Вайикра 19:31 Комментарий: Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Sforno & Tur HaArokh

אל תפנו DO NOT TURN [TO THE אבת NOR TO THE ידענים] — This is a warning addressed to the necromancers and the charmers themselves (not to the people who consult these tricksters). The בעל אוב, the controller of the spirit אוב, as the necromancer is called (cf. I Samuel 28:7), is identical with the פיתום (in Greek: πύξωυ); he is one who speaks out of his arm-pit; ידעני is one who puts a bone of an animal the name of which is ידוע into his mouth and the bone speaks (Sanhedrin 65b).

Having brought up the dead, Scripture now mentions charmers and wizards , since they purport to communicate with the dead (as it is written in Isaiah, “[seek guidance] of the dead on behalf of the living” [Isaiah 8:19]). charmers [Hebrew: ’ovot] as in “jugs” [Hebrew: ’ovot] [Job 32:19] — this being a major tool of their trade.

Seeing that the seeking out of oracles such as the ov or yidoni for the gentiles is something akin to enquiring about their fate from G’d, and it involves instead of consulting the living G’d consulting the dead or their remains, the Torah prohibits this in the strongest terms saying אל תפנו אל האובות, meaning not only must you not turn toward them, but you must turn your back on them and on any other phenomena similar to them. The Torah does not need to add that no respect or deference must be shown to such phenomena.

אל תבקשו means DO NOT SEEK to busy yourselves with them, for if you busy yourselves with them, you will become defiled in My sight and I shall abhor you.