The story of a haunted Jewish wine cabinet

According to Jewish folklore, a certain type of wine cabinet has the power to trap an evil, malevolent spirit known as a dybbuk (sometimes spelled dybbuk). This furniture item is known as a dybbuk box.

Though those with a weaker stomach might restrict stories of these contraptions to memory and tales, a certain dybbuk box became famous after being listed on eBay back in 2001. Here is the story of this chilling wine cabinet.

The dybbuk box

On February 9, 2004, the listing for a strange wine cabinet ended on eBay, purchased for US$280.

The listing itself told a haunting story, as the previous owner of this item had unknowingly purchased a paranormal object: A dybbuk box.

The owner had purchased this item from an estate sale in 2001, after a 103-year-old Jewish woman passed away. The granddaughter, who attended the sale, told the box's new owner that her grandmother had always warned her never to open it, as it contained a dybbuk.

Intrigued, but thinking little of the story, the seller placed the dybbuk box beneath his furniture refinishing store and left for the day. However, a salesperson called him up in tears shortly after, claiming that there was something swearing and breaking glass in the basement. Upon investigation, the basement now stunk of cat urine and the lights had been smashed.

In the seller's own words: "Then, things got worse."

Does a malevolent, evil spirit haunt the dybbuk box?

Against the elderly woman's commands, the eBay seller opened the box before giving it as a gift to his or her mother. After cleaning the insides, the previous owner handed it to the mother and left the room for no more than five minutes. When he/she returned, the mother had suffered a stroke.

The dybbuk box then moved from owner to owner within the seller's family, but each and every person complained of cat urine smells, nightmares and other paranormal phenomenon.

Finally someone purchased it off the seller, then they too, despite being entirely skeptical, had a string of "bad luck", and so created the eBay listing.

Who knows where the dybbuk box is now? If its current owner has any sense, it'll be buried six feet under and forgotten about.