The Spirits Speak

In HaRuchos Mesaprot, Rav Yehuda records in his own words an episode from Monday, 22 Kislev 5663. That day he received Reuven ben Moshe Mani ben Rahama, who was possessed by a spirit calling itself David Yohana. While he was still working with this man, a second visitor arrived, Yehezkel Ezra ben Yisrael, whose family name was Bakhur.

Bakhur described how, for years, evil thoughts had flashed through his mind from nowhere. During the silent Amidah, or at Kaddish and Kedushah, a voice inside him urged him to give up his religion and convert, Heaven forbid. The thoughts were so strong that they broke his concentration and kept him from answering. Not twenty years earlier he had gone to the Ben Ish Chai, who wrote to Rav Eliyahu Mani in Chevron. Rav Mani replied that a great klipah (evil husk) sat on Bakhur's heart and that he could not help. The Ben Ish Chai then consulted with Rav Yehuda, and on his advice Rav Yehuda wrote a mezuzah for Bakhur to wear over his heart. It did nothing. So Bakhur returned to ask whether a spirit was within him, and since he was an honest, G-d-fearing man, Rav Yehuda agreed to help.

He began reciting yichudim, the unifications of the Arizal's method, close to Bakhur's ear, the ones used against spirits. The breath of the yichud passes into the ear and then the limbs, and so unsettles the breath of the spirit. As he recited, Bakhur began to laugh. He said he could almost hear a second person inside him, cursing viciously. The spirit was mocking the advice of the Ben Ish Chai about the mezuzah in crude terms, and sneering that the talmid had now become the Rav, but was only half of his teacher.

Rav Yehuda ignored the abuse and went on reciting the yichudim again and again without pause, while the spirit raged and twisted inside Bakhur. At last the spirit told Bakhur to ask Yehuda what he wanted. Rav Yehuda answered that he wanted the spirit's name and city, and the plain truth, or he would bring heavy punishments on it. The spirit replied that others like Yehuda had tried before and gotten nothing, because it was harder than stone. Rav Yehuda warned it to prepare for the pain of the yichudim, which burn like an unquenchable fire, worse than Gehinnom itself, and said that it was bringing the suffering on itself by refusing to yield.

He recited the yichudim again and also blew the shofar near Bakhur's ear, with the proper kavanos. Bakhur screamed that it was enough, and the spirit surrendered. Rav Yehuda was not ready to hear it yet. He knew that spirits, like Pharaoh, give way for a moment and then harden again. So he first made the spirit feel what the Holy Names can do, and only when the yichudim were finished and the spirit was worn out did he allow it to rest.

Afterward the spirit asked why he wanted its name and origin. Rav Yehuda said it was so that he could rectify its soul and let it rise to Gan Eden, free of its wandering. The spirit refused, saying that this was impossible and that it did not want Gan Eden. When Rav Yehuda leaned in to recite the yichudim again, the spirit screamed that it would speak. It gave its name as Dovid ben Savti ben Rivka, of Izmir in Turkey. It said that it had been an apostate who had sinned with gentile women and left no children, and that it had entered Bakhur some seventeen years earlier. It pleaded to be left alone, saying that it had never harmed Bakhur and would stop the evil thoughts, and asked where it could go if it left. Bakhur told it to go to Gehinnom. The spirit answered that it was not yet fit even for Gehinnom, because of its grave sins, and begged Bakhur not to go to Yehuda again.

Rav Yehuda, who did not want to spend his days with spirits, set a condition. If the evil thoughts returned, he would act against it. Only a few days passed before they did, and Bakhur came back. Rav Yehuda started the yichudim again and told the spirit to speak truthfully, since the angel in charge of the yichudim had already revealed its real name and origin. This frightened the spirit. This time it said it was called Tzvi, son of Rivka, from Izmir. Rav Yehuda pointed out that this was not the name it had given before, and then asked directly whether it was none other than Shabsai Tzvi of Izmir, who made himself out to be the Moshiach. The spirit admitted it. Rav Yehuda reminded him that he had died in 1666, less than 237 years before, and asked where he had been reincarnated and how he had been judged. The spirit answered with scorn that even a pile of paper and pens would not draw it out, and then pointed out that Rav Yehuda was late for his shiur at the yeshiva, where his talmidim were waiting. Rav Yehuda saw that this was true, and he got up and left, planning to finish the next day.

At the yeshiva he told Rav Shimon Aharon Agasi about Shabsai Tzvi and how he had taken hold of Bakhur's soul. Rav Shimon told the Ben Ish Chai, and together they warned Rav Yehuda not to continue, for fear that the spirit would harm him.

The next day Bakhur came again and Rav Yehuda began the yichudim for Shabsai Tzvi. From inside Bakhur, Shabsai Tzvi cursed him with terrible curses once more, and Bakhur relayed them all. This time Rav Yehuda stopped and spoke gently, with words meant to reach the spirit's heart. He asked whether it thought he wanted revenge for what it had done in life, or a heavenly reward for his efforts. The spirit said no to both. Rav Yehuda pointed out that Bakhur was a poor man who could not pay him, and that he was giving up his own learning only for the sake of the spirit's soul, which was still a spark from Hashem and could shine like a bright pearl. It was only sin that had made it fall. Hashem, he said, had brought the spirit into Bakhur so that its suffering would have a limit, through his work to rectify it. So why curse him?

The spirit said it could not bear the pain of the yichudim. Rav Yehuda answered that a doctor must cut deep into the body to remove an illness, and the patient accepts the pain and does not curse him. He added that he did not usually reason with spirits, since most are ignorant of what is good for them. But this one, he said, was very learned and could judge for itself. He knew that the klipah around it was forcing the curses, not its soul, and therefore he forgave it. He spoke these words kindly and respectfully, though the Ben Ish Chai and Rav Shimon had told him to be firm.

The spirit replied wisely. It said it would hide nothing. The yichudim hurt like salt and vinegar on wounds, but when each one ended it felt its flesh soften and the wounds heal. It now agreed with Rav Yehuda's way and asked him to continue, whatever its screaming. Rav Yehuda said that this was not yet enough. A drunk who has fallen into a mud pit calls for help, and the people pulling him out do not do all the work alone. So he would remove the klipah from the outside, and the spirit must remove its klipah from within. Hashem would help them both. The spirit said, yes, let us do it.

Rav Yehuda performed many yichudim and the spirit screamed horribly, but he paid no attention until he was exhausted. The spirit too was spent and could not speak for a long while. When he asked whether it had helped, the spirit said yes, the klipah felt lighter, though it was still at least two feet thick. Rav Yehuda then asked it a question about the heavens, whether the sun revolves around the earth, stands still, or hangs in the air. The spirit refused, asking whether he wanted it to push its head in among the great mountains, the souls of the Sages on high, so that they would crush it. He should learn what is written in the seforim, it said. Rav Yehuda asked more questions, and he writes only the answers.

The spirit declared that it was Shabsai Tzvi. He had died by hanging, without repenting, and was buried in a gentile cemetery. Even while alive he had seen the klipos before his eyes, and they had made him evil because he did not guard his holiness. He had been reincarnated countless times and had risen to the level of nefesh and of ruach. When the neshamah began to appear in him, what happened happened. He now acknowledged that Moshe Rabbeinu and his prophecy and Torah are true, but it would do him no good, since a dead man is not obligated in mitzvos, as the Gemara says in Shabbos 30a, and the merit of the mitzvos he had done was gone.

At this point Rav Yehuda adds a side note about spirits. They can speak only in the heart and never in the mouth, and he bears witness to this. In 1914 a thirty-five-year-old unmarried woman, blind in both eyes, came to him. She was inhabited by the soul of a Rav of his own generation, whom he had known well. Even with her blind, the Rav spoke only in her heart. She did not learn Torah, and the Rav had been drawn to her while alive. Now he was trying to push her into a sin with another Rav, claiming that the Moshiach would be born from their union. She never listened to his voice. After yichudim and effort, the Rav's identity became known to Rav Yehuda, and so did his desire for her. This, he explains, is why spirits speak only in the heart. They do not want to be recognized, so that they can mock and malign freely.

He then quotes Sha'ar HaGilgulim, chapter 22. There are two ways a soul can enter a living person. The first is the souls of the wicked, who after death are not even worthy of Gehinnom and so enter the bodies of the living. The second is ibbur, in which a soul joins a person in great secrecy, so that if the person sins, the hidden soul can overpower his own and lead him further astray. Rav Yehuda suggests that the Arizal's phrase about souls joining in great secrecy means that they hide for the reason he gave, so that they can freely mock and trouble the public.

Returning to Bakhur, Rav Yehuda writes that Bakhur held the ruach of Shabsai Tzvi's soul. The nefesh was still alive inside an animal of the forest, and it did not want to come to a Jew's body at all. Shabsai Tzvi had been thirty-five years old when he died. Rav Yehuda asked more questions that the spirit would not answer, since it was still wrapped in a klipah two feet thick.

After five days Rav Yehuda spoke with the spirit again, more softly, and saw that it had softened greatly. It was truly sorry for its sins and eager for its rectification to be completed. It blessed Rav Yehuda and his family generously, saying that it spoke not for his sake but because it was true. It confessed that its first sin was adultery, and that the stories told about it were true, including a grave sin of immorality committed while wrapped in tallis and tefillin. It had even once sent a young man to its own wife Sora, citing the Torah's words that one should heed all that Sora says. After death it was beaten by demons for twelve years, and until Bakhur it had always been reincarnated into wild animals. Possessing a human was a first. It explained that it could enter Bakhur because, as a young man thirty years earlier, Bakhur had once given a girl a forbidden kiss. Before that, the spirit had hovered near him because the two shared the same soul root, as in Sefer HaLikutim on Yirmiyahu 8:14. That one forbidden kiss had opened the door. It added that every Friday it was judged and punished, from the second hour of the day until four and a half hours into it, alongside the spirit of the founder of Christianity, in boiling filth. It also told Rav Yehuda that he himself was in his second incarnation and that fifteen years earlier he had merited the level of ruach. Hashem, it said, had brought it to him in order to be rectified.

As for Bakhur, the spirit set out what he must do. Every day he was to study Zohar, once in the predawn hours and once after eating, to lift up the soul of Shabsai Tzvi, son of Rivka. He must immerse in the mikvah every day, and he must not trouble himself over evil thoughts. When they arise, he should say the words Rochash libi davar tov from Tehillim 45:2, a heart stirred by something good, and meditate on the holy Name resh, ches, shin. He should also meditate on the Name Kabel Rinas Amcha, the Name that tears Satan apart, and the evil thoughts would be nullified.

From that day on, the spirit itself urged Bakhur to learn more Zohar each day, even at the cost of his livelihood. At the mikvah it hurried him so fast that he nearly fell down the stairs into the water. Each morning it woke him early for tefillah. It also asked Rav Yehuda to recite yichudim for it every day by Bakhur's ear, with the shofar, hoping that it might yet earn entry into Gehinnom.

Rav Yehuda asked when it would leave Bakhur. The spirit told him not to ask. When it was ready to enter Gehinnom, it would leave on its own, without being asked. And so it was. After a few days Bakhur's sleep was no longer disturbed, and Rav Yehuda examined him and found no trace of the spirit.

Rav Yehuda closes the account with its lesson. A person must guard and protect himself, because evil surrounds us and can be defeated only by goodness inside us, and the only true goodness is Torah, the word of the living Hashem.