“She Turned me Into a Newt…!”
I would like to look at a verse in the sedrah that receives little attention in progressive synagogues. Exodus 22:17 contains just three words, Mekhashefah lo techayeh: “You will not suffer a witch to live.” I’m guessing this doesn’t receive much attention because we don’t believe in sorceresses, and even if we did, we wouldn’t put them to death. In fact, when we think of witches, most of us here think of that wonderful scene in Monty Python’s Holy Grail, where one of the villagers claims “She is a witch – she turned me into a newt…… Well, she turned me back again…!”
The views expressed in this D’var Torah do not necessarily reflect the position of Leo Baeck College.