Ibbur (עִבּוּר): Spiritual Impregnation
Mystical Possession.
Ibbur meaning “impregnation” or “incubation” is a positive, temporary mystical possession in Kabbalah where a righteous soul (tzadik) attaches to a living person to aid in spiritual rectification (tikkun). Unlike the negative dybbuk, an ibbur is a voluntary, benevolent partnership that boosts the host’s capacity to do good deeds.
Key Aspects of Ibbur.
- Purpose: The soul of a departed saint attaches to a living person to complete a specific, unfinished commandment (mitzvah) or task that requires a physical body.
- Voluntary Possession: It is often consensual or earned through righteousness, unlike the involuntary, malicious possession of a dybbuk.
- Relationship to Gilgul: While gilgul refers to the reincarnation of a soul at birth, ibbur occurs after the host has reached adulthood (age 13 or older) and is temporary.
- Benefits: Both the host and the ibbur soul benefit spiritually, gaining merits without the ibbur soul inheriting the host’s sins.
- Lurianic Tradition: Developed heavily by Rabbi Isaac Luria (the ARI), ibbur is explained as a way for incomplete souls to achieve perfection.
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Ibbur (Hebrew: עִבּוּר, romanized: ʿibbur, lit. ‘pregnancy, impregnation, or incubation‘), is one of the forms of transmigration of the soul and has similarities with gilgul neshamot “reincarnation of souls” in Rabbinic Judaism.
ʿIbbur is the most positive form of possession and the most complicated. In contrast, possession by a dybbuk (Yiddish: דיבוק, romanized: angry dead soul or spirit) is highly adverse and requires exorcism. It happens when a righteous soul decides to occupy a living person’s body for a time, and joins, or spiritually “impregnates” the existing soul. ʿIbbur is always temporary; the possessed person may not know it has occurred. An ʿibbur is often believed to require consent from the possessed. The reason for an ʿibbur is always benevolent—the departed soul wishes to complete an important task, to fulfil a promise, or to perform a mitzvah (a religious duty) that can only be accomplished in the flesh. In Lurianic Kabbalah, ʿibbur occurs when an incomplete soul that cannot achieve tiqqun (“rectification”) is completed by the addition of the soul of a tzadik “saint”. Luria believed this to be possible even if the possessor were still alive.