Jerusalem: A stray dog which refused to budge from the home of a recently deceased rabbi has finally moved on after a "redemption ceremony" at an Israeli cemetery.
The dog, pictured in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Monday, showed up at the house of the late Rabbi Nahman Dubinky.
Rabbis expert in Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, concluded the animal could be possessed by a tortured soul seeking redemption. Ultra-Orthodox Jews traditionally do not keep dogs as pets.
"Sometimes the souls of sinners, such as adulterers or people who slept with non-Jews, enter the body of a dog," Rabbi Yitzhak Basri, a Kabbalah scholar, told Israel Radio.
"It is known that when a righteous man dies, the souls of people in need of redemption come to him so they can be healed as a result of his death," he added.
Basri said Rabbi Dubinky's family, along with a quorum of 10 mourners, carried out a "redemption ceremony" at a cemetery on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives.
"Afterwards, the dog did indeed leave the house," he said.
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