The séance for Shaul---Shmuel I, Chapter 28

Shaul’s searching for a necromancer to raise up Shmuel from the dead so he could take advice from him is certainly a striking one.   One of the larger tangential  (meaning it is not the point of the text) issues that arises from this passage is that it seems clear that Shmuel was indeed raised from the dead.

Does this mean that magic and necromancy are real? 

The argument is certainly strong, and not just from this passage.   Why would the Torah itself prohibit the practice of magic if there were no such thing?  (See Shemot Chapter 22, and Devarim Chapter 18).

There is a famous disagreement between the Rambam and the Ramban.   The Rambam held that in reality, there was no such thing as magic.   The Torah prohibited it precisely because it was a useless endeavor, perhaps to deceive the masses, when people should be instead focused on devotion to God.   Imagine, in a modern context, the plethora of  “New Age” philosophies that have led Jews away from the Torah in their search for spirituality.

The Ramban understands differently, holding that indeed there is such a thing as magic, which is what the Torah prohibits.  It is not so difficult to understand the Ramban in light of the various earlier sources.

But what about the Rambam?    The price he pays for his rationalism is in textual analysis.   The Rambam has a tendency to try to understand biblical passages as being understandable from a rationalist viewpoint.    Thus, if I recall correctly, on our passage he interprets the whole apparition of Shmuel as a vision of Shaul, not as the actual raising of Shmuel from the dead.   Similarly, Bilaam’s donkey didn’t actually talk—the whole incident was a prophetic vision.

Thus, the Rambam would argue that Shaul’s séance to raise up Shmuel didn’t really succeed to raise Shmuel from the dead.   Instead, he had a vision.  Presumably, in order to make the message Shmuel gives to Shaul cogent from a “why is this in the book of Shmuel” point of view, the Rambam would have to understand that God guided this vision in order to give Shaul the message.