It appears Eida Chareidis Av Beis Din HaGaon HaRav Moshe Sternbuch appears determined to get the message across, that the reports of the Brazilian avreich infected with a dibuk are nothing more than a case of “mental illness”. The Rav made his statements in an interview in the HaKol Ba’Kol agency.
The Rav stressed in this case he believes the avreich is ill.
When asked if the Rav’s son attended the ceremony conducted by R’ David Batzri Shlita last week, the Rav confirmed this is true, explaining “he was curious. He wanted to go. What shall I do?”
It should be pointed out the Rav’s comments pertained to this specific case and one should not draw any generalizations, the interview concludes.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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19 Responses
This Brazilian is not the only one with mental illness. All of those who believed in this dybbuk nonsense are also mentally ill and need professional help
who is hakol bakol?
#1 I don’t envy your gan aiden for making a comment on many gidolem that thought this is a real dibuk. Watch your mouth!!
Again, a voice of sanity from the aydeh.
How many people are going, yeah, no dybbuk, you lo yitzlachs get a life, and how many are saying, I fairly consistently hold by Rav Shternbuch, he says there is no dybbuk (not that it has any impact l’maaseh in my life) and it is not necessary for me to prolong this machlokes, especially since there is a real possibility my activities in this machlokes will not be l’shem Shamayim.
Stop with the “know-it-all” comments. From the beginning the reports suggested it was “very possible” we may have a case of a dibuk. Now the determination seems to be it is not a dibuk. If you would like to approach the Rabbis, in person, and tell them how you knew better from the get-go, then be my guest. It is not exactly not-Jewish to believe in the possibility of dibuks, anyway.
Can I just ask, why is this news? Whether dibbukim exist or do not and whether this is or is not a dibbuk or mental illness or whatever it may be, why is this news, I am sure it is a very sensitive issue, none of us know the details nor should we, the Man is in dire straits either way and he needs tefillos
Does anyone know of a place where I can see that R’ Sternbuch’s letter or listen in to an interview or something of that sort. I’m having a hard time believeing that there is a rav who is talking outright against R’ Kanievsky, Elyashiv, Steinman and many others.
The original article stated, “those who know him insist he only knows the local language, not Yiddish, Hebrew or any of the other language that was heard emanating from his body.”
Also, “His wife however heard him shouting in his sleep, this time in German, but she did not understand what he was saying. The question asked is that even if we assume he lost his mind, how did he learn the other languages?”
Does anyone have an explanation for how a mentally ill person can speak a language that he does not know?
I have an explanation which may or may not be the explanation. Prior to birth, we are taught everything there is to know. Then, the moloch Michoel has us forget, but no completely. Perhaps, as rare as it may be, but perhaps there was something going on with this mechanism. We may never know. But as with a lot of things, we really dont know.
The whole point of Harav Shternboch Shlita’s gadlus is that he says exactly what he thinks.
He has recently spoken out on other issues that R’ Kanievsky and Maran seem to be on the other side on. He’s not criticizing them. He’s standing up on his reglaim and saying what the halacha is.
#9 – you are questioning the wrong aspects of the story. You should be asking yourself how the wife recognizes German language, and whether or not she simply made up details to fit with the sensationalism that surrounded the story.
I have spoken to some people in Brazil, none of whom know anything about this story as we are hearing it.
All of the details surrounding this dybbuk hoax are hearsay. There is no documented evidence of any kind that this man was speaking from his stomach in any language, or that he spoke any actual foreign language.
Most mentally ill people are reasonably fluent in gibberish. In some cases observers will claim the patient is “speaking in tongues”, which is an honest way of saying “I don’t understand the language nor do I know what language it is”. But videos corroborate suspicions that it is indeed gibberish. In this case the perpetrators were careful not to allow any video or tape recording that could be analyzed by language experts.
Some people will do anything for attention, and while it is a sad thing, it may also be good because those are the people who absolutely NEED attention. Hopefully this man will get what he needs from this.
Anyone who read the introduction to R’ Elchonon Wasserman’s sefer would know how to act as if there is a dybbuk inside. But it should take more than it took in this case to convince people. A real dybbuk would be able to reveal things that are only known in the Olam Ha’Emes.
an explaination of ‘speaking a lanugage that you do not know’ is that we hear things all of our life that we never remember, phrases and words in other languages and so on. it’s very possible for someone to fall into a state of psychosis and repeat words and phrases that they had heard many years ago, that under normal circumstances wouldn’t remember
How in the world can a mental illness make 2 voices come out of your body at once?
What really puzzles me is whether he is possesed by a dibuk or is ill, this poor man is in serious trouble why do those who are close to him and trying to help him not publicise his name so that people can be nispalel for him tefilas rabim helps
#14 It can’t. And it didn’t.
#1,i think you should understand a little who you are dealing with.rav batsri is one of the gedolei mekubalim in eretz yisroel.you should look up what chazal say about mevaze tolmid chacham.
#8 None of those Gedolim you mentioned made any claims regardig a dibuk. They actualy said they dont get involved or have experience in them. They therefore refered him to go to a Mekubal.
Rabbi Sternbuch’s reaction is very difficult to understand. I would expect that he would examine the afflicted individual and discuss the situation with Rabbi David Batzri before publicly breaking with him. In formally expressing his decision I’d also expect to see a discussion of the subject and its applicability both generally and to the current case.