A Dybbuk

and Other Tales of the Supernatural

Tony Kushner, Joachim Neugrochel

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 1997
• ISBN:
  9781559366984
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

Kushner's imaginative retelling of the classic mystical legend, The Dybbuk, by S. Ansky, the noted Russian and Yiddish-language folklorist, novelist and dramatist. Ansky formed an expedition which roamed throughout the Ukraine to preserve and collect Hasidic folktales. The Dybbuk was a product of that journey. Written before the outbreak of World War I, it wasn't produced until 1920, shortly after Ansky's death. It has been much-produced worldwide ever since.

The Ten Signs of the Messiah

S. Ansky

(1911)

1

1. God, the Holy Blessed Be He, in His grace, prepared the remedy for the plague.

2. And before He created the world in His holy wisdom, He created the Messiah, the righteous Redeemer.

3. So that in the days of fearful trials and temptations, the Redeemer might save the creatures of the world from the ultimate destruction.

4. But the Almighty concealed any trace of him from human eyes—the day of the Messiah for hundreds and thousands of years.

5. And in the dark hour of God’s wrath, when the Temple was destroyed and the nation of Israel was driven from its holy land—

6. The Messiah took two steps out of his concealment, in order to go down to the world and save the survivors of the House of Jacob.

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7. But the Almighty, for whom coming events are open until the end of generations, stopped him at his third step and spoke:

8. “The sins of the people of Israel, from today’s generation to the future ones, will put your neck in an iron yoke.

9. “And as in an ox in strenuous pain, your eyes will be snuffed and your tongue will cleave to your palate. Will you take that tribulation upon yourself?”

10. And the Messiah asked: “How long will the tribulation last?”

11. And God’s voice spoke: “I swear by your life that I have placed the burden on your shoulders for only the length of seven days.

12. “But if your heart grieves, then in my wrath I will wipe out those who hold up your coming!”

13. And the Messiah replied: “God Almighty! With great joy and with all my heart I take the sufferings of the world upon myself.

14. “But not a single life of any of your children should be snuffed.”

15. And the Almighty put iron beams on the Messiah’s shoulders and a heavy yoke around his neck so that his mighty stature bent down to the ground.

16. And the Messiah began weeping under the heavy weight of his bent stature and he cried out:

17. “God Almighty! How great is my strength! How great is my spirit! How great is my might!”

18. And God’s voice spoke: “My beloved child, did you not willingly take upon yourself the sufferings of the world, starting with the Six Days of Creation?

19. “Know that since that hour, since My people lost its land, I have not ascended my royal throne.

20. “And the dew of the pitch-black night hovers constantly over my head.”

21. And the instant the Messiah heard those words, he cried out: “My sorrow is stilled. It is enough for the slave to be like the Master!”

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2

1. Even morning, with the rising of the morning star, the Almighty shrouds his face in grief and weeps.

2. And His voice, like the voice of a dove, laments and speaks:

3. “Alas! I have destroyed my house, I have burned down my palace and sent my children to wander homeless among alien nations!”

4. And, as he weeps, two tears roll from his eyes and fall into the ocean.

5. And as they fall into the ocean, the tears lament, and their lament is heard from one end of the world to the other.

6. And the heavens shake and the earth quakes.

7. And upon hearing God’s cries from the sky, and from the sea the lament of his holy tears, and from the earth the sighs of the embittered people of Israel—

8. The Messiah approaches the lowest step of the Throne of Glory.

9. And he raises his eyes to God and asks with wordless grief: “How much longer, Lord of the Universe?”

10. And the Almighty’s eyes grow moist with pity, but His voice answers the Messiah:

11. “My beloved child! Your hour has not yet come, and the time of earthly strength is not yet fulfilled.”

12. And every day at noon, the Messiah, in the guise of a pauper, sits among beggars and cripples at the gates of the city of Rome.”

13. His clothes are rags and his body is covered with sores.

14. And he unwraps his bandages, exposing his sores one by one to the eyes of the passersby.

15. But none of the nations of the world looks at him and none of their hearts responds to his sores with a shiver of pity.

16. And every day, with the rising of the evening star, the Messiah stands with girded loins at the gates of the Temple, holding a staff and trembling as he waits for God’s order: “Go!”

17. And hundreds of years vanish, and thousands of years go by, and the oracular voice remains still.

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18. But the time of the Messiah is already nigh, and God’s day is already reaching its zenith.

3

1. And it will happen in the final days:

2. When the hour of the Messiah comes, God will inflict dreadful tribulations on the world,

3. In order to cleanse humanity, just as heavy seeds in a barn are cleansed of chaff,

4. And just as a goldsmith purifies gold of dross in a blazing fire.

5. And the Almighty will inflict terrible signs on the world.

6. And their number will be ten.

4

1. The first sign will be the sign of great terror.

2. The Almighty will send a hailstorm of stones from the sky and a flood of fire.

3. Rivers and oceans will overflow their shores.

4. Fiery serpents and long-tailed stars will appear in the skies.

5. The foundations of the earth will start to shake, and horrible noises and tumults will be heard.

6. And wild beasts will lose their fear of man.

7. The breasts of the earth will dry up.

8. And a great fear will pounce on human beings.

9. All faces will grow pale, all ankles will stumble in terror, and all hearts will turn as soft as wax.

10. And some people will go about, trembling like drunkards, and they will say:

11. “The final days have arrived. The sufferings of the millennium are drawing nigh!

12. “Woe is us! Who will help us survive the birth pangs of these terrible days?”

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5

1. The second sign will be the sign of sun and bloody dew.

2. The Almighty will draw the sun from its sheathe, and a terrible heat will come.

3. And the sinners and false believers will be unable to withstand the heat and they will shout:

4. “Woe is us! Where can we escape the fiery sun?”

5. And they will hide in thornbushes, in ditches, in rocky fissures.

6. But nowhere will they find any cool relief.

7. And they will dig their own graves and lie down in them fully alive and call for death as a redeemer.

8. And after thirty days of heat, the sun will hide its face.

9. And a pitch-blackness will spread across the world.

10. And the sinners and false believers will inhale the darkness.

11. And their bowels will be filled with murk and their bodies will be covered with the foul-smelling mange.

12. And their minds will be muddled and they will be drunk without wine.

13. And those who remain lucid will be ashamed.

14. For they will understand that the signs mean that the redemption is at hand for the people of Israel.

15. And after thirty days of pitch-blackness, the sun will regain its normal illumination.

16. Then the Almighty will send a bloody dew, and bloody ponds and rivers will overflow.

17. The sinners and false believers will forget the difference between blood and water and they will drink from the bloody ponds and rivers.

18. And they will writhe in great pain and curse the day they were conceived.

19. And they will fall in heaps, and there will be no one to bury them.

20. And the cities will be filled with the stench of carcasses.

21. And the buildings and palaces will be devastated, the places of dancing and dining.

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6

1. The third sign will be the sign of sealed gates.

2. The Almighty will seal the gates of wisdom, and righteous people will be unable to remain in the world.

3. And they will gather in hosts and go off into the desert.

4. And they will settle among thornbushes and in rocky fissures and in high places and in low valleys, where there are no human settlements.

5. And they will say to the lion: “You are my brother!” And to the leopard: “You are my kinsman!” For they will lose their ties with human beings.

6. And in those days there will be no guide and no ruler for the people of Israel, no loyal shepherds and no truthful men.

7. And false prophets will multiply and seducers of the people.

8. And people will forget the heroes, and the eternal words will be blotted out from all minds.

9. And the synagogues will be emptied and the houses of study will be orphaned, and the houses of worship will be turned into houses of shame.

10. The gates of food will be sealed.

11. And dozens of starvelings will wander around and hold out empty hands, and no heart will respond.

12. For the gates of mercy will also be sealed.

7

1. The fourth sign will be the sign of Gog and Magog.

2. The Almighty will open the gates of the ends of the earth, and from there will come the countless armies of Gog and Magog.

3. They will be vile, wicked, and bloodthirsty.

4. And their appearance will terrify people, and their breath will burn anyone who approaches them.

5. Each of them will have two heads with seven eyes apiece.

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6. And they will have the claws of eagles and the teeth of lions and the hind legs of donkeys, and their entire bodies will be covered with hair like those of wild beasts.

7. They will be light and they will run like deer and be bloodthirsty like jackals.

8. Deep oceans will not halt their movement for they will drink up their waters.

9. And dense forests will not halt their running for their teeth will chew up the trees.

10. And children will hide behind their mothers and mothers behind their husbands and husbands behind old men, and they will shout:

11. “Woe is us! Woe is us! Who will save us from the savage armies?”

12. And the old men will reply: “Salvation is at hand, for the day of the Messiah is reaching its zenith.”

8

1. The fifth sign will be the sign of three emperors and the Messiah of the House of Joseph.

2. And from the nation of Edom, the Kingdom of Evil, which destroyed the Temple, the Almighty will single out three emperors.

3. These emperors will be false and sinful, but they will pretend to b...