. At that point in my dream, the person I am with changes into what can only be described as the most gruesome, demonic looking Hag that I have ever seen. This Hag proceeds then, to beat the living tar out of me. I have awakened numerous times to find bruises and marks on myself where I had been hit by the old woman during the previous night." (Unquote)

You guys, I shit you not, he clearly doesn't listen to podcasts because he STILL doesn't think this has anything to do with the cabinet. 

BUT THEN, he has his sister, brother and his brothers wife, all come spend the night. The next morning as they're eating breakfast, his sister says she had a terrible nightmare that night and goes on to explain his exact recurring nightmare, to a T, down to every detail. As his brother and his wife took in the story, the begin to get weirded out, because, they themselves, had had that EXACT same dream also. Now meaning all 4 of them had the same dream, with all the exact same details.  They then all realize they had the dream specifically when the box was in their house also. So Mannis calls his girlfriend to ask if she could recall any weird dreams when she had it... she did. The same. Damn. Dream. 

Once things were discussed and out in the open, things only got worse( giving it energy). 

For a week after, he would see shadows in the corner of his eye, but he wasn't the only one. Guests that came over also saw the shadows moving around. He moved the box to a storage unit that was outside, but awoke one night to the fire alarm going off, when he went to check what was happening, he was only greeted by the strong smell of cat urine and no smoke whatsoever. He decides to bring the box inside and attempt to do some research in which by some MIRACLE he falls asleep during (seriously HOW) he is again awakened when he has that nightmare but also feels like someone is breathing down his neck, as he opens his eyes, he does it just in time to notice his house smells like jasmine flowers and that a huge shadow was going down the hall. 

He of course doesn't want to destroy the box as he has no idea what he's dealing with and he doesn't want whatever is attached to the box to stay with him. So he instead puts it for sale on ebay. He's incredibly honest, and literally includes everything I've told you today, in the listing. Dybbuk box and all items that were originally inside included. 

I'm gonna read you the actual edit he added to his ebay post. 

(Quote)"There is no way that I can respond to all of the e-mails I've received since I put this thing on-line. I'll try now to update and answer the most common questions I've been receiving.

1. No, I am not religious.

2. No, I do not wish to have or participate in any sort of exorcism, or case study, or photo sessions at my home.

3. No, I will not sell any of the individual pieces which were originally found separate from the other pieces and the cabinet.

4. No, I do not speak Hebrew nor do I know what the word "keselim" means. I don't know that the word is even a Hebrew word.

5. At the end of the auction, I have decided to take an opportunity to speak with the winning bidder for two reasons: a.)To make sure that the winning bidder is a serious adult who has employed some valid reasoning skills in making the decision to accept whatever this is. I will not be judgmental. Do whatever you want or need after the sale. b.)To offer full details of the events that have transpired. After I have carried out those responsibilities, and upon payment, I will have the cabinet and its contents delivered by U.S.MAIL, FED-EX, or UPS to the winning bidder. At that point, I will have no further involvement with the matter in any way, shape, or form. Period.

6.) To all of you who have offered to pray, I may not be religious, but I am certainly open to the possibilities --no matter what your religion might be. THANK YOU! �--------------------------------------------------------------------------------�On Jun-14-03 at 05:216 PDT, seller added the following information:

Here is another update for everyone following this listing.�NO! No, I will not circumvent, or make any deals outside of EBAY - EVEN FOR MORE MONEY THAN THE FINAL AUCTION PRICE!!! If you want to win the auction and have the kind of money some of you are offering, there shouldn't be any reason why you cannot simply place your bid in an open honest fashion. I'm sure you can understand why I might be suspicious.

ALSO....

For those of you wanting to know if I am still experiencing anything out of the ordinary, I thought everything was going OK until I got home on Friday - the 13th of June - and found that the fish in my fresh water aquarium - all 10 - were dead.

I'm still hoping that all of this is coincidental crap" (UNQUOTE) 

Now, I watched an episode on this of, Deadly Possessions with Zach Bagans, if you're still with us this far, definitely give that episode a watch! 

Okay, back to the story

The most previous owner of the box, Jason haxton, who lives in Missouri, kept it buried in his yard in a military box for 5 whole years, knowing where its at, but never disturbing it. The first time he ever touched the box, he immediately was nauseous and threw up some sort of ectoplasmic looking stuff, felt like a knife was being ripped thru his gut, and he actually woke up that night and HIS EYES WERE FREAKING BLEEDING. 

Listen, id bury the damn box too, probably not in my yard tho, maybe someone's yard that I dont like 

So at one point there was a guy living at this house and Jason had put the box in the basement. They found thr poor guy dead in a chair, sitting directly over the dybbuk box. You can believe in coincidences if you want, but that's pretty weird, if you ask me. But Death has been associated with this box many times.

On mannis's moms birthday, years later,, Jason decides its time to bring the box in and give it to Zach Baggens. So Zach actually brings Mannis to his museum and let's him sit in the basement with the box, entirely by choice. He immediately starts talking about how he is seeing things manifest in the room with him. He then faces the wall and starts chanting and just going on a whole creepy rant in a very strange voice. As he comes out of this trance like state and goes back upstairs, he points out how he's physically sick and keeps saying how apprehensive he was. Zach then asks if he heard the voices in the room with him, that they could hear, and he couldn't. They decide to bring in a Rabbi afterwards to help clear the air a bit,, and Mannis ends up literally dripping in sweat, coughing uncontrollably, and having a hard time breathing, when he was completely fine minutes ago. 

Zach asks mannis if he thinks the box could kill people, he tells Zach he can't answer that question, because he doesn't want to give it that power. 

At this point, Jason turns over the dyybuk box to Zach baggens, and it currently resides at his deadly possessions museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. You can visit it, but you have to be over 18, and sign a waiver just to see it, where it sits inside a protective case, not to be touched.

Unless of course your a celebrity like poor post Malone, who went to see the box, and as Zach rested his hand on top, posty touched Zach, and with only that second of contact, he claims he was cursed. Right after this happened, the plane he was on, the tires blew, they landed safely, but only a few days later, armed robbers broke into posts old house, demanding to see him, he wasn't there, thank God, but not long after that, he was tboned in his car, again, he came out okay but blames the box for his misfortunes. 

I dont care if I was famous or not, if a possessed item had a protective case on it, LEAVE THAT SHIT ON THERE. Why would you take it off and even risk it. No thanks. 

And that is the story of the dyybuk box.

Resources

https://web.archive.org/web/20120825053726/http://voices.yahoo.com/the-dibbuk-box-4184199.html?cat=44

Wikipedia 

Deadly possessions tv show