Talmudology on the Parsha, Terumah ~ Kinds of Gold

שמות 25:3

וְזֹאת֙ הַתְּרוּמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר תִּקְח֖וּ מֵאִתָּ֑ם זָהָ֥ב וָכֶ֖סֶף וּנְחֹֽשֶׁת

And this is the offering which you shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass,

There is a great deal of gold mentioned in this week’s parsha. First, gold is donated (Ex. 25:3). Then the Ark is covered in gold (ibid, 11), as are four special rings on each of its corners (ibid, 13). The poles that carried the Ark were plated in gold (ibid, 13), as were the two childlike forms known as the keruvim that were fashioned to face one another and placed on top of the Ark. The Table was top be overlaid with gold (ibid, 24) ditto the poles to carry it (ibid, 28) and the various dishes and spoons that sat on it were to be made of “pure gold” (ibid 29). The Menorah was to be made of gold, of course (ibid 31, and more on that in two weeks), as were the clasps that held the curtains (ibid 26:6) in the Mishkan. That’s a lot of gold for a lot of stuff.

The Talmud discusses different kinds of gold, and so for those not familiar with the chemical and medicinal properties of element 79, today on Talmudology we explore different kinds of gold.

יומא מד, ב

אָמַר רַב חִסְדָּא: שִׁבְעָה זְהָבִים הֵן: זָהָב, וְזָהָב טוֹב, וּזְהַב אוֹפִיר, וְזָהָב מוּפָז, וְזָהָב שָׁחוּט, וְזָהָב סָגוּר, וּזְהַב פַּרְוַיִם. שֶׁדּוֹמֶה לְפָז. זָהָב שָׁחוּט — שֶׁנִּטְוֶה כְּחוּט. זָהָב סָגוּר — בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁנִּפְתָּח כָּל הַחֲנוּיוֹת נִסְגָּרוֹת. זְהַב פַּרְוַיִם — שֶׁדּוֹמֶה לְדַם הַפָּרִים. זָהָב וְזָהָב טוֹב, דִּכְתִיב: ״וּזְהַב הָאָרֶץ הַהִוא טוֹב״. זְהַב אוֹפִיר — דְּאָתֵי מֵאוֹפִיר. זָהָב מוּפָז —

Rav Chisda said: There are seven types of gold mentioned in the Bible: Gold, and good gold, and gold of Ophir (I Kings 10:11), and glistering gold (I Kings 10:18), and shaḥut gold (I Kings 10:17), and closed gold (I Kings 10:21), and parvayim gold (II Chronicles 3:6). The Gemara explains the reason for these names: There is a distinction between gold and good gold, as it is written in the verse: “And the gold of that land is good” (Genesis 2:12), which indicates the existence of gold of a higher quality. Gold of Ophir is gold that comes from Ophir. Glistering [mufaz] gold is so named because it resembles the luster of pearls [paz] in the way it glistens. Shaḥut gold is named as such because it is very malleable and is spun like thread [shenitve keḥut]. Shaḥut is a contraction of the words shenitve keḥut. Closed gold is so called because when a shop opens to sell it, all the other shops close, as no one is interested in purchasing any other type of gold. Parvayim gold is so called because its redness resembles the blood of bulls [parim].

רַב אָשֵׁי אָמַר: חֲמִשָּׁה הֵן, וְכל חַד וְחַד אִית בֵּיהּ זָהָב וְזָהָב טוֹב. תַּנְיָא נָמֵי הָכִי: בְּכל יוֹם הָיָה זְהָבָהּ יָרוֹק, וְהַיּוֹם אָדוֹם — וְהַיְינוּ זְהַב פַּרְוַיִם שֶׁדּוֹמֶה לְדַם הַפָּרִים

Rav Ashi said: There are in fact only five types of gold, the last five in Rav Chisda’s list. Gold and good gold are not independent categories; rather, each and every one of the types of gold has two varieties: Regular gold and a superior variety called good gold. That was also taught in a baraita with regard to parvayim gold: On every other day the coal pan was made of greenish gold, but on this day it was made of a red gold, and this is the parvayim gold which resembles the blood of bulls.

Illustration drawn for Talmudology by Yosef Itzkowitz (www.yosefpaper.com)

Not all Gold is “gold”

We usually think of gold as being the color of, well, gold. But that’s not its only color. While pure gold is a sort of reddish yellow, gold alloys vary in color depending on the proportion of the other metals that are found in it. (An alloy is a mixture of two or more different metal elements.) So an alloy of gold and copper will be more red, while an alloy of gold and silver (or gold and other metals like nickel or palladium) will give a white looking gold. You can see how this works in the figure below:

In addition, the purity of gold is measured in karats (also spelled carats, but certainly not carrots), where each karat is 1/24 (or 4.1667%) part of pure gold. Sixteen karat gold means that it is an alloy in which 16 parts are gold and 8 parts are another. Pure gold is, by definition, free of other metals and is therefore 24-karat (ie 24 parts out of 24) gold.

Where does “Parvayim Gold” come from?

Recent evidence suggests that gold is formed by the massive collision of neutron stars. “Every element on the periodic table heavier than bismuth…is forged by the rapid-process in these most extreme stellar surfaces” wrote the cosmochemist Tim Gregory in his 2020 book Meteorite (p.168). “This includes some of your most highly prized substances like …silver, platinum and gold.” This gold was incorporated into the earth’s mantle when the planet was being formed, and was incorporated with other metals, which is why different kinds of gold alloys may be extracted from different mines.

It is this feature that Rav Chisda and Rav Ashi were highlighting in today’s page of Talmud. Shauhut gold (זָהָב שָׁחוּט) which Rav Chisda noted to be so malleable that it could be “spun like a thread” (נִּטְוֶה כְּחוּט) was likely almost pure gold (i.e. 24 carat). Today, gold can be made into a thin sheet known as gold leaf that is an astonishing four to five millionths of an inch in thickness (0.1 to 0.125 millionths of a meter or micrometers, µm). And the “spinning into a thread” that Rav Chisda mentioned? Today it is possible to spin gold into a thread that is just one atom thick. One atom. Think about that.

Another kind of gold mentioned by Rav Chisda is Parvayim gold which was a red color that “resembled the blood of bulls” (שֶׁדּוֹמֶה לְדַם הַפָּרִים). This gold was likely an alloy with a high content of copper, (found towards the bottom right of the triangle above).

The Medicinal Qualities of Gold

The Jewish physician Abraham Portaleone was born in Mantua in 1541, and is best known for his work Shilte Hagibborim [Shields of the Mighty], in which he sought to identify the precise ingredients of the Temple incense mentioned in the famous talmudic passage called Pittum Haketoret (Grinding of the Spices). Portaleone was also very interested in pharmacology, and authored a Latin text De Auro Dialogi Tres (Three Dialogues on the Application of Gold in Medicine) about the possibilities of a medical use of gold “a topic halfway between alchemy and medical studies that still created heated scientific debate.” Here is the assessment of historian Alessandro Guetta in his 2014 work on the history of Italian Jewry:

Contemporary medical authorities were divided into two camps on this: those who denied gold’s powers and those convinced of them. Portaleone’s position lay midway between the two. In his view, the hypothesis that gold had powerful medicinal properties was true; nevertheless, it remained a mere hypothesis, since such properties do not reside within gold as we know it …but in its quintessence, a substance perfectly pure and balanced in composition. In truth, nobody had yet succeeded in extracting this essence…consequently, the long list of healings that ancient and modern doctors had attributed to attributed to the ingestion of “common gold” mixed with water or wine was the fruit of ignorance and charlatanism. As for gold’s capacity to cauterize wounds, it has this in common with many other metals with the same characteristics.

We are now some four centuries after Abraham Portaleone wrote his book about gold. And it is indeed now true that gold can be used as a medicine. Aurotherapy is used to treat some kinds of inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, and may have a role to play in the treatment of some cancers and as an agent to improve wound healing. So to add to the Talmudic categorization of gold based on its color and malleability, we can now thankfully add another: how useful it is in treating disease.

Bava Kamma 105b ~ Teaching By Humiliation

בבא קמא קה, ב

אמר ליה תדורא...

Rabbah said to Rav Amram : "Scatterbrain" 

As a medical student in London, humiliation came with the territory. There I was, on rounds on General Surgery Firm. At its head, the consultant surgeon, followed (in their correct pecking order) by two senior registrars, three or four registrars, several senior house officers and house officers, nurses, physiotherapists, and a couple of medical students.  We gathered around the bed of some poor patient who had recently undergone surgery. The consultant surgeon turned to me: "Mr. Brown" he said, looking at me atop of his professorial reading glasses, "how long is the anal canal?" Everyone else smiled, relieved to know they had not been asked this, rather challenging question. I had no idea, despite having once known this useful fact to pass my anatomy exams. "Thirty centimeters, sir" I replied, hopefully.  "Correct," said the surgeon, as he surveyed the menagerie of staff trailing him.  "If you are an elephant." And so ended my surgical career.

Teaching By Humiliation in the Talmud

The rabbis of the Talmud were not shy to call out those they felt were slow-witted or annoying. After Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi was asked a relatively innocent question by Levi, the great editor of the Mishnah replied כמדומה לי שאין לו מוח בקדקדו - "it appears to me that Levi has no brains in his head," an insult he repeated on at least one other occasion. Rabbi Tarfon had enough of  Rabbi Elazar when he told him "How long will you pile up meaningless  words and bring them against us." He even used the same insult against Rabbi Akivah. Rabbi Akivah! (See ילקוט שמעוני תורה פרשת בהעלותך רמז תשכה.) Rabbi Yishmael was called "a date palm" (and not in a good way) by Rabbi Eliezer (see ספרא תזריע פרשה ה).  One of my favorites, though, came from Rabbi Dosa who called his  younger brother "the first-born of Satan" (and you thought your kids had issues).  I could go on, but you get the point. These guys could be really insulting.

Pimping in the Medical Literature

For the reader who is not medically trained, here's a new word: pimping. It's a real word that is OK to use in polite company (maybe).  According to the esteemed Journal of the American Medical Association, pimping is

a series of difficult and often intentionally unanswerable questions posed to a medical student or house staff in quick succession. The objective of pimping is to teach, motivate, and involve the learner in clinical rounds while maintaining a dominant hierarchy and cultivating humility by ridding the learner of egotism.

There is an art to pimping, according to Fredrick Brancati, the man generally thought to have invented the term in its medical content. Here is an excerpt from his classic 1989 paper, called, what else, The Art of Pimping:

Pimp questions should come in rapid succession and should be essentially unanswerable. They may be grouped into five categories:

1. Arcane points of history.These facts are not taught in medical school and are irrelevant to patient care—perfect for pimping. For example, who performed the first lumbar puncture? Or, how was syphilis named?

2. Teleology and metaphysics.These questions lie outside the realm of conventional scientific inquiry and have traditionally been addressed only by medieval philosophers and the  editors of the National Enquirer. For instance, why are some organs paired?

3. Exceedingly broad questions. For example, what role do prostaglandins play in homeostasis? Or, what is the differential diagnosis of a fever of unknown origin? Even if the intern begins making good points, after 4 or 5 minutes he can be cut off and criticized for missing points he was about to mention. These questions are ideally posed in the final minutes of rounds while the team is charging down a noisy stairwell.

4. Eponyms. These questions are favored by many old-timers who have assiduously avoided learning any new developments in medicine since the germ theory. For instance, where does one find the semilunar space of Traube? 

5. Technical points of laboratory research. Even when general medical practice has become a dim and distant memory, the attending physician-investigator still knows the details of his research inside and out. For instance, how active are leukocyte-activated killer cells with or without interleukin 2 against sarcoma in the mouse model? Or, what base sequence does the restriction endonuclease EcoRI recognize?

“....pimping can create a hostile environment among the team members, suppress creativity or intellectual curiosity because of fear of embarrassment, and dehumanize students at the expense of maintaining medical hegemony.”

— McCarthy, CP. McEvoy, JW. Pimping Medical Education. JAMA 2015; 314 (22). 2347-2348.

 Years ago an Australian team published a paper titled "Teaching by humiliation” and mistreatment of medical students in clinical rotations. They found that 74% had experienced and 83% had witnessed teaching by humiliation during their adult clinical rotations; smaller proportions had experienced (29%) or witnessed (45%) it during their pediatric rotations, which just proves what everyone already knows.  Pediatricians are all nice. All this pimping comes with a down side. "Students’ responses to these practices" wrote the Australian researchers, "ranged from disgust and regret about entering the medical profession to endorsement of teachers’ public exposure of a student’s poor knowledge. Reported victims and perpetrators included junior medical staff, who were subjected to the practices as much as students and were equally likely to be the perpetrators, alongside senior medical and nursing staff."

“As a deeply ingrained cultural, institutionalised practice, mistreatment requires focused action to replace the existing culture with one of compassion, tolerance and respect.”

— Scott, KM. et al. “Teaching by humiliation” and mistreatment of medical students in clinical rotations: a pilot study. Medical Journal of Australia 2015; 203(4): 1-6

Talmudic Insults and Respect for the talmid

In today's page of Talmud, Rabbah called Rav Amram תדורא, a scatterbrain. In fact he called him a scatterbrain again (in the next tractate we will learn), so I guess he really meant it.  This epithet seems to have been the "moron' of its day. Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba called Rebbi Zeira a scatterbrain, and  even the great Abayye must have felt a little miffed when he was called a scatterbrain by Rava bar Hannan.  

It seems demeaning to use language like this, and out of place given the words of the Mishnah (Avot 2:10) יהי כבוד חבירך חביב עליך כשלך - "let your friend's honor be as important to you as your own." Rabbi Yair Chaim Bachrach (Germany, 1638-1732) addressed talmudic insults in his book of responsa called Chavvot Yair, first published in 1699. Apparently things were getting out of hand in Germany, where the talmudic art of humiliating had evolved. Yeshivah students now also yelled and gesticulated rather enthusiastically as they sparred with their learning partners:

 מש"כ קפיצה וסיפוק וריקוד תוך הפלפול איש נגד רעהו שזה גורם בלי ספק שחבירו ימהר לעשות כמעשהו וירקוד ג"כ כנגדו וירים קולו בצעקה גדולה ומרה יותר ולא ישמע איש שפת חבירו ואין זה רק מנהג יהוא וכל המרבה בה ה"ז משוגע 

Students jump and dance around each other in the middle of expounding a subject, and this will cause, without doubt, that other students will do the same and will leap and raise their voices in a louder and more bitter cry. No one will be able to listen to the voice of his partner. This is nothing other than a ridiculous custom, and anyone who does this often is a mesgugah...  

Rabbi Bachrach then rose to the defense of those who used talmudic insults, claiming that they did so with only good intentions. They did it, he said, in order to bring out the very best they could in those they insulted. Hmmm. I'm not convinced.

Insults don't work, not for medial students and not for any students.  Ad hominem attacks are also unlikely to elevate the quality of an argument. In the run up to the US presidential elections later this year we are likely to see more of both forms of  disrespect, though they usually say more about the person uttering them than the person against whom they are directed.  

“ תנו רבנן: שלשה שונאין זה את זה, אלו הן: הכלבים, והתרנגולין, והחברין. ויש אומרים: אף הזונות. ויש אומרים: אף תלמידי חכמים שבבבל
The rabbis taught: three groups hate each other: Dogs, roosters, and sorcerers. Some say: so do prostitutes. And others say: so do the sages in Babylon...”

— פסחים דף קיג עמוד ב

Happy Birthday Tomorrow, Galileo

Galileo Galilei in a 1636 portrait by Justus Sustermans.

Tomorrow, February 15th, is a special day. It is the birthday of Galileo Galilei, who was born in Pisa on that day in 1564. Among his many achievements were his careful observations of the Earth’s moon, the identification of four of Jupiter’s moons, and the discovery that Venus, when observed through a telescope, has phases, just like that of our own moon. The only reasonable explanation of this was that Venus orbited the Sun, and not the Earth. And just like that, the geocentric model of the universe in which everything revolved around the Earth, came to a grinding halt.

Galileo’s Jewish Connection

Galileo taught astronomy to anyone who would listen, including Jews, and his most important Jewish student was Joseph Solomon Delmedigo who was born in Candia on the Island of Crete in 1591. At the age of fifteen Delmedigo left for Italy, where he enrolled in the University of Padua. For seven years there he studied astronomy, mathematics, natural science and medicine, and was taught by none other than Galileo Galilei, who was soon to become famous for both his observations of the planets and his clash with the Church.

When Delmedigo graduated he traveled to Lublin, Vilna, and Livona, where he spent much of his time working as a physician. He ultimately settled in Amsterdam where he published his Sefer Elim, a long book (it runs over four hundred pages) that deals with philosophy, science, mathematics, and astronomy.

“Galileo my Teacher” from Delmedigo, Sefer Elim, Amsterdam 1629. 148.

In this book Delmedigo outlined the reasons he accepted the Copernican model of the universe. In addition to explaining all of the theoretical support for the heliocentric model, he cited experimental evidence. If the planets revolved about the Sun and were illuminated by it, the amount of light that they reflect would depend on their location and distance from the Earth. And this is precisely what Delmedigo and his famous teacher had observed through the telescope. 

My teacher Galileo observed Mars when it lay close to the Earth. At this time its light was much brighter than that of Jupiter, even though Mars is much smaller. Indeed it appeared too bright to view through the telescope. I requested to look through the telescope, and Mars appeared to me to be elongated rather than round. (This is a result of its clarity and the movement of its rays of light.) In contrast, I found Jupiter to be round and Saturn to be egg-shaped.

This glorious passage reminds us that religiously observant Jews were sometimes at the very cutting edge of the new astronomy. How many could claim to have been instructed by the great Galileo himself?

But don’t get carried away

The historian Andre Neher (d. 1988) viewed Joseph Delmedigo as a fearless trailblazer whose goal was not only to influence his own community, but also the Catholic Church itself. In a paper published in 1977 he wrote:

When Delmedigo published Elim in 1629, he used the term “Rabbi” in speaking of his teacher Galileo. Rabbi Galileo! Was this not something of a challenge directed to the inquisitors in Rome who were then preoccupied with Galileo and who were not to let him go until his death in 1642? Free Galileo, Delmedigo seems to be saying, or release him to us; in the midst of our Jewish community, he will not be subjected to any trial, we shall not require him to make any retraction, we shall welcome him and honor him like a Rabbi in Israel!

Well, not quite. As I have written elsewhere, this account is linguistically, historically, and conjecturally incorrect. In the first place, although the term used by Delmedigo to describe Galileo was indeed the word rebbi, in this context, it means “my teacher,” and not “my rabbi.” By translating it in this way Neher was able to support his claim that the Jews were open, receptive, and respectful to new ideas emerging in astronomy; but the linguistic reality (and much else besides) does not bear this out.

Secondly, in the years prior to the publication of Sefer Elim in 1629, Galileo had not become the “preoccupation” of the Inquisition. The work that led to the trial by the Inquisition, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World, was not published until 1632. And so Neher’s claim that Delmedigo was writing a message to release Galileo is chronologically incorrect. Finally, the notion that the Jewish community would not punish one of their own for expressing antinomian views is inaccurate. It was, after all, in Amsterdam itself, the city in which Delmedigo’s books were published, that the Jewish community excommunicated Spinoza in 1656 on account of “the horrible heresies which he practiced and taught.” Although Neher’s assessment of Delmedigo as challenging the Inquisition on behalf of Galileo was not accurate, it he was certainly correct in noting the important role that Galileo must surely have played in the education of the young Jew Joseph Delmedigo from Crete, who grew up and became the first Jewish Copernican.

A selection from the Talmudology Library Galileo Collection

Want more Galileo-related Talmudology posts? Try Jews and their Telescopes, available here.

[A repost, obviously, because it was also his birthday last year.]

Talmudology on the Parsha, Mishpatim: The Rambam, The Ramban, and the Modern Murder of Witches.

שמות 22:17

מכשֵּׁפָ֖ה לֹ֥א תְחַיֶּֽה׃

Do not allow a witch to live.

 The Torah takes the crime of witchcraft very seriously. It is mentioned first in this week’s parsha and again in Devarim (Deut 18:10):

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

There must not be found among you anyone that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, a soothsayer, or an enchanter, or a witch.

 Is it Real or Is it Silly?

Maimonides thought that witchcraft was nonsense, that it was not in any way real.

רמב׳ם הל עבודה זרה 11:15

 וּדְבָרִים הָאֵלּוּ כֻּלָּן דִּבְרֵי שֶׁקֶר וְכָזָב הֵן וְהֵם שֶׁהִטְעוּ בָּהֶן עוֹבְדֵי כּוֹכָבִים הַקַּדְמוֹנִים לְגוֹיֵי הָאֲרָצוֹת כְּדֵי שֶׁיִּנְהֲגוּ אַחֲרֵיהֶן. וְאֵין רָאוּי לְיִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁהֵם חֲכָמִים מְחֻכָּמִים לְהִמָּשֵׁךְ בַּהֲבָלִים אֵלּוּ וְלֹא לְהַעֲלוֹת עַל לֵב שֶׁיֵּשׁ תּוֹעֶלֶת בָּהֶן. שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (במדבר כג כג) "כִּי לֹא נַחַשׁ בְּיַעֲקֹב וְלֹא קֶסֶם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל". וְנֶאֱמַר (דברים יח יד) "כִּי הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה יוֹרֵשׁ אוֹתָם אֶל מְעֹנְנִים וְאֶל קֹסְמִים יִשְׁמָעוּ וְאַתָּה לֹא כֵן" וְגוֹ'. כָּל הַמַּאֲמִין בִּדְבָרִים הָאֵלּוּ וְכַיּוֹצֵא בָּהֶן וּמְחַשֵּׁב בְּלִבּוֹ שֶׁהֵן אֱמֶת וּדְבַר חָכְמָה אֲבָל הַתּוֹרָה אֲסָרָתַן אֵינָן אֶלָּא מִן הַסְּכָלִים וּמְחֻסְּרֵי הַדַּעַת וּבִכְלַל הַנָּשִׁים וְהַקְּטַנִּים שֶׁאֵין דַּעְתָּן שְׁלֵמָה. אֲבָל בַּעֲלֵי הַחָכְמָה וּתְמִימֵי הַדַּעַת יֵדְעוּ בִּרְאָיוֹת בְּרוּרוֹת שֶׁכָּל אֵלּוּ הַדְּבָרִים שֶׁאָסְרָה תּוֹרָה אֵינָם דִּבְרֵי חָכְמָה אֶלָּא תֹּהוּ וְהֶבֶל שֶׁנִּמְשְׁכוּ בָּהֶן חַסְרֵי הַדַּעַת וְנָטְשׁוּ כָּל דַּרְכֵי הָאֱמֶת בִּגְלָלָן. וּמִפְּנֵי זֶה אָמְרָה תּוֹרָה כְּשֶׁהִזְהִירָה עַל כָּל אֵלּוּ הַהֲבָלִים (דברים יח יג) "תָּמִים תִּהְיֶה עִם ה' אֱלֹהֶיךָ"

All the above matters are falsehood and lies with which the original idolaters deceived the gentile nations in order to lead them after them. It is not fitting for the Jews who are wise sages to be drawn into such emptiness, nor to consider that they have any value as [implied by Numbers 23:23]: "No black magic can be found among Jacob, or occult arts within Israel." Similarly, [Deuteronomy 18:14] states: "These nations which you are driving out listen to astrologers and diviners. This is not [what God... has granted] you."
Whoever believes in [occult arts] of this nature and, in his heart, thinks that they are true and words of wisdom, but are forbidden by the Torah, is foolish and feebleminded. He is considered like women and children who have underdeveloped intellects.

The masters of wisdom and those of perfect knowledge know with clear proof that all these crafts which the Torah forbade are not reflections of wisdom, but rather, emptiness and vanity which attracted the feeble minded and caused them to abandon all the paths of truth. For these reasons, when the Torah warned against all these empty matters, it advised [Deuteronomy 18:13]: "Be of perfect faith with God, your Lord."

 In a similar vein Ibn Ezra also considered witchcraft to be, well, silly. Here is his commentary (to Leviticus 19:31): 

והידענים. מגזרת דעת שיבקשו לדעת העתידות וריקי מוח אמרו לולי שהאובות אמת גם כן דרך הכשוף לא אסרם הכתוב ואני אומר הפך דבריהם כי הכתוב לא אסר האמת רק השקר

Yidonim (familiar spirits) is related to the word da’at (knowledge). Those who turn to yidonim seek to know the future. The empty heads say if there were no truth in the ovot (ghosts) and in various magical practices, then Scripture would not have prohibited them. However, I say the reverse. Scripture would not have permitted that which was true. It only prohibited that which is false.  

Over the centuries, many disagreed with the position of Maimonides and Ibn Ezra, and claimed that yes, witchcraft was real.  You really could cast spells on people, and who knows, fly around on a broomstick. Nachmanides was famous for believing in witchcraft, a position he outlined in his commentary to Deut 18:9:

 לא תלמד לעשות כתועבת הגוים ההם …ועתה דע והבן בעניני הכשפים כי הבורא יתברך כאשר ברא הכל מאין עשה העליונים מנהיגי התחתונים אשר למטה מהן ונתן כח הארץ וכל אשר עליה בכוכבים ובמזלות לפי הנהגתם ומבטם בהם כאשר הוא מנוסה בחכמת האיצטגנינות ועשה עוד על הכוכבים והמזלות מנהיגים מלאכים ושרים שהם נפש להם והנה הנהגתם מעת היותם עד לעולם ועד גזירת עליונים אשר שם להם אבל היה מנפלאותיו העצומות ששם בכח המנהיגים העליונים דרכי תמורות וכחות להמיר הנהגת אשר למטה מהם שאם יהיה מבט הכוכבים (בפניו) בפנים אשר כנגד הארץ טובה או רעה לארץ או לעם או לאיש ימירו אותם הפנים העליונים עליו להפך במבט עצמו כענין שאמרו תמורת ענג נגע ועשה כן להיות הוא יתברך שמו מהשנא עדניא וזמניא קורא למי הים לעשות בהם כרצונו והופך לבקר צלמות מבלי שינוי טבעו של עולם ושיעשו הכוכבים והמזלות מהלכם כסדרן ועל כן אמר בעל ספר הלבנה החכם בנגרמונסי"א כשהלבנה והיא נקראת גלגל העולם בראש טלה על דרך משל ויהיה פניו מול פלוני תעשה תמונה לדבר פלוני ויוחק בה שם השעה ושם המלאך הממונה עליה מן השמות ההם הנזכרים באותו הספר ותעשה הקטרה פלונית בענין כך וכך יהיה המבט עליה לרעה לנתוש ולנתוץ ולהאביד ולהרוס וכאשר תהיה הלבנה במזל פלוני תעשה תמונה והקטרה בענין פלוני לכל טובה לבנות ולנטוע והנה גם זה הנהגת הלבנה בכח מנהיגיה אבל ההנהגה הפשוטה אשר במהלכה הוא חפץ הבורא יתברך אשר שם בהם מאז וזה היפך וזה סוד הכשפים וכחם שאמרו בהם (חולין ז) שהם מכחישים פמלייא של מעלה לומר שהם היפך הכחות הפשוטים והם הכחשה לפמלייא בצד מהצדדין ועל כן ראוי שתאסור אותם התורה שיונח העולם למנהגו ולטבעו הפשוט שהוא חפץ בוראו

THOU SHALT NOT LEARN TO DO AFTER THE ABOMINATIONS OF THOSE NATIONS … And now, know and understand concerning the subject of sorcery, that when the Creator, blessed be He, created everything from nothing, He made the higher powers to be guides for those below them. Thus He placed the earth and all things that are thereon in the power of the stars and constellations, depending on their rotation and position as proven by the study of astrology. Over the stars and constellations He further appointed guides, angels, and “lords” which are the soul [of the stars and constellations]. Now, their behavior from the time they come into existence for eternal duration, is according to the pattern the Most High decreed for them. However, it was one of His mighty wonders that within the power of these higher forces, He put configurations [as explained further on] and capacities to alter the behavior of those under them. Thus if the direction of the stars towards the earth be good or bad to a certain country, people, or individual, the higher dominions can reverse it of their own volition, as they have said, “The apposition for the word oneg (pleasure) is nega (plague).” G-d ordained it so because He, blessed be His Name, changeth the times and the seasons; He calleth for the waters of the sea to do with them at His Will, and bringeth on the shadow of death in the morning without changing the natural order of the world, and it is He Who made the stars and constellations move about in their order. Therefore, the author of the Book of the Moon, the expert in [the field of] necromancy, said, “when the moon, termed ‘the sphere of the world,’ is, for example, at the head of Aries (the Ram) and the constellation thus appears in a certain form, you should make a drawing of that grouping, engraving on it the particular time [when this relative position appears] and the name of the angel — one of the names mentioned in that book — appointed over it. Then perform a certain burning [of incense] in a certain specified manner, and the result of the influence [of the relative position of the stars] will be for evil, to root out and to pull down, and to destroy and to overthrow. And when the moon will be in a position relative to some other constellation you should make the drawing and the burning in a certain other manner and the result will be for good, to build and to plant.” Now this, too, is the influence of the moon as determined by the power of its [heavenly] guide. But the basic manner of its movement is by the wish of the Creator, blessed be He, Who endowed it so in time past, while this particular action is contrary thereto. This then is the secret of [all forms of] sorcery and their power concerning which the Rabbis have said that “they contradict the power of Divine agencies,” meaning that they are contrary to the simple powers [with which the agencies have been endowed] and thus diminish them in a certain aspect thereof. Therefore, it is proper that the Torah prohibit these activities in order to let the world rest in its customary way, in the simple nature which is the desire of its Creator.

In his commentary on the Torah Rabbi Bachya ben Asher (1255–1340) of Spain supported the position of the Ramban: Witchcraft works, but only if God wants it to (which kinda raises the question, if God wants it to work, why is it forbidden?).

אבל דעת רבינו חננאל ז"ל בפירושו במסכת סנהדרין מכחישין נראין כאלו מכחישין ואמר כי אין לכשפים פעולה כ"א מה שיגזור הש"י וכענין שאמר ר' חנינא לאותה אשה אין עוד מלבדו כתיב ואע"ג דמשני התם שאני ר' חנינא דנפיש זכותיה שנויא הוא ולא סמכינן עליה ואדרבי חנינא אתי תברן.

Rabbeinu Chananel in his commentary on that folio in Sanhedrin explains the matter of מכשפים differently. He claims that such sorcerers cannot perform any supernatural feats unless God specifically wants them to succeed. He bases his view on a reply given by Rabbi Chaninah to a woman who was trying to extract soil from beneath the feet of that Rabbi in order to perform acts of sorcery. Rabbi Chaninah told her that in the event she would enjoy help from G’d in her efforts and succeed he would still not be concerned as there is no one beside the Lord (Deut. 4 4,35). Rabbi Yochanan questioned this saying that the reason these sorcerers are called מכשפים is because they deny the power of celestial forces. In that case, Rabbi Chaninah did have something to be concerned about! The answer given by the Talmud is that Rabbi Chaninah had so many merits that he personally did not have what to worry about. Concerning the above, Rabbeinu Chananel writes that although the Talmud gave such an answer it is not to be taken seriously.

Another Spanish exegete, Isaac Abarbanel (1437-1508) took a similar position: 

וכבר ידעת כונת הרב המורה בחלק ג' פרק ל"ז בכל מעש' הכשוף ויתר הדברים והוא שהם כלם דברי תהו והבל ושנמשכו אחריה' חסרי הדעת והם כלם מפועל הדמיון ואינם שיהיה בהם שום ממשות ומציאות החלטי כי הוא לא יסבור במציאות השדים ולכן יחשוב שהמעשים האלה הם כלם מעשה תעתועים. אבל הדעת הזה התורה האלהית מכזיבתו שהניחה מציאות השדים באמרו (פ' האזינו) יזבחו לשדים לא אלוה. וקבלת חכמינו סותרת לזה כי הם קבלו מציאות השדים ומעש' הכשפים ואמרו בפרק ד' מיתות (סנהדרין ד' ס"ז) מההיא אתתא דהות מיהדר' למשקל עפרא מתותי כרעיה דרבי חנינא. אמר לה זילי שקילי אין עוד מלבדו כתיב. והקשו עליו מדאמר רבי יוחנן למה נקרא שמן כשפים שמכחישין פלמיא של מעלה. ותרצו שאני רבי חנינא דנפיש זכותיה. הורו בזה שענין הכשוף הוא אמת ובסנהדרין אמרו (דף ס"ו) בלטיהם זה מעשה שדים. בלהטיהם זה מעשה כשפים

The Rambam in his Guide for the Perplexed was of the opinion that all this has no real basis…but the Torah disproves his opinion for it assumes the existence of demons. And the teachings of our rabbis also disproves this, for they too assumed the existence of demons… 

The Vilna Gaon believed in witches

Practically everyone disagreed with the Rambam’s rationalist position. Yehuda Halevi (Kuzari 44:23), Chasdai Kreskus (Sefer Ohr, 5, 44:4), and the Vilna Gaon (YD 179:13) to name but a few. In fact the Vilna Gaon was scathing in his dismissal of the Rambam’s position:

פירוש הגר׳א יורה דעה 179:13

ואע"פ כו'. הרמב"ם וכ"כ בפי' המשנה לפ"ד דעבודת כוכבים אבל כל הבאים אחריו חלקו עליו שהרי הרבה לחשים נאמרו בגמרא והוא נמשך אחר הפלוסופיא ולכן כ' שכשפים ושמות ולחשים ושדים וקמיעות הכל הוא שקר אבל כבר הכו אותן על קדקדו שהרי מצינו הרבה מעשיות בגמ' ע"כ שמות וכשפים אמרה איהי מלתא ואסרתה לארבא אמרו כו' (שבת פ"א ב' חולין ק"ה ב') ובספ"ד מיתות ובירושלמי שם עובדא דר"א ור"י ובן בתירה וכן ר"ח ור"א דאיברו עיגלא תילתא ור' יהושע דאמר שם ואוקמיה בין שמיא לארעא (בכורות ח' ב') וכן אבישי בן צרויה (סנהדרין צ"ה א') והרבה כיוצא ואמרו (בספ"ד מיתות חולין ז' ב') למה נקרא שמן כשפים כו'. והתורה העידה ויהיו תנינים וע' זוהר שם וכן קמיעין בהרבה מקומות ולהשים רבו מלספר. והפלסופיא הטתו ברוב לקחה לפרש הגמרא הכל בדרך הלציי ולעקור אותם מפשטן וח"ו איני מאמין בהם ולא מהם ולא מהמונם אלא כל הדברים הם כפשטן אלא שיש בהם פנימיות לא פנימיות של בעלי הפלוסופיא שהם חצוניות אלא של בעלי האמת

The Rambam wrote [that witchcraft is not real], but all those who came later disputed this, for there are many examples of casting spells in the Talmud. Rambam was trying to be logical, and so he wrote that witchcraft and incantations and demons and talismen were all imaginary. But we have shown the opposite is the case, for there are many stories about them in the Talmud…

To be honest, the Vilna Gaon had a good point. The Talmud and midrashim are indeed full of stories that suggest the reality of witchcraft, spells and incantations.

The Church on witches

The dispute between the Rambam and the Ramban (et al) has a correlate among the early Church Fathers. St Augustine of Hippo (d.430) echoed the position of Maimonides; witchcraft had no power to do anything. And if witches had no real power, the Church need not take the trouble to root them out or investigate any allegations of witchcraft. But this all changed in 1208, when Pope Innocent III began a campaign of crusades against the Cathars, a group of Christian gnostics from southern France who believed in the existence of the Devil and the power of witchcraft. Tens of thousands of them were murdered. When the leader of the Pope’s forces was asked how to tell Cathars from Catholics he famously replied Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius"—"Kill them all, the Lord will recognise His own.” (I know, you don’t believe me. But it is true.)

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), a contemporary of the Cathar-killing Pope also helped rewrite the Church approach to witches. Aquinas argued that demons, real demons, would extract sperm and spread it among women. In this way, sex and witchcraft became entwined, and would remain so for centuries. Witches were seen as not merely seeking their own pleasure, but intent also on leading men into temptation.

The many Witchcraft Acts

From then on the Church took witchcraft seriously. So seriously that it was outlawed – under punishment of death – in many different societies and eras. Let’s start with Henry VIII’s Witchcraft Act of 1541, which made it illegal to   

…use devise practise or exercise, or cause to be devysed practised or exercised, any Invovacons or cojuracons of Sprites witchecraftes enchauntementes or sorceries to thentent to fynde money or treasure or to waste consume or destroy any persone in his bodie membres, or to pvoke [provoke] any persone to unlawfull love, or for any other unlawfull intente or purpose…

 Elizabeth I felt the need to pass another act – the 1562 Act Against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts. The Scottish also felt the need to pass their own Act in 1563, as did the Irish in 1586. Not to be outdone, in 1603 King James I passed the Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft and dealing with evil and wicked spirits.  

In Britain, the Witchcraft Act of 1735 repealed all the prior laws and with them the death penalty. The new Act made it a crime to claim that one had supernatural powers or could practice witchcraft. (Fun fact: the promoter of the 1735 Act was John Conduit, whose wife was the niece of Sir Isaac Newton.) And that Witchcraft Act was itself repealed in 1951 by the Fraudulent Mediums Act, whose goal was to prevent a person “from claiming to be a psychic, medium, or other spiritualist while attempting to deceive and to make money from the deception (other than solely for the purpose of entertainment).”

Which brings us to the South African Witchcraft Suppression Act, of 1957. Yes. It.Was. Passed. In. 1957. (Given South Africa’s recent international demonstration of its pathetic judicial sense, this should not really have surprised you.) Among its provisions are these crimes, punishable with a fine of up to R200,000 or imprisonment for up to five years (or both): 

…Employing or soliciting any witch doctor, witch-finder or any other person to name or indicate any person as a wizard.

…On the advice of any witch doctor, witch-finder or other person or on the ground of any pretended knowledge of witchcraft, using or causing to be put into operation any means or process which, in accordance with such advice or the accused's own belief, is calculated to injure or damage any person or thing.

The terrible cost of the fear of Witchcraft 

Between 1400 and 1775 about 100,000 people were tried for witchcraft across Europe and the American colonies. Of these, 40,000 to 60,000 people were executed. Perhaps setting a record in 1675, Torsåker parish in Sweden beheaded and then burned 71 people (65 women and 6 men). By the end of the seventeenth century, witch trials in Europe and Britain were on the decline, although they continued in the American colonies, which famously brought us the Salem witch trials of 1692. 

Not all who were found guilty of were executed, and not all who were found guilty were Christians. In 1712, the kabbalist Rabbi Hirsch Fränkel was convicted of witchcraft after completion of an inquisition by the Theological & Legal Faculties at the University of Aldorf.  Rabbi Fränkel was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in 1723 after spending twenty-four years in solitary confinement.

And it still continues

The history of the fear of witches is a history of their prosecution and execution. We now understand that witches have no power to injure, and their spells have no power to cure. But in some parts of the world, the fear of witches remains. A 2009 case report from the Department of Forensic Medicine at Walter Sisulu University for Technology and Science in Mthatha, South Africa details the murder of three women who were suspected of being witches.

“When misfortune occurs, it is believed to be caused by a fellow tribesman in a position of standing in the community. In Swaziland, witchcraft emanates typically from a jealous co-wife. The most prolific single source of witchcraft is the conflict of co-wives, reflecting tensions in the polygamous household.”

— Meel, B.L. Witchcraft in Transkei Region of South African: case report. African Health Sciences 2009; 9(1):61-64

The first case was a 70-year-old woman who had been accused of witchcraft. A relative of the assailant was a neighbor of the woman, and had been admitted to the hospital with pulmonary tuberculosis. The victim was accused of bewitching him, and was stabbed to death. The second case was a 51-year-old woman who was shot in her home. The assailant, a distant relative of the victim, had accused her of engaging in witchcraft, which resulted in an accident in which his son died. The third case was of a 70-year-old woman alleged to have been involved in witchcraft. The perpetrator was a close family member who had accused her of being responsible for his brother’s death. She was hacked to death. Every year 50-60 women in the area around Mthatha are murdered after an accusation of witchcraft, and they often share the same set of circumstances: “First, a witch is always a woman, secondly they are elderly (>50 years) thirdly, most of the time the perpetrator is related to the victim or very well known to her fourthly, there is some sort of community consensus or permission to eliminate these witches.” The author, whose poor English should be excused, concluded that

…beliefs in witchcraft are still strong in rural areas of Transkei. Even rational, literate people do believe in witchcraft especially when events cannot be explained or when people fail to explain the course of events or when people fail to establish causes of complex issues e.g. regular misfortunes, failure to succeed in life etc. Victims of witchcraft accusations, majority of them elderly women, are faced with terrible experiences in these communities. The issue of witchcraft and counter killing of witches is associated with lack of education.

Witches, like demons, devils and ghosts, are a projection not of reality, but of the thing we fear the most - that we may not control our circumstances any more than we control the weather. A belief in witches is a belief that we have control, that we are indeed to bring about the most terrible destruction or the most noble of outcomes. And when we prosecute and persecute witches, we regain power over those who would use their power over us. But wishing that this is reality doesn’t make it so. Not for witches, and not for the rest of us.