Komentarz do Wyjścia 22:17

מכשפה לא תחיה THOU SHALT NOT SUFFER A WITCH TO LIVE — This does not mean that you may kill her but she shall be put to death by the court. Both men and women who practise witchcraft are included in this law but in using the feminine term מכשפה Scripture speaks of what is usually the case; for it is women who mostly practise witchcraft (Sanhedrin 67a).

THOU SHALT NOT SUFFER A SORCERESS TO LIVE. In connection with all those who are guilty of death, He has said above: moth yumoth (he shall be surely put to death),²⁷³Above 21:15-17. meaning he is liable to death, and it is a positive commandment upon us to slay him, based upon the verse which says, And thou shalt put away the evil from the midst of thee,²⁷⁴Deuteronomy 17:7. Ramban is here intimating that this verse is the basis for the one commandment of the execution of all four modes of death penalties. Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Rambam) counted them as four separate commandments. See my translation, “The Commandments,” Vol. I, p. 240. or it may be that this obligation on us is derived from the very expression yumoth (he shall be put to death) which He used in these cases.²⁷⁵This opinion corresponds closely to that of the author of ‘Hilchoth Gedoloth’ which Rambam in his Sefer Hamitzvoth criticised, and Ramban in his notes to that work defended. See “The Commandments,” Vol. II, p. 420. But here, however, He did not say, “a sorceress shall be put to death,” but in this case He warned us in a stricter manner by means of a negative commandment, that we should not suffer her to live.²⁷⁶See ibid., pp. 285-286. The reason for this is that the sorceress is defiled of name and full of tumult,²⁷⁷Ezekiel 22:5. and fools are mislead by her, therefore He was more stringent and admonished us with a prohibition. We find a similar severity in relation to all those who cause snares for many people, such as that which He said in the case of the misleader after idols, neither shalt thou spare, nor shalt thou conceal him,²⁷⁸Deuteronomy 13:9. and in the case of a murderer He said, And ye shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer, that is guilty of death.²⁷⁹Numbers 35:31.

מכשפה לא תחיה. Seeing that it is the custom of women engaging in witchcraft to practice their art in hidden places such as caves as we find in the case of the 80 witches executed by Shimon ben Shetach in Ashkelon on a single day. (Sanhedrin 45). The unusual formulation לא תחיה is meant to tell the authorities not to despair of bringing these culprits to justice in spite of their practicing their craft in hideouts. They should be hunted down until found.