looking for you. How much time will you waste, delaying here with me?”
I saw that what he said was true. I arose and left for the Yeshiva. I decided I would finish this work tomorrow. While in the Yeshiva I met Rav Shimon Aharon Agasi; I related to him this matter of Shabsai Tzvi, and how he had possessed the soul of Bakhur. Rav Shimon went and told these things to Rav Yosef Chaim (the Ben Ish Chai). Together they warned me not to continue with Shabsai Tzvi, fearing he would hurt me, G-d forbid.
The next day, Bakhur came to me, and I started Yichudim for Shabsai Tzvi. From within Bakhur, Shabsai Tzvi began again to curse me with awful curses. Bakhur would tell me all.
I stopped the Yichudim, and started to speak gently to the spirit, words that would touch his heart. I spoke with him, saying, “Let me ask you some questions: What is my strife with you? Do you think that I wish to take revenge for what you did when you were alive?”
The spirit answered that he did not think this. I asked him, “Do you really think my intent with these Yichudim is to cause you harm so that I will receive a Heavenly reward for my endeavors with Bakhur?”
The spirit said, “It’s not that.”
I said, “For Bakhur is a poor man, he cannot pay me for my services. Why then do you think I am troubling myself taking time away from my learning, if not for the sake of your soul? For is it still not a spark from G-d above? Can it not shine like the most brilliant pearl? It is only due to sin that you have fallen. The Holy One, blessed by He, is above all, and the Source of all. It is by His design that you entered into Bakhur’s body, so that by such, your soul would have a limit and end to its sufferings by the work I am doing with you. I am making the endeavors to rectify you. What then is my sin, my blemish, that you curse me with all these horrible curses?”
The spirit said to me, “I can’t stand the sufferings of the Yichudim.”
I said to him, “It is the way of the world that if a person is sick from an illness deep inside the body, the doctor has to open up the body in order to remove the cause of the illness. Even if this causes much pain, the person suffers it so that he can get well. He doesn’t curse the doctor. As for me, it is not my way to discuss things in such depth with the spirits, for the vast majority of them are quite ignorant, and can’t tell the difference between what is good for them and what is bad. However, I know what I know. I know that you are a very learned individual. You know how to judge for yourself what is for your own good and what is not. Therefore, I am correct in what I am doing with you, and your curses can have no effect upon me; for I know that your soul does not truly wish to curse me. It is the klippa that surrounds you that is forcing you to act thus. Therefore, I forgive your soul.” These were my words with Shabsai Tzvi that I spoke with kindness and respect (toward him). Rav Yosef Chaim and Rav Shimon Agasi had both told me to be aggressive with him.
When I finished my words, the spirit answered me in the words of a wise man. “I will not conceal from you a thing. For even though I suffer from the Yichudim, like a man who has wounds in the flesh, and along comes the doctor who covers the wounds with vinegar and salt, until it can hurt no more; yet, when the Yichud is finished, I do feel that my flesh has softened, and that the wounds are healing. I feel at ease. And now, I agree with your path. I want you to perform Yichudim upon me. And even if I jump or scream, pay no attention to my pain, for I scream due to the tremendous pain.”
I told him that this was still not enough. “When a person becomes drunk, and stumbles around, falling into a pit of mud, he cries out to those passing by to help him up. It goes without saying that the one in the mud helps those helping him to pull him out of the mud. He doesn’t depend on them to do all the work. In relation to this I ask you not to place your full burden upon me. I will work to remove the klippa from surrounding you on the outside, but you must make the efforts to remove your klippa from within yourself. Hashem will help us both.”
The spirit answered, “Yes. Yes, let’s do it and prosper.”
I started performing a number of Yichudim, and the spirit would scream horrible screams. Yet I would not pay attention to his screams until I was exhausted from performing the Yichudim. The spirit also was tired and exhausted from all his travails. It was not able to speak anything for a good amount of time.
After this I asked the spirit if the Yichudim had helped rectify him. The spirit said, “Yes, yes, your honor, I feel that the weight of the klippa is lighter upon me.”
I then asked him, “How thick is the klippa that is left upon you?” The spirit answered, “Without exaggeration, it is at least two feet thick.”
I asked him, “I have one question to ask you: tell me, does the ball of the sun revolve around the earth, or is it stationary in the heavens, or it is suspended in the air of this world?”
The spirit answered me, “Do you wish for me to enter my head between the great mountains (meaning the souls of the Talmudic Sages, dwelling above) so that they will crush my head? What you find written in the books, learn. I have no business in these matters.”
I asked the spirit a number of other questions, yet here I will only write the answers that were given to me, and from the answers I’m sure that you will understand what the questions were.
The spirit continued, “I am he, Shabsai Tzvi. My death was by hanging. I did not repent of my sins. I was buried in a gentile cemetery. While I was yet alive the klippa would materialize before my eyes. They are what caused me to become evil. I did not keep myself in holiness. [The spirit told me that] he had reincarnated numerous times that cannot be counted. He merited to achieve the levels of nefesh and ruach. When the neshoma started to manifest within him is when it happened what happened. Now he acknowledges that Moshe, our teacher, upon him be peace, is true, and that his prophecy is true, and that his Torah is true. Yet all this will bear him (the spirit) no fruits; for being that he is dead, he is not obligated to observe the mitzvos (Shabbos 30a). The merits he had earned from any mitzvos that he did perform are already gone.
[At this point, Rav Yehuda inserts this side note: Evil spirits can only speak in the heart, but not in the mouth. I give witness to this. In 1914 a virgin woman came to me who was then thirty-five years old. She was blind in both her eyes. She had reincarnated within her the soul of a Rav that was of my generation, whom I had known very well.
With all this, he would only speak within her heart and not within her mouth, even though she was blind. She did not study Torah, and this Rav was attracted to her while he was still alive. Even now he was trying to get her commit a sexual sin with another Rav, saying that from their union would the Messiah be born. Yet, she did not listen at all to his voice. After performing Yichudim and making efforts, the identity of this Rav was made known to me, as well as the fact that he had desired her...This then is the reason why the spirits speak only in the heart, and not in the mouth. They do not want to be recognized. This way they can be mocking and maligning.
In Sha’ar HaGilgulim 22, 22A, it is written, “When one reincarnates in a person, it is done in one of two ways. The first deals with the souls of the wicked, who after their deaths are not even worthy to enter into Gehinnom (hell) – they enter into the bodies of living persons here in this world. The second manner is when a soul impregnates a person by what is called an ibbur. This soul bonds (with the living person) in great secrecy. Thus, if that person then commits a sin, the incarnated soul within can then overpower the soul of that person whom they are inhabiting, and cause that person to sin further and to deceive it into going in an evil direction. Until here are the words of the Sha’ar HaGilgulim. It is possible that what the Rav (the Arizal) meant here when he referred to the souls who “bond (with the living person) in great secrecy” is that they do this for the reason mentioned above, so that they will be recognized, and thus they will be free to mock and otherwise trouble the public.]
Let us return to our subject. With regards to Bakhur, he was the reincarnation of the ruach (aspect of the soul of Shabsai Tzvi). The nefesh aspect was still living in an animal in the forest. It did not want to be in this place, nor did it want to ever reincarnate in the body of a Jew. It wanted to stay in the forest. (Regarding Shabsai Tzvi), he was thirty-five years old when he died. I asked him a number of other questions that he did not want to answer me, for he was still encased in a klippa two feet thick.
After five days, I again spoke with the spirit in a softer tone, and I saw that he had relented tremendously. He was actually remorseful over the sins that he had done. He was now very anxious for me to try to complete his rectification. He now abundantly blessed me and the members of my family. He said he wasn’t saying all this (talk about repentance) for my sake, but rather because it was true.
(He told me) that his first sin was that he had fallen victim to committing adultery. And that it is true what they say about him, that he had had a homosexual affair while he was wrapped in his tallis and tefillin. He even once sent a young man to have an illicit adulterous affair with his own wife Sora, telling the boy what was written in the Torah, “All that Sora says to you, listen to her.”
After his death he was punished with demonic beatings for twelve years. Until now he had always reincarnated into wild animals. Being in Bakhur was his first time possessing a human. He then explained to me why he was able to enter into Bakhur to possess him, the reason being that once Bakhur, when a young man, gave a young girl a (forbidden) kiss. This Bakhur did thirty years ago. Prior to this, the spirit said, he would hang around Bakhur’s proximity, because Bakhur was from the same source soul as he, the spirit, was. (The teachings referencing this are in Sefer HaLikutim, Yirmiyohu 8:14)...For the sake of one forbidden kiss was an opening created for the spirit to come in and possess Bakhur.
Yet the spirit is judged (and punished) every Friday, from the second hour of the day through the fourth hour and a half. The spirit told me that he is punished alongside the spirit of Yeshu HaNotzri in boiling feces. Regarding myself, the spirit told me, that I am here reincarnated for the second time, and that fifteen years ago I merited to receive the ruach level of soul. The spirit said that it was Hashem who brought him to me, in order for me to rectify him.
Regarding Bakhur, he must learn Zohar every day, in the early hours of the predawn morning, as well as after his meal, for the sake of the elevation of the soul of Shabsai Tzvi ben Rivka. He must go to the mikve every day. He must not be concerned with the evil thoughs that pop up in his mind. And when they do pop up, he should recite the pasuk: Rochash libi dovor tov – “My heart is astir with a good thing” (Tehillim 45:2) and meditate upon the holy Name resh ches shin.” Also meditate upon the holy Name Kibel Rinat Ameycha (KRA STN – tear the Soton) and the evil thoughts will be nullified.
From that day onward, the spirit of Shabsai Tzvi would request of Bakhur that he study more and more Zohar every day, more than the day before, even if this meant taking time out from making a living. When it came to going into the mikve, the spirit would cause Bakhur to hurry so fast that he would almost fall down the stairs into the water. The spirit would also awaken him every morning early, in time for tefilla.
The spirit also requested of me that I should recite Yichudim for him every day into Bakhur’s ear, including the blowing of the Shofar. The spirit thought that by doing all this maybe he would merit to enter Gehinnom.
I asked the spirit when he would leave Bakhur. He told me not to ask. When he was ready to enter into Gehinnom he would leave Bakhur, without having to be asked. And in truth, this is the way it was. For after a few days, Bakhur was no longer being disturbed in his sleep, I examined him and found no traces of the spirit of Shabsai Tzvi. Thus ends a true story of demonic possession, what caused it and what efforts need be made to rectify such a terrible situation. Let us all learn from this a lesson, to safeguard and protect ourselves. Evil surrounds us. It can only be neutralized by the good within us. And there is no good but Torah, the word of the living G-d.
