Who Is Considered a Sorcerer?
The sorcerer [mekhashef] who performs a deed is liable [to death by stoning] but not he who creates an optical illusion. R. Akiva said in the name of R. Joshua: [What is a scenario in which] two men gather cucumbers, one gathers and is exempt while the other gathers and is liable? He who performs a deed [of sorcery] is liable, but he who creates an optical illusion is exempt.
Translated by Simcha Gross and Avigail Manekin.
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Credits
m. Sanhedrin 7:11, trans. Simcha Gross and Avigail Manekin. Copyright Simcha Gross and Avigail Manekin. Used with permission of the translators.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
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