The Talmud (Avodah Zarah 27b) preserves a disturbing account of the dangers that healing spells could pose to the rabbis. Ben Dama, the nephew of Rabbi Ishmael, was bitten by a serpent, a wound that could prove fatal without swift treatment.
A certain healer, a man known to practice in the name of foreign teachings, offered to cure Ben Dama with a spell. Ben Dama begged his uncle to allow the healing. "Let him cure me," he pleaded, "and I will bring you proof from the Torah that it is permitted."
Rabbi Ishmael refused. The law was clear: one must not seek healing through forbidden practices, even to save a life. To accept such a cure would be to acknowledge the power of heretical teachings, and that was a line Rabbi Ishmael would not cross.
Before Ben Dama could finish his argument, before he could cite the verse he had in mind, he died. Rabbi Ishmael declared over his body: "Happy are you, Ben Dama, that your body was pure and your soul departed in purity, and you did not transgress the words of your colleagues."
The story became a warning repeated in study houses for generations. There are cures worse than the disease. There are healings that cost more than a life.