Berachot 53 ~ "Bless You" and Sneezing

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.

Berachot 50a ~ "The Three Who Ate" - on Yom Kippur

On this page of Talmud read a Mishnah that begins with the words “Three people who ate.”

שְׁלֹשָׁה שֶׁאָכְלוּ כְּאַחַת — אֵינָן רַשָּׁאִין לֵיחָלֵק

Three people who ate together must recite Grace after Meals together…

There is another Mishnah in Avot that echoes this phrase:

רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן אוֹמֵר, שְׁלשָׁה שֶׁאָכְלוּ עַל שֻׁלְחָן אֶחָד וְלֹא אָמְרוּ עָלָיו דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה, כְּאִלּוּ אָכְלוּ מִזִּבְחֵי מֵתִים

Rabbi Shimon said: if three people ate at one table and have not spoken there words of Torah, [it is] as if they had eaten sacrifices [offered] to the dead

The Three Who Ate - By David Frischmann

The great Hebrew and Yiddish writer David Frischmann (1859-1922) wrote a famous short story with the same title: שלשה שאכלו - Three People Who Ate. It describes an event that took place in Vilna during one of the terrible cholera epidemics that broke out in the city. Here is an excerpt.

מעשה בשלשה שאכלו…...לא באחד הימים הפשוטים מימי שבתות ה ’אכלו את אשר אכלו, כי-אם ביום הכפורים, ביום הכפורים שחל להיות בשבת; לא במקום סתר באין רואה ובאין יודע, כי-אם לעיני כל ישראל, אשר בבית-הכנסת הגדול; ולא אנשים ריקים ופוחזים, לא קלי-דעת היו שלשת האנשים ההם, כי-אם מנשיאי העדה ואציליה הכי-נכבדים, הלא הם רב העיר ושני הדינים אשר עמו. –ובכל זה עיני כל ישראל היו תלויות אליהם ביראה ובכבוד, ויהיו קדושים בעיני כל העם ועל פני כל העדה נכבדו ויקָּדשו

Three people who ate….they did not eat on any regular day of the week, but on Yom Kippur. And not just on any Yom Kippur, but on Yom Kippur that fell on Shabbat. They didn’t eat in secret, but in front of everyone gathered in the Great Synagogue. They weren’t simple people or boors. These three were not frivolous. Rather they were the princes of the community and their most important leaders, none other than the rabbi of the city and the two Dayanim [rabbinic judges] who stood with him…

It was the afternoon of Yom Kippur.  The rabbi stood bent over on the Bima…Even now my eyes can picture that incredible sight, as I stood there in the congregation of the synagogue.   The rabbi stood on the Bima, his dark eyes shining out from his pale face and white beard. The Mussaf service was almost over and the congregation stood silently waiting to hear something from this man of God...

Suddenly my ears heard a sound but I could not understand exactly what it was. I heard the sounds but my heart could not comprehend. “With the permission of God and with the permission of the community, we hereby permit people to eat and to drink today.”

The beadle came forward and the Rabbi whispered a few things into his ear. Then he spoke with the two Dayanim who were next to him. They nodded as if to approve of what he had said. As this was happening the beadle brought a cup of wine and some cake from the rabbi’s home.  

If I am lucky to live for many more years I will never forget that incredible day and that awesome sight. If I close my eyes for a moment I can still see them: the three who ate! The three shepherds of Israel standing on the Bima in the synagogue, eating in front of everyone, on Yom Kippur. 

Watercolor of the Great Vilna Synagogue by Juozas Kamarauskas (1899

Frischmann does not give a date for the episode, nor the name of the rabbi with dark eyes and a pale face who made Kiddush and ate on that Yom Kippur. Those details are provided by the Russian historian Hillel Noah Steinshneider in his book Ir Vilna (The City of Vilna). He wrote that it happened in 1848 which was the Jewish year 5609. (In fact that year Yom Kippur fell on Saturday October 7th, so this correlates historically.)  Steinshneider also identified the Rabbi of Frischmann’s story as none other than the great Yisrael ben Ze'ev Wolf Lipkin, better known as Rabbi Yisroel Salanter.

Other Accounts of the Yom Kippur When the Rabbi Ate

Here is an account of the episode from the Yiddish book Gdoylim Fun Unzer Tsayt by Jacob Mark, published in New York in 1927. It also identifies the rabbi as Rabbi Yisroel Salatner.

Gdoylim Fun Unzer Tsayt. Yankev Mark. New York 1927.

I would like to tell you about an event that is told about R Yisroel Salanter, that during a cholera epidemic he made kiddish on Yom Kippur in the Great Synagogue of Vilna. He did this to show the community that they should not fast, and he did this over the protests of the Dayanim [rabbinic judges] of Vilna. This famous story has entered Jewish literature, and is presented as a fact. But it is really only a legend. I once had a conversation with Rabbi Shimon Shtarshun of Vilna, who was an eyewitness in the Vilna Shul. He told me the story was as follows. One the eve of Yom Kippur, with the permission of the leading rabbis, Rabbi Salanter posted announcements in all the shuls that because of the cholera epidemic they would not say the additional parts of the prayers [piyutim], and that instead people should spend time outdoor breathing fresh air. In the courtyard of all the shuls they set up tables with pieces of cake that contained less than the prohibited amount of food that may be eaten. The food was there for those who needed to eat. Reb Yisroel [Salanter] got up on at Shacharit [the morning service] on Yom Kippur and announced that if a person felt weak there was no need to consult with a doctor, but instead they may go into the courtyard and eat. But it is preferable only to eat a small amount at a time and to pause between mouthfuls, so as not to violate the Biblical prohibition of eating on Yom Kippur. Reb Yisroel made the announcement and came down from the Bimah, but immediately Rabbi Bezael [HaCohen, a leading rabbi of the city] protested about what had been said that there was no need to consult a doctor. In reality Reb Yisroel tasted nothing.

So according to the Yiddish account of the eyewitness Rabbi Shimon Shtarshun, Rabbi Salanter never made Kiddush, but rather announced that it was permissible to eat. Remember this fact. Another account of this episode comes from the great scholar of Jewish history Louis Ginzberg, in his book Students, Scholars and Saints (p.184-185).

In the year of the frightful cholera epidemic Salanter, after having taken counsel with a number of physicians, became convinced that in the interest of the health of the community it would be necessary to dispense with fasting on the Day of Atonement. Many a Rabbi in this large community was inclined to agree with his view, but none of them could gather courage enough to announce the dispensation publicly….When he saw, however, that none of them would act in this case, he thought self-assertion to the his highest duty. He affixed announcements in all Synagogues, advising the people not to fast on the day of atonement. Knowing, however, how reluctant they would be to follow his written advice he, on the morning of the Day of Atonement at one of the most solemn moments of the service, ascended the reader’s desk. After addressing a few sentences to etc Congregation in which he commanded them to follow his example, he produced some cake and wine, pronounced the blessing over them, ate and drank. One can hardly imagine what moral courage and religious enthusiasm this action of his required from a man like Salanter to whom obedience to the Torah was the highest duty. Many years later he used to dwell on this episode and thank with great joy his Creator for having found him worth to the the instrument of saving so many lives.

So what really happened?

So who is to be believed? Rabbi Shtarshun’s version, in which Rabbi Salanter never made Kiddush, or the story as told by Frischmann, and echoed by Ginzberg, in which the rabbi made Kiddush? Remember that Frischmann was born in 1859 and so would not have witnessed the event he describes in the first person.

Another witness was Rabbi Yitzhak Lipkin, the son of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. He was born in 1840 and so would have been eight years old on the Yom Kippur in question. R. Lipkin wrote that “during the cholera epidemic when Yom Kippur came, he permitted a person to eat portions that were smaller than the prohibited amount.” R. Lipkin made no mention of his father making Kiddush in public.

Historians debate whether Rabbi Yisrael Salanter stood up on that Shabbat Yom Kippur and made Kiddush, or whether he “only” allowed the people to eat without consulting a doctor. Either way, Frischmann’s account, and those of others who either saw the event or recalled hearing about it from others, remind us that life in Eastern Europe was often far from happy. When there weren’t pogroms, there was always cholera. The story, even if it was fiction, also emphasizes that sometimes when three Jews sit down to eat, they do so not only to praise God or to share words of Torah. Sometimes they sit to remind everyone of the supreme value of human life.

From Talmudology: A Purim Good-Read

With Rosh Chodesh Adar around the corner it is time to find a good book to read about Purim.

This year Talmudology is enjoying a wonderful new book:

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Berachot 43a ~ Musk and Ambergris

In a discussion about which blessings to say and when, the Talmud considers various kinds of fragrances.

ברכות מג, א

אָמַר רַבִּי חִיָּיא בְּרֵיהּ דְּאַבָּא בַּר נַחְמָנִי אָמַר רַב חִסְדָּא אָמַר רַב, וְאָמְרִי לַהּ אָמַר רַב חִסְדָּא אָמַר זְעֵירִי: כל הַמּוּגְמָרוֹת מְבָרְכִין עֲלֵיהֶן ״בּוֹרֵא עֲצֵי בְּשָׂמִים״ חוּץ מִמּוּשְׁק, שֶׁמִּין חַיָּה הוּא, שֶׁמְּבָרְכִין עָלָיו ״בּוֹרֵא מִינֵי בְּשָׂמִים״ 

Rabbi Chiyya, son of Abba bar Nachmani, said that Rav Chisda said that Rav said, and some say that Rav Chisda said that Ze’iri said: Over all the incense one recites: Who creates fragrant trees, except for musk, which is extracted from a living creature, and over which one recites: Who creates various spices.

The male musk deer Moschus moschiferus. Yes, the fangs are real. Image from here.

Musk, at least the musk that was one used in the perfume industry, is a secretion from a gland of the male musk deer Moschus moschiferus. However the term “musk”now includes a number of different chemicals which all share a common, distinct, and typical aroma. Today, the perfume industry almost exclusively uses synthesized compounds, which is certainly good news for the cute deer. In fact since 1979 trade in musk from several countries has been banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

In her exhaustive monograph on the subject, Cornelia Sommer notes that musk gland is found near the rear end of the musk deer which lives in the upper regions of Eastern Asia, though presumably once had a far wider natural habitat. Discovery and use of musk date back to ancient China and pre-historic India, and as we learn today, it is mentioned in the Talmud. In order to get access to the natural musk, the animal must be killed to remove the gland, also called musk pod. The pods which weigh about 70g, contain about 40% musk. They are dried, and the reddish-brown paste inside them turns into a black, granular material called musk grain. The aroma of the tincture, which is described for example as animal-like, earthy, and woody, becomes more intensive during storage, and only after considerable dilution does the obtained extract exhibit a pleasant odor.

Because natural musk is rare and expensive, chemists started to synthesize an alternative centuries ago. In 1890 the German chemist Albert Baur succeeded in synthesizing the first chemically defined substance with musk odor, which he patented and commercialized as “Musc Baur.” (Apparently, the discovery was happenstance. Bauer was actually tiring to find a better explosive when he chanced upon the synthetic compound.) Other members of this class of compounds, called nitro musks, were later synthesized and gained considerable commercial importance. Thousands of tonnes of synthetic musks are now produced each year.

Perfume in the urine of the deer, and the excrement of the whale

In his commentary on the Talmud, the great medieval exegete Rashi suggests that the musk can be found in the excrement of an animal (מן הרעי של חיה). And he was not wrong, since the musk deer excretes it in his urine to mark his territory and attract a female. Another animal whose excreta was prized in the production of perfume was the whale, or specifically the sperm whale. For centuries it produced a fantastically expensive substance called ambergris (from the old French meaning grey amber), which is produced in the intestines of the whale and excreted into the ocean. There is spends years bobbing about minding its own business, undergoing oxidation and photodegradation until it washes up on land. It has “a peculiar odour that is at once sweet, earthy, marine, and animalic.” Like musk it is used to produce perfume. In is classic novel Moby Dick, Herman Melville has an entire chapter on the mysterious ambergris.

“Now this ambergris is a very curious substance, and so important as an article of commerce, that in 1791 a certain Nantucket-born Captain Coffin was examined at the bar of the English House of Commons on that subject. For at that time, and indeed until a comparatively late day, the precise origin of ambergris remained, like amber itself, a problem to the learned. Though the word ambergris is but the French compound for grey amber, yet the two substances are quite distinct. For amber, though at times found on the sea-coast, is also dug up in some far inland soils, whereas ambergris is never found except upon the sea. Besides, amber is a hard, transparent, brittle, odorless substance, used for mouth-pieces to pipes, for beads and ornaments; but ambergris is soft, waxy, and so highly fragrant and spicy, that it is largely used in perfumery, in pastiles, precious candles, hair-powders, and pomatum. The Turks use it in cooking, and also carry it to Mecca, for the same purpose that frankincense is carried to St. Peter’s in Rome. Some wine merchants drop a few grains into claret, to flavor it.

Who would think, then, that such fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale! Yet so it is.”

— Moby Dick chapter 93

The Elusive nature of Smell

In today’s page of Talmud, the rabbis consider the nature of smell.

״כֹּל הַנְּשָׁמָה תְּהַלֵּל יָהּ״ אֵיזֶהוּ דָּבָר שֶׁהַנְּשָׁמָה נֶהֱנֵית מִמֶּנּוּ וְאֵין הַגּוּף נֶהֱנֶה מִמֶּנּוּ? — הֱוֵי אוֹמֵר: זֶה הָרֵיחַ

“Let every soul praise the Lord” (Psalms 150:6). What is it from which the soul derives benefit and the body does not derive benefit from it? You must say: That is scent. Even over items from which only the soul derives benefit, one must recite a blessing and praise God.

According to the rabbis, this intangible sense leaves its mark not on the body, but on the soul. How remarkable it is that some fragrances are composed of substances found hidden deep inside animals that are rarely seen by us. And how much more pleasurable is it that now, no animals need be harmed in the making of this blessing.