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.