Study Sanhedrin folio 65A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Mishnah: The list of those liable to be executed by stoning includes those who practice various types of sorcery. The Mishnah describes them: A necromancer is a pitom from whose armpit the voice of the dead appears to speak. And a sorcerer is one from whose mouth the dead appears to speak. These,
Talmud: What is different here, that the Mishnah teaches the halakhot of both a necromancer and a sorcerer, and what is different in tractate Karetot (2a), that the Mishnah teaches the halakha of a necromancer but leaves out the halakha of a sorcerer?
R' Yoḥanan says: The Mishnah in tractate Karetot does not count a sorcerer separately in the list of those liable to receive karet since both a necromancer and a sorcerer are stated in the Torah in one prohibition. Consequently, one who unwittingly serves as both a necromancer and a sorcerer is no
Reish Lakish says: A sorcerer is not included in the list in tractate Karetot because his transgression does not involve an action; it involves only speech, and one does not bring a sin-offering for transgressing a prohibition that does not involve an action.
The Talmud asks: And according to the opinion of R' Yoḥanan, that a sorcerer is not listed because sorcery is included in the same prohibition as that of necromancy, what is different about a necromancer that the Mishnah uses specifically that example, and not the example of a sorcerer? The Talmud