Commandment Profile:

-310) Not to allow a witch to live
Application to gentiles: Required Mandated punishment for violation: From Heaven Brief description: For the courts not to avoid their responsibility to execute anyone who has practiced sorcery, including any of the ceremonies or rituals of witchcraft. Commandment -34 prohibits witchcraft with death penalty, and commandments -31, -32, -33, -35, -36, -37, and -38 forbid the various related practices of divination, though probably not with death penalty. Examples: For the legal system to prosecute and execute practitioners of Wicca, Santería, Voodoo, and a variety of “New Age” cults. For the government to institute prohibitions on favorable depictions of sorcery in fictional books, films, and television programs, such as those in the Harry Potter and Star Wars stories. It is the responsibility of governments to intervene against provocateurs who seek to popularize such evil, in order to prevent the problem in the first place rather than having to solve it with widespread capital punishment. Category: Idolatry Commandments Biblical source(s) (Rambam): Ex. 22:17 Biblical source (Sefer HaChinuch): Ex. 22:17 Number in Sefer HaChinuch: 62 Sources explaining relevance to gentiles: (See bibliography) Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 59b-60a Gentiles are prohibited in sorcery; this commandment specifically cited as applying to them. Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Melachim 9:2 All idolatry-related offenses that carry death penalty for Jews also bring death penalty for gentiles.