Akiva three hundred particulars to be observed in regard to the white spot covered with hair which was the sign of leprosy, the former lifted up his arms and placed them on his chest and exclaimed, “Woe is me, because of these my two arms, these two scrolls of the law, that are about to depart from this world; for if all the seas were ink, and all the reeds were quills, and all the men were scribes, they could not record all I have learned and all I have taught, and how much I have heard at the lips of sages in the schools.  And what is more, I also taught three hundred laws based on the text, ‘A witch shall not live.’”

Avoth d’Rab.  Nathan, chap. 25.

This truly Oriental exaggeration, which Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariah so complacently applies to himself, was spoken also of Rabbi Yochanan before him (Bereshith Rabba); an acrostic poem in the Morning Service for Pentecost adopts the same hyperbole almost word for word, and turns it to very pious account.  It is interesting to note how contemporary sacred literature abounds in similar hyperbolic expressions.  In John xxi 25 it is said, “There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”  Cicero, too, speaks of a glory of such a weight that even heaven itself is scarcely able to contain it; and Livy, on one occasion, describes the power of Rome as with difficulty restrained within the limits of the world.

Here it may not be out of place if we introduce a few of the many passages in the Talmud that treat of enchantment and witchcraft, as well as magic, charms, and omens.  The list of quotations might be extended to a hundred, but we must confine ourselves to a score or so.

The daughters of Israel burn incense for (purposes of) sorcery.

Berachoth, fol. 53, col. 1.

Ben Azai (son of impudence), says, “... he who seats himself and then feels ... (which must not be explained), the effects of witchcraft, even when practiced in Spain, will come upon him.  What is the remedy when one forgets and first sits down and then feels?....  When he rises let him say, ’Not these and not of these; not the witchcraft of sorcerers and not the sorcery of witches.’”

Berachoth, fol. 62, col. 1.

The daughters of Israel in later generations lapsed into the practice of witchcraft.

Eiruvin fol. 64, col. 2.

Ameimar says, “The superior of the witches told me that when a person meets any of them he should mutter thus, ’May a potsherd of boiling dung be stuffed into your mouths, you ugly witches! may the hair with which you perform your sorcery be torn from your heads, so that ye become bald.  May the wind scatter the crumbs wherewith ye do your divinations.  May your spices be scattered and may the wind blow away the saffron you hold in your hands for the practicing of sorcery.’”