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Rashi (Sanhedrin 44b, s.v. D'ba'ya) relates the story of Shimon ben Shetach's capture of 80 witches. He instructed his students to pick up the witches because the sorcery would be powerless against the students if the witches were ungrounded. Is this to say that sorcery does not work unless the practitioner is grounded?

If so, how can we interpret the Midrash (Bamidbar Rabba, 20:20) that states that Bilaam used sorcery to fly through the air?

Fred
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    Maybe you only need to be grounded to start a spell, but once it's going you don't need to be involved. – Double AA May 09 '12 at 06:50
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    Maybe Bilam was higher level then a witch. – jutky May 09 '12 at 10:58
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    Must be grounded,see Sefer Chassidim 474. – sam May 09 '12 at 15:36
  • related (slightly): http://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/13705/603 – Menachem May 09 '12 at 19:07
  • @Menachem - Nice. Still need to account for the midrash, though. – Fred May 09 '12 at 20:22
  • @Menachem, Fred: Maybe just like Bilam had real nevua he was also able to make miracles with koach hataharah not koach hatumah. – Double AA May 10 '12 at 05:36
  • @DoubleAA: I thought that as well, but the Midrash says he used sorcery: "אמר להם משה לישראל בלעם הרשע עשה להם כשפים ופורח ומפריח לחמשת המלכים" -- however, the Midrash does say that is what Moshe told the Jews, so maybe it wasn't sorcery, but Moshe thought it was. – Menachem May 10 '12 at 05:40
  • @Menachem Or at least Moshe told them it was. Telling the Jews about Bilam's kosher aspect may have been confusing and/or dangerous. – Double AA May 10 '12 at 05:41
  • @DoubleAA - this gemara might be a source that the term "keshafim" is sometimes used generically to include koach hataharah. I seem to recall hearing about an opinion that Bilaam could fly because he inserted a scroll with holy names under his skin. If true, finding the source for this could make for an answer. – Fred May 10 '12 at 18:05
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    @fred wasn't the scroll story yeshu? – sam May 10 '12 at 20:37
  • @sam Yes, thank you for correcting me. I had conflated the two stories in my mind. It is interesting, though, and conceivable that Bilaam would have done the same thing. – Fred May 11 '12 at 00:16
  • It is interesting to note that in sanhedrin 68a Rabbi Eliezer produces cucumbers from kisuf and then plucks them into one place seemingly not attached to the ground anymore. – sam May 17 '12 at 00:27
  • see the source brought in this question for more info on Bilaam flying: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/14720/performing-miracles-with-hashems-name – Menachem May 17 '12 at 15:17
  • What power were the witches reported to have? – zaq May 17 '12 at 16:49
  • @zaq - Some ability to do harm; other powers were not enumerated. – Fred May 17 '12 at 23:15
  • Bilaam did not employ sorcery (koach ha'tumah) but rather used the Shem Hashem –  Jun 10 '13 at 21:11
  • @user2110 The linked article in the question does not support that claim. – Fred Jun 21 '13 at 21:06
  • Well to answer a question with a question, how would Rambam et al who don't believe in the power of kishuf understand the Gemara. (Presumably as an allegory or mistaken "lone view") if so, the question doesn't really exist. Note also that B'midbar Rabba is a medieval work, so it doesn't necessarily accurately potray Bilam's life story, or even Chazal's perception of it. See http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/59525/traditional-approaches-to-bmidbar-rabba – mevaqesh Jul 16 '15 at 19:16
  • @mevaqesh I don't know if the gemara says that anywhere; it's from Rashi. But it's one of those long stories where it seems like he had a tradition for what the gemara was alluding to. Anyway, I think it's worthwhile to try to reconcile Rashi's understanding of kishuf with that of the B'midbar Rabba (even if it was compiled in the late 12th century, it's only one century removed from Rashi), but your approach is one way to go. – Fred Jul 16 '15 at 19:56
  • @sam Related to the scroll story, see the baraisa (Shabbos 104b) "תניא אמר להן רבי אליעזר לחכמים והלא בן סטדא הוציא כשפים ממצרים בסריטה שעל בשרו אמרו לו שוטה היה ואין מביאין ראיה מן השוטים". – Fred Jul 15 '16 at 06:58
  • Maybe the witches were using electricity, and the students were ungrounding them. Bilaam was able to fly because he was using battery power. :) – DonielF Jan 06 '19 at 16:54

4 Answers4

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Perhaps one need be grounded only to cast the spell (as @DoubleAA said here). If so, Bilaam could have cast the spell on the ground. They were then able to fly, which they did.

Community
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Menachem
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The case of Rebbi Shimon ben Shetach might have been about their particular method, from where they drew their power.

Also, there are a few types of Kishuf. Rashi points out that there is Latt and Lahatt. Perhaps using demons doesn't require being grounded.

Another possibility is that he was on the ground but projected himself into the air.

HaLeiVi
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  • +1. (a.) Your first suggestion is an interesting possibility that could fit with Rashi's wording "ושוב אין מכשפות שולטות בכם." (b.) Do you have a source that Bilaam used demons for his sorcery? (c.) Regarding your last suggestion, do you mean his body stayed on the ground? I'm not sure how well that fits with the context of the Midrash. And is there a source in Chazal that this kind of kishuf exists? – Fred Jul 16 '15 at 17:55
  • @Fred regarding B, the Arizal explains that flying is usually by being Mashbia Sheidim. And regarding C, I'm coming off, somewhat the Maharal in Gevuros about the children bring swallowed into the ground. – HaLeiVi Jul 16 '15 at 20:17
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Shimon Ben Shetach was the Nasi of the Sanhedrin. Like in Sanhedrin 68a (i think) where it explains that with the death of Rabbi Eliezer witchcraft was forgotten amongst the sages, it is likely that Shimon Ben Shetach (the Nasi in his time) also was familiar with witchcraft. Therefore, perhaps he knew that this particular form of witchcraft required being attached to the ground, where as Bilaam (an "expert" that a King sought out) would probably have spells in his arsenal (?) that wouldn't require being on the ground.

Also, note that Balak himself was an expert in various types of witchcraft/sorcery, but needed to enlist Bilaam due to his specific expertise in a certiain 'field'

jj2
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  • Interesting, but isn't this essentially the same as the first two paragraphs in HaLeiVi's answer? – Fred Aug 20 '15 at 06:27
  • @Fred I think the reference to the Sanhedrin being experts in sorcery is important to note, it supports the possibility that Shimon Ben Shetach was explaining the nature of the specific sorcery at hand. – jj2 Aug 20 '15 at 21:45
  • So you're noting that Sanhedrin 68a indicates the rabbis had knowledge of sorcery in general in order to make halachic decisions in various cases. There is a dispute regarding whether a non-Jew would be liable for performing magic, but Jews definitely are. The Sanhedrin might therefore be more interested in knowing about the witchcraft commonly used by Jewish violators, assuming there is such a distinction between various kinds of sorcery. So perhaps they knew the rule about grounding generally applied to Jewish witches, but they had no knowledge of Bil'am's magic. Interesting idea. +1 – Fred Aug 21 '15 at 00:25
  • @Fred i think it was their intention to learn all sorcery, in case a Jew would use it as well – jj2 Aug 21 '15 at 20:59
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I think, in the Rashi on Sanhedrin 44b, the subject of the sentence "He should lift one of them from the ground" is not referring to one of the witches, but to one of the jars that he distributed in the sentence before.

As translated here: http://www.bmv.org.il/shiurim/sanhedrin/san080.html

[Shimon ben Shetach] assembled eighty tall young men and distributed to each of them a jar with a cloak wrapped up inside (it was a rainy day). He also told them to make sure that they were always eighty in number. "When you come inside," he said, "one of you must raise his jar from the ground; from that moment the witches will have no further hold over you; if that does not work then we can never beat them." Shim'on ben-Shataĥ went into the witches' coven and left the young men outside. When the witches asked him who he was he replied that he was a wizard who had come to test them with his wizardry. "What tricks can you do?" they asked. "Despite the fact that it is raining today I can produce eighty young men with dry cloaks!" "Show us!" He went outside and beckoned the young men inside. They removed the cloaks from the jars, put them on, and came into the coven. Thus they bettered the witches, took them outside and strung them all up.

I don't know how lifting one of the jars from the ground would render their powers useless, but maybe that answer lies in what power the witches claimed to have.

zaq
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  • In other places, water is used to nullify witchcraft. Perhaps it was really the rain that nullified their powers. – zaq May 17 '12 at 18:19
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    Thanks for the answer. However, I just reread the Rashi, and it is in fact referring to the witches, not the jars. The translation is incorrect. -1, sorry. – Fred May 17 '12 at 20:21
  • Although it seems from Rashi that it was not the rain that did it, could you please produce a source that "in other places, water is used to nullify witchcraft"? – Fred May 17 '12 at 20:24
  • I believe Rashi at the beginning of Yechezkel mentions it in a comment on why Ezekiel is having his prophecy near the river. Also, if I remember correctly, a war with Amalek was fought near a river to stop them from being able to do magic. I can't check for sure until I get home. – zaq May 17 '12 at 20:30
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    @Fred: in Sanhedrin 67b, there's the case of Ze'iri buying a donkey in Alexandria - unbeknownst to him, it was turned into one by magic - and having it turn back into "a plank of wood from a bridge" when he took it to the water to drink; they tell him that everyone who buys stuff here knows to first test it with water to make sure it's the genuine article. – Alex May 18 '12 at 02:52
  • Pinging @zaq too. – Alex May 18 '12 at 02:53
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    It turned out to be a RaDak on the the third passuk in Yechezkel, that I was thinking of. He does not say anything about magic there, but he states that water is a purifying medium and the large body of water allowed Ezekiel to have a prophecy outside of Israel. There's also this:http://media-1.web.britannica.com/eb-media/47/93447-004-BB23D797.jpg – zaq May 18 '12 at 14:10
  • @zaq - Interesting stuff, Zaq and Alex (+1 on both comments). Maybe that's why the witches were so impressed with Shimon ben Shetach's trick. Also, maybe the combination of the rain and being ungrounded was needed to nullify the kishuf. Alternatively, maybe once they carried them out into the rain, they no longer had to keep them above ground. – Fred May 18 '12 at 19:07
  • @Alex - I wonder whether water only works on an object manipulated through kishuf, or also nullifies the practitioner. In Bil'am's case, he himself might be considered a cheftza of kishuf. – Fred May 18 '12 at 19:12
  • @Fred: well, it worked on the Wicked Witch of the West. :) – Alex May 18 '12 at 19:38