Witchcraft in Talmud (1)

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There is a brief statement in Sanhedrin 67b:
“A certain woman was anxious to take the dust from under R. Hanina’s feet. He said to her, ‘If you succeed, go and practise (magic).’”

The reference to taking the earth from under someone’s feet is an expression denoting witchcraft, and it is a translation of an Akkadian proverbial statement which occurs in a Seleucid manuscript of liver omens, which says, ‘for witchcraft, a witch takes the dust from a man’s footprint’ (BRM 4.12.74-75); this is precisely what is happening in the Talmudic passage, as suggested by R. Hanina’s answer to her.

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 67b
BRM 4.12.74-75

Bibliography

Mark Geller

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