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Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Va’eira
Sorcery’s Source
January 23, 2025
Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by Rav Moshe Ze’ev Granek
And the necromancers did the same through their incantations to bring out the lice, but they were unable…
Shmos 8:14
The Rambam (Hil. Avodah Zarah 11) lists the types of witchcraft and sorcery that are forbidden. He writes that all of these are lies and falsehoods; they have no real power and are only tricks and illusions used to fool people.
This statement seems to contradict many Gemaros, as well as numerous psukim, that speak of witchcraft as a real but impure power. The Rishonim and Acharonim suggest several answers to this question, each of which presents its own challenges.
Perhaps we can offer another answer. In Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah, the Rambam says that a navi must prove himself with a sign—like successfully predicting the future—in order to be accepted. But how, the Rambam asks, is this a sign of prophecy? Maybe the man is just a sorcerer who can see the future through the forces of impurity? He answers that sorcerers are only correct some of the time and are always wrong about some of their predictions, so if someone is consistently correct, he must be a true navi. It emerges from this Rambam that practitioners of witchcraft might indeed see the future, but they do so unreliably. Perhaps he describes witchcraft as falsehood in Hilchos Avodah Zarah because it is always partially wrong, unlike the powers of holiness, which are always completely accurate.
A source for the Rambam may be found in our pasuk: The sorcerers were able to perform some of the same wonders as Moshe—turning staffs into snakes, turning blood into water, and making frogs appear—but they could not conjure lice. This may have been because the powers of impurity are inconsistent.