Do Not Consult with Witches and Wizards 5784

BySharon Brooks

5784 Vav Zayin Collection

ויקרא י״ט:ל״א

(לא) אַל־תִּפְנ֤וּ אֶל־הָאֹבֹת֙ וְאֶל־הַיִּדְּעֹנִ֔ים אַל־תְּבַקְשׁ֖וּ לְטׇמְאָ֣ה בָהֶ֑ם אֲנִ֖י ה' אֱלֹקֵיכֶֽם׃

Leviticus 19:31

(31) Do not turn to ghosts and do not inquire of familiar spirits, to be defiled by them: I am ה' your God.

דברים י״ח:י׳

(י) לֹֽא־יִמָּצֵ֣א בְךָ֔ מַעֲבִ֥יר בְּנֽוֹ־וּבִתּ֖וֹ בָּאֵ֑שׁ קֹסֵ֣ם קְסָמִ֔ים מְעוֹנֵ֥ן וּמְנַחֵ֖שׁ וּמְכַשֵּֽׁף׃

Deuteronomy 18:10

(10) Let no one be found among you who places a son or daughter into the fire, or who is an augur, a soothsayer, a diviner, a sorcerer,

ויקרא כ׳:כ״ז

(כז) וְאִ֣ישׁ אֽוֹ־אִשָּׁ֗ה כִּֽי־יִהְיֶ֨ה בָהֶ֥ם א֛וֹב א֥וֹ יִדְּעֹנִ֖י מ֣וֹת יוּמָ֑תוּ בָּאֶ֛בֶן יִרְגְּמ֥וּ אֹתָ֖ם דְּמֵיהֶ֥ם בָּֽם׃ {פ}

Leviticus 20:27

(27) A man or a woman who has a ghost or a familiar spirit shall be put to death; they shall be pelted with stones—and they shall retain the bloodguilt.

From The Times of Israel," Season of the Jewitch: The occultists reviving Jewish witchcraft and folklore" by Rachel Roman: Many Jewish rituals today have their roots in warding off demons, ghosts and other mythological creatures. When we break glass at a wedding, scholars say, we’re not just remembering the destruction of the Temple; we’re also scaring off evil spirits that may want to hurt the bride and groom. Likewise, ancient Jews believed that the mezuzah — a small box affixed to the doorpost containing biblical verses on parchment — protected them from messengers of evil, a function parallel to that of an amulet or good-luck charm.

Sam: Jews can do magic because it is not really sorcery. Necromancy is what is really forbidden because we are not supposed to worship the dead or get advice from them

From: Jewish Attitudes Toward Magic
Do Jews believe in magic?
BY MY JEWISH LEARNING
Judaism has had a long and tenuous relationship with magical beliefs and practices. .....
Yet in other biblical contexts, practices that would seem to be similarly questionable — interpreting dreams, using magic staffs, reciting blessings or curses, and referring to oracles — figure prominently as suitable behaviors for Israelite heroes. Moses and Aaron, for example, are celebrated for performing tricks that the Egyptian magicians could not match. The supernatural actions of Israelites–whose source of power is God–are welcomed; the actions of outsiders–whose power comes from sorcery–are derided.

Ben - G-d gave the magicians of Egypt just a little bit of his power so they could get their confidence up that they could do what G-d could do. But then G-d showed them that their powers were not really as powerful as G-d's and they could not do what G-d was able to do after that. G-d built up their confidence so that they thought they had more power than they really did.

From JTSA.com, "Forbidden Magic", by Ismar Schorsch: The aversion to magic may also be the factor that determined the blemish in Moses’ profile. He was not a silver-tongued orator. In resisting God’s call, he described himself as “slow of speech and slow of tongue” (4:10, 6:12). And indeed he did not convince Israel nor overwhelm Pharaoh by means of eloquence. According to Rabbi Nissim Gerondi of Barcelona, the spiritual leader of Spanish Jewry in the fourteenth century, that is among other reasons why God chose Moses. In a land where incantations were all powerful, God did not want a leader who appeared to best the Egyptians at their own game. No one should think that Moses prevailed because of his facility with language. This was not a contest between competing systems of magic. God alone initiated and generated the signs and wonders that effected Israel’s redemption from Egypt. The speech impediment of Moses underlined the new religious claim that the God of Israel could not be fettered by the occult (Abarbanel on Shemot).