|
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
|
SORCERY כשפים
Sorcery, in Hebrew keshafim and Biblical Hebrew nachash (Numbers 23:23), is the
same as magic or the “black arts.” Using sorcery, people try to control or
dominate nature through all kinds of customs, ceremonies and sacrifices, and
then use it for their own purposes. Along with the acquisition of power, belief
in spirits plays the most important role in sorcery.
Belief in demons and in
magic are closely related. In sorcery, the spirits are summoned; in
counter-sorcery, they are repelled.
The Bible forbids any kind of sorcery,
fortunetelling, or casting of spells upon penalty of death: see Exodus 22:18;
Leviticus 20:27; and Deuteronomy 18:9-14:
“There shall not be found among you
anyone who…uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets
omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or
one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the
Lord…For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice
witchcraft and to diviners.”
In the Gospels, Jesus drove evil spirits out of those who were possessed. Later,
the Talmud made a distinction between forbidden and permitted sorcery using the
Name of God (b. Sanhedrin 68b).
Women were particularly attracted to magic, as
we read in Exodus 22:18: “You shall not allow a sorceress to live.” In the time
of the Talmud, 80 sorceresses were hanged (Sanhedrin 6:4), and in Soferim 15:10
it says, “Whoever takes many wives multiplies sorcery.”
From time immemorial,
Egypt has been known as the home of sorcery. This is why the Talmud states in Kiddushim 49b, “Ten measures of sorcery came into the world, Egypt took nine of
them for herself and the rest of the world took one.”
As people fall away from
faith in God, it is more likely they will turn to the occult and black magic.
But those who practice these things face judgment.
“I will cut off sorceries [keshafim]
from your hand, and you will have fortunetellers no more” (Micah 5:12).
|
|
| Back to Politics |