Kommentar zu Dewarim 18:11

וחבר חבר OR A CHARMER — One who charms snakes or scorpions or other creatures into one spot (חבר = “an assembly”) (Sifrei Devarim 172:1).

וחובר חבר, the tone-sign is on the letter ח just as it is in the word חרב, cherev, both in Jeremiah 21,2 and in Samuel II 11,25, this is proven by the plural mode in Psalms 56,8 being חברים, chavarim, with the emphasis on the letter ר just as in melech- melachim, and the vowel kametz, instead of tzeyreh.. If the emphasis were on the letter ב, i.e. on the last syllable as in חבר, (friend) in Psalms 119,63 Genesis 32,26 ירך as well as in the words גדר, gader in Numbers 22,24 where the emphasis is on the letter ד, then the plural mode would not have the vowel kametz under the second consonant in Psalms 56,8 but would have the vowel tzeyreh.

Someone who conjures up [the dead] onto his male organ. I.e. he conjures up the dead onto his male organ and it speaks there.

ושואל אוב וידעוני, “or consulting a ghost or familiar spirit.” According to the Talmud tractate Sanhedrin, folio 65, the people referred to are those who pretend that they can produce answers by consulting carcasses or skeletons, and producing what sounds like responses to their questions that appear to emanate between the joints of the bones of the dead. Rashi quotes a different version of this kind of trickery. The point is that through appearing to be able to communicate with the dead, these people presumably make a good living by misleading their naive customers. All of this kind of necromancy is punishable by death if performed by a Jewish person in Israel.

ושאל אוב OR A CONSULTER OF THE SPIRIT אוב — This is a kind of sorcery brought about by a spirit whose name is פיתום (in Greek: πύξον) who speaks out of his (the charmer’s) arm-pit, having raised a corpse beneath his arm-pit (Sifrei Devarim 172:2).

Or communicates with a skull. I.e., with a skull from a corpse lying on the ground. And through magic it answers what one asks it. So Sifrei expounds it. But in Perek Arba Misos (ibid) it is taught in a Beraisa: “Ov” is someone who conjures up onto his male organ or communicates with a skull, and “communicates with the dead” is someone who abstains from food and spends the night in a cemetery. One can explain why Rashi cites Sifrei and ignores our Talmud is because it [i.e., Sifrei] is closer to the verse’s plain meaning.

וידעני is one who puts a bone of an animal, the name of which is יִדּוֹעַ, into his mouth and the bone speaks by way of sorcery (Sanhedrin 65a; cf. Rashi on Leviticus 19:31 and Note thereon).

ודרש אל המתים OR A NECROMANCER — as, for instance, one who raises a corpse, placing it on his genitals, or who consults a skull (Sifrei Devarim 172:4; cf. Sanhedrin 65b).