(17) You shall not allow a sorceress to live.

(9) When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the abhorrent practices of those nations.(10) Let no one be found among you who consigns his son or daughter to the fire, or who is an augur, a soothsayer, a diviner, a sorcerer,(11) one who casts spells, or one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or one who inquires of the dead.(12) For anyone who does such things is abhorrent to the LORD, and it is because of these abhorrent things that the LORD your God is dispossessing them before you.(13) You must be wholehearted with the LORD your God.

(15) A sorcerer must be condemned to execution by stoning. This applies when he commits a deed of sorcery. If, however, he merely deludes those who observe him into thinking that he is performing an act although he actually does not, he is given stripes for rebelliousness. [The reason is] that the prohibition against sorcery is stated in the prohibition [Deuteronomy 18:10-11]: "There shall not be found among you one who... [practices sorcery]." It is, however, a prohibition which is punishable by execution by the court, as [Exodus 22:17] states: "Do not allow a witch to live." [Therefore,] lashes are not administered for its violation.

(16) And all of these things are words of untruth and deceit. And it is that with which the early idolaters fooled the peoples of the nations, so that they would follow them. And it is not fitting for Israel who are wise sages to follow this hot air, and not to bring to the heart that there is benefit in them, as it is stated (Numbers 23:23), "Since there is no divining in Yaakov and no magic in Israel"; and it is stated (Deuteronomy 18:14), "Since these nations that you are inheriting listen to the soothsayers and to the magicians, but you not like this, etc." Anyone who believes in these things, and similar to them, and thinks in his heart that they are true and a matter of wisdom, but that the Torah forbade them, is nothing but one of the fools and one [of those] lacking intelligence and in the category of woman and children, whose intelligence is not complete. But wise ones and those complete in their intelligence have known with clear proofs that all of these things that the Torah forbade are not matters of wisdom, but rather emptiness and hot air, that those lacking in intelligence followed and left all of the paths of truth on their account. And because of this, the Torah said when it warned against all of this hot air ((Deuteronomy 18:14), 'Be complete with the Lord, your God."

The halacha does not follow R' Matya ben Harash on his permission to feed a bitten person the liver of the biting dog, for this does not help but in a mystical way. And the sages says that we do not violate the Mitzvot for medicine except for things that heal by nature, i.e. a real thing that was discovered through reason and the experience that is close to the truth. But it is prohibited to heal with mystical things for their power is weak and comes not from knowledge or experience and are a weak claim for those who mistakenly hold by them. This is the principle, know and remember it for it is a great principle.

The Gemara proceeds to discuss the additionl halakhot cited by Rav Zutra bar Toviya. With regard to the magosh, Rav and Shmuel disagreed. One said that they are sorcerers, while the other said they are heretics. The Gemara adds: Conclude that Rav is the one who said that they are heretics, as Rav Zutra bar Toviya said that Rav said: One who learns one matter from the magosh is liable to receive the death penalty. As, if it should enter your mind that they are sorcerers, wasn’t it written: “When you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one that uses divination, a soothsayer, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer” (Deuteronomy 18:9–10)? And the Sages inferred: You shall not learn to do, but you may learn to understand and to teach the topic of sorcery. Apparently, merely learning about sorcery does not violate a prohibition. Only acting upon that learning is prohibited. Rav, who prohibited learning even a single matter from a magosh, must hold that they are heretics, not merely sorcerers. The Gemara states: Indeed, conclude that Rav is the one who said that they are heretics.

Now you shall know about the matters of sorcery, that when the blessed Creator created everything from nothing, he made the higher things lead the lower things, and gave power over everything on earth to the stars above, as is well know in astrology. Furthermore, he made angels and rulers over the stars and gave them souls and a fixed role to lead the world in a certain way. But of his mysteries is that he enabled those higher leaders to change their ways... But the simple leading which the blessed Creator desires is the one he placed within them in the beginning, and sorcery is the opposite as they said that they deny the heavenly court, meaning they are the opposite of the simple power... and this is also the reason for the prohibition to create hybrids for they do foreign actions and change the way of the world, other than being in themselves a change of creation... and many try to appear righteous and claim sorcery holds no truth, but we cannot deny the things that are famous for all and our Rabbis also admitted them... But this matter has a secret... The Torah says they other nations will use them to know the future, but your Lord has forbidden them for he hates them and gave you a better virtue above them to know those things by means of prophecy without resorting to a sorcerer who receives them only from stars or the lowest of the higher rulers whos things are not entirely true and that do not receal all that neds to be known, but prophecy will reveal the will of the Lord and non of it is falsified... And the reason to be wholehearted with G-d is that we unite our heart to himalone and believe he alone is doing everything and know the truth of any future and from fhim alone will we ask for the futures from his prophets or devoted servants... and believe everything that becomes a person depends on getting close to Hashem's work...