The play ‘Between Two Worlds’ was written by An-sky for the Moscow Khudozhestvenny Theatre in 1913—1915; later, the author translated it into Idish as ‘Dibbuk’. The play was composed under the impression of a case observed by An-sky at the ethnographic expedition to the settlement of Yarmolintsy (Podolia); it was a story of unhappy enamored woven with legends and tales collected by An-sky in his expeditions. From a common story of a doomed love of a poor disciple of a certain religious school and a girl, who was married to a rich man, the author created a mystical drama, generously saturated with descriptions of religious rituals (wedding, exorcism), folk legends, beliefs in mighty Kabbala; he told a story of the death of that poor young guy who tried to change the decision of the parents of his beloved one with Kabbala — a spirit called Dibbuk entered the body of the girl at the wedding ceremony. An-sky described a rite of exorcism conducted by a local Tzadik. The play is finished with the death of the girl, who could not bear the second parting.

An-sky S. Between Two Worlds (Dibbuk). Censored Version. Publ., introd. and glossary by V.V. Ivanov // Mnemosine. Docements and Facts from the History of Russian Theatre of the Twentieth Century. Iss. 3 / Edit.-comp. V.V. Ivanov. Moscow: ‘АRТ’ Publishing House, 2004. P.9-63; 517—518. (In Rus.)