Because the study of Torah is of supreme importance in Judaism its disruption - for even a few seconds - must never happen. This is illustrated in today’s page of Talmud:
ברכות נג, א
תַּנְיָא נָמֵי הָכִי: שֶׁל בֵּית רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל לֹא הָיוּ אוֹמְרִים ״מַרְפֵּא״ בְּבֵית הַמִּדְרָשׁ, מִפְּנֵי בִּיטּוּל בֵּית הַמִּדְרָשׁ
This concern for disrupting Torah study was also taught in a baraita: The members of the house of Rabban Gamliel would not say “good health” when someone sneezed in the study hall, due to the fact that it would lead to suspension of study in the study hall.
Simply saying “bless you” after hearing a person sneeze was considered to be inappropriate when it would lead to - an albeit very brief - interruption of Torah. Rashi explains that this word was said after hearing a person sneeze: “מרפא – לאדם המתעטש שרגילים לומר אסותא” He notes that another word people said after hearing a sneeze is assuta - אסותא, which means a cure or a remedy. (It is also, by the way, the name of a hospital in north Tel Aviv.)
Sneezing in the Midrash, and in Nursery rhymes
Pirkei De Rabbi Eliezer is a collection of rabbinic stories traditionally ascribed to the first century sage Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, (although scholars believe it was composed around the 8th century). Towards the end is a chapter describing “seven wonderful things that have been done in the world, the like of which have never been seen.” The fourth of these wonders is sneezing:
פקרי דרבי אליעזר 52
המופת הרביעי, מיום שנברא העולם לא היה אדם חולה, אלא בכל מקום שהיה אדם אם בדרך אם בשוק ועטש היתה נפשו יוצאה מנחיריו ומת, עד שבא יעקב אבינו ובקש רחמים על זאת ואמר לפני הב"ה, רבונו של עולם אל תקח את נפשי ממני עד אשר אני מצוה את בני ובני ביתי. ונעתר לו, שנ' ויהי אחרי הדברים האלה ויאמר ליוסף הנה אביך חולה. ושמעו כל מלכי הארץ ותמהו שלא היה כמהו מיום שנבראו שמים וארץ
לפיכך חייב אדם לומר לחבירו בשעת עטישותיו חיים שנהפך מות העולם לאור, שנ' (איוב מא, י) עטישותיו תהל אור
The fourth wonder: From the day when the heavens and the earth were created no man became ill. Rather, wherever a person happened to be, whether on a journey or in the market, he would suddenly sneeze, and his soul would leave through his nostrils, and he would die.
This continued until our father Jacob came and prayed for mercy concerning this, and he said before the Holy One, blessed be He: “Sovereign of all the worlds! Do not take my soul from me until I have charged my sons and my household.” God was convinced, as it says, "And it came to pass after these things, that one said to Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick" (Gen. 48:1). All the kings of the earth heard about this, and they wondered because there had never been anything like this since the creation of heaven and earth.
Therefore a man is in duty bound to say to his fellow: “Life!” when the latter sneezes, for the death of the world was changed into light, as it is said, "His sneezing flash forth light" (Job 41:18).
According to this whimsical Midrash, there was a time when death only came suddenly, and was always preceded by a sneeze. No wonder sneezing was so feared.
In a 1983 paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Selig Kavka noted there is no response after hearing someone “belching, coughing, groaning, hiccuping, retching, snoring, vomiting, wheezing, or breaking wind, even when these symptoms may portend trouble.” So why sneezing? Perhaps it was because sneezing comes from the rapid movement of air in and out of the body, and air was synonymous with the spirit.
The great Polish Jewish astronomer and historian David Ganz (d.1613) wrote in his book Tzemach David of a plague that took place in the year 1590. “There was poison and pollution that filled the atmosphere across almost the entire world. When a person would sneeze he would immediately fall to the ground and die a sudden death. According to Jacob Eisenbrok, from that time onward the custom because widespread in every language and culture that that after a person sneezes we say “assuta” - “may you be cured.” And there is of course the sinister children’s poem in which sneezing (“ashes” or in some English versions “atishoo”) is followed by death, (at least according to some historians).
Ring-a-ring o' roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down
THE MEAING OF SNEEZING IN OTHER CULTURES
The Romans apparently had a similar custom to the Jews, and would say “Absit omen” ("Evil spirit be gone!") after someone sneezed. In his review of the topic, J. Askenasy, then at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, noted that Hippocrates attributed a dialectic dualistic interpretation to sneezing.
He claimed that sneezing was dangerous before or after a lung illnes, but was beneficial to other diseases (Prognosticon 41:22). In the first century BCE, Discorides reported the dangerous relationship between epileptic seizures and copious sneezing. Hippocrates wrote in Aphorisms section 6:13 that 'Sneezing, in the case of a person with hiccup, cures the hiccup'.This true feature was understood 2,000 years later by means of the reciprocal inhibition phenomenon. Celsus emphasized the beneficial aspect of sneezing during convalescence from illness (Medic2:3). This belief still exists today among the Zulu tribes.
Many cultures have their own superstition surrounding sneezing which are delightfully described in a paper published in 1881.
To this day, in Ireland and in parts of Scotland, the custom prevails. My housekeeper, a Devonshire woman, tells me it is still observed by the peasantry in that county. During the past century it was considered a gross breach of propriety not to salute a person on his sneezing. A friend of mine has told me that his father, as a little boy, was presented to the Pope, and was promised on his next visit, two days subsequently, a medal blessed by his Holiness. He and his father were present when the cardinals were assembled together. He happened to sneeze, when, to his surprise and delight, their eminences rose and bowed to him. The result was so agreeable that he extemporized several sneezes which were similarly honoured. His father was so mortified at the practical joke that he refused to present his son again to the Pope, and the little fellow therefore paid dearly for his amusement, and lost the intended present from his Holiness. Not very long ago an Englishwoman, travelling in Italy, who had heard a married lady friend who sneezed saluted by those present, not understanding Italian, or the precise meaning of the phrase used, subsequently astounded a bishop who sneezed near her, by the courteous wish Figlio maschio ! (May it be a boy !)
GOOD SNEEZING
If all this led you to think that sneezing is always a bad omen, the Talmud thinks otherwise. In a few pages (Berachot 57b) during a lengthy discussion about the meaning of dreams we will read the following:
שִׁשָּׁה דְּבָרִים סִימָן יָפֶה לַחוֹלֶה, אֵלּוּ הֵן: עִטּוּשׁ, זֵיעָה, שִׁלְשׁוּל, קֶרִי, וְשֵׁינָה, וַחֲלוֹם. עִטּוּשׁ — דִּכְתִיב: ״עֲטִישׁוֹתָיו תָּהֵל אוֹר״
There are six good omens for the sick: Dreaming about sneezing, sweating, diarrhea, a seminal emission, sleep, and a dream. These are all alluded to in Scripture: Sneezing, as it is written: “His sneezes flash forth light” (Job 41:10),
So while sneezing while awake was worrying, a dream in which you sneezed was considered lucky. But sometimes sneezing - even when awake - was a sign of good things. In the Book of Kings (Kings II 4:34-35), Elisha famously revives a young boy whose birth he had prophesied.
וַיִּגְהַר עָלָיו וַיָּחָם בְּשַׂר הַיָּלֶד׃ וַיָּשָׁב וַיֵּלֶךְ בַּבַּיִת אַחַת הֵנָּה וְאַחַת הֵנָּה וַיַּעַל וַיִּגְהַר עָלָיו וַיְזוֹרֵר הַנַּעַר עַד־שֶׁבַע פְּעָמִים וַיִּפְקַח הַנַּעַר אֶת־עֵינָיו׃
Then he mounted [the bed] and placed himself over the child. He put his mouth on its mouth, his eyes on its eyes, and his hands on its hands, as he bent over it. And the body of the child became warm. He stepped down, walked once up and down the room, then mounted and bent over him. Thereupon, the boy sneezed seven times, and the boy opened his eyes.
In this story, sneezing is not a sign of impending death, as it is in Pirkei De Rabbi Eliezer. Instead, it was a sign of resurrection. And earlier in Berachot (24a) we are told that the editor of the Mishnah Rabbi Yehuda HaNassi sneezed when he prayed, which was apparently seen as a good omen.
וְאָמַר רַבִּי חֲנִינָא: אֲנִי רָאִיתִי אֶת רַבִּי שֶׁגִּיהֵק וּפִיהֵק וְנִתְעַטֵּשׁ וְרָק
Rabbi Chanina said: I saw Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, while he was praying, belch, yawn, sneeze, and spit…
The rabbis seemed to have an ambivalent attitude towards the sneeze. It might be a harbinger of death. Or indicated life. Best not to sneeze, unless you did so while praying. Perhaps it is not about the sneeze at all, but rather the interpretation that accompanies it. Rather like dreams, which we will talk about next time on Talmudology.
