The play, which depicts the possession of a young woman by the malicious spirit – known as dybbuk in Jewish folklore – of her dead beloved, became a canonical work of both Hebrew and Yiddish theatre, being further translated and performed around the world.

As decreed by custom, a humble feast is held for the poor folk prior to the ceremony, and the maiden dances with the beggars.

They visit the holy grave in the center of Brinitz, the resting place of a bride and a groom who were killed under their wedding canopy when the "Evil Chmiel" raided the area in 1648.

In the home of the Tzadik Azriel of Miropol, the servant enters to announce that Sender's possessed daughter has arrived.

Sender confides that he felt a strange urge to reject all suitors and take Khanan, but he eventually managed to resist it.

The court absolves Sender, stating that one cannot promise an object not yet created under the laws of the Torah, but fine him severely and oblige him to say Kaddish for Nisan and Khanan for all his life.

The holy man then conducts a dramatic exorcism, summoning various mystical entities and using ram horns' blasts and black candles.

[1] Historian Nathaniel Deutsch suggested he also drew inspiration from the Maiden of Ludmir, who was also rumored to have been possessed, thus explaining her perceived inappropriate manly behavior.

He failed to secure a meeting with Constantin Stanislavski himself, but director Leopold Sulerzhitsky read the play during the autumn, and replied much further work was required.

Censor Nikolai von Osten-Driesen commented the banishment of the spirit resembled the Exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac, and An-sky rewrote the scene using subtler terms.

The play was still undergoing modifications: on 21 October, An-sky propositioned to Sulerzhitsky they add a prologue, epilogue and a long scene of Leah's wedding day.

At the very same time, Stanislavski was supporting the incipient Habima Theater, a Hebrew-language venture headed by Nahum Zemach [he].

Michael Chekhov, cast as Azriel, had a severe nervous breakdown due to the use of extreme acting techniques; Stanislavski fell ill with typhus.

The author left the city to Vilnius, losing his original copy on the way, but eventually receiving another from Shmuel Niger.

[3] On 9 December, at the end of the thirty days' mourning after An-sky's departure, Herman and his troupe staged the world premiere of The Dybbuk in Yiddish, at the Warsaw Elizeum Theater.

Miriam Orleska, Alexander Stein, Abraham Morevsky and Noah Nachbusch portrayed Leah, Khanan, Azriel and the Messenger, respectively.

The play turned into a massive success, drawing large audiences for over a year, from all the shades of society and a considerable number of Christians.

Avivit was a notorious prima donna and an intimate friend of Bialik, and abandoned the theater unexpectedly on 21 March 1921, due to constant quarrels with the directors.

She was confident that the management would call her back, but they dismissed her of the role of Leah, to Bialik's chagrin; he ceased attending rehearsals.

Vakhtangov gave the piece to Hanna Rovina, to the dismay of his associates, who considered the thirty-year-old actress too mature for portraying an eighteen-year-old Leah.

Rovina was recovering from Tuberculosis in a sanatorium north of Moscow, and left the establishment in spite of the doctors' protests.

Rovina, Miriam Elias (who was replaced by male actors in subsequent stagings), Shabtai Prudkin and Nachum Tzemach appeared in the four leading roles.

In the British Mandate of Palestine, it premiered in a makeshift production organized by a labor battalion paving Highway 75; while the exact date was unrecorded, it was sometime in February 1922.

On the 6th and 16 June 1926, in two consecutive meetings, the members of the Hebrew Writers Union in Tel Aviv conducted "the Dybbuk trial", a public debate attended by an audience of 5,000 people.

They discussed the gap between the needs of the Zionist enterprise and the play's atmosphere, voicing concern that it might overshadow the "young Hebrew culture" developing in Palestine, struggling to free itself from the constraints of diaspora mentality.

The German-language premiere opened on 28 February 1925, in Vienna's Rolandbühne, with Friedrich Feher as Azriel and Magda Sonja playing Leah.

When Aaron Copland attended a performance of the play in New York in 1929, he was struck by this melody and made it the basis of his piano trio Vitebsk, named for the town where An-sky was born.

[8] In the early 1970s, Leon Katz created multiple adaptations of The Dybbuk (Toy Show and Shekhina: The Bride), both directed by Rina Yerushalmi and produced at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club.

[11] In 1980 the BBC aired the TV Movie "The Dybbuk", starring David Swift, Simon Callow and other notable actors of that era.

In 1999, the Hollywood Theater of the Ear, under the direction of Yuri Rasovsky, recorded an English-language production, released by Dove Audio.