Magic is described as "the pretended art of producing preternatural effects," constituting one of two principal divisions of occultism alongside divination. Effects produced may be physical (such as unexplained storms or deaths) or mental—either intellectual (providing supernatural knowledge) or emotional (inducing arbitrary love or hate). Methods include both physical actions and incantations, with "the act and the results produced by it" serving as essential criteria in Talmudic understanding.
Jewish magic appears in Deuteronomy xviii. 10-11, which names various diviners, astrologers, and exorcists while forbidding their practices as idolatrous. The Bible expresses no doubt regarding magic's actual potency, causing magicians to be "feared and abhorred." Love-charms represented the most common magical practice, particularly for illicit affairs and predominantly practiced by women. Exodus xxii. 17 punishes sorcery with death, specifically referencing "the witch" rather than "the wizard," which the Talmud correctly interpreted as indicating that "magic was practised chiefly by women."
Magic frequently appears associated with sexual license and unnatural vices. Biblical passages consistently link sorcery with adultery, demonstrating that magical practice was "common throughout ancient Israel."
Post-Biblical literature, especially the Babylonian Talmud, provides extensive information through numerous passages demonstrating magic's "wide diffusion." Significantly, only witchcraft practice was prohibited—knowledge of magic was considered "indispensable to a member of the chief council or of the judiciary, and might be acquired even from the heathen."
The most learned scholars possessed expertise in magical arts, with the Law acknowledging its genuine power. The masses practiced witchcraft more devotedly than scholarly circles, though less extensively than Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. The phrase "Adultery and sorcery have destroyed everything" appears in Sotah ix. 13, while Simon b. Shetah famously "hanged eighty witches in a single day" (Sanh. 45b).
Scholars occasionally countered black magic with white magic for legitimate purposes. Healing through white magic faced no condemnation unless employing pagan or idolatrous means. Some scholars allegedly consumed men through glances or reduced them to bone heaps, but such magic was regarded as punishment for sins, thus requiring no Talmudic objection.
Exorcism flourished, though less extensively than in other circles. The Greco-Roman world considered Jews "a race of magicians."
Human speech represented the most potent magical means, to which all peoples attributed "invincible power." The magician's words held power when "uttered at the right time and place and under proper conditions." Official Judaism's bitter opposition to black magic generated constant prohibitions, revealing various witchcraft forms.
The secret Jewish name of God functioned as a powerful incantation factor, evidenced by Egyptian magic papyri combining heathen and Jewish divine names in what the Talmud termed "union" (synagoge).
Beyond magical words and formulas, various physical objects served protective purposes against the Evil Eye. Women, children, and animals received protection through amulets and talismans consisting of natural objects or written papers. Biblical copies, tefillin (phylacteries), and mezuzot all possessed protective qualities.
The apocryphal Book of Enoch describes angels teaching humans "incantations, exorcisms, and the cutting of roots, and revealed to them healing plants." The heart, liver, and gall possessed magical properties—notably, blind Tobit regains sight when anointed with fish gall. Noah's book of healing, Solomon's writings, and Mosaic texts possessed magical characteristics.
Medieval Jews continued bearing the reputation of magicians, with many likely profiting from this perception. A Jewish magician named Zambrio appears in ninth-century Italy, while Sicilian sorcerers flourished earlier. During medieval droughts, populations sought Jewish magical assistance for rain-making.
Ancient Jewish magic's internal diversity and fundamental contradiction with monotheism evidenced foreign influence. Early-era scholars unanimously identified Egypt as magic's "original home," with both Egypt and Babylon designated in Scripture as witchcraft sources. Egypt's prolonged political dominance during the Ptolemaic period deeply influenced post-Biblical Judaism, with Egypto-Hellenistic syncretism affecting Alexandrian Jews first, then Palestinian communities.
The Books of Hermes and recently discovered Greek and Coptic magic papyri, containing significant Jewish elements, confirm this source attribution. While Assyro-Babylonian elements existed, they primarily concerned astrology and divination—Egypt providing magic, Babylonia contributing divination, Hellenism serving as connective element.
The Talmud's authority ensured its magical content influenced subsequent generations. Many theurgic and magical elements in post-Talmudic literature originated from Talmudic or pre-Talmudic times, particularly in geonic Babylonian writings. This ancient magic, blended with Hellenistic and medieval European elements, became incorporated into the "practical Cabala."
The late medieval Cabala influenced both Jewish and non-Jewish worlds. This corruption "deeply and widely infected the people" and remains active, particularly among Hasidim.