Saying “Laberiut” “God bless you” or “Gesundheit”

Question

Is there are source for saying "Laberiut" "God bless you" "Gesundheit" or any other response to a sneeze? In other words, are there posekim who mention it in Halacha?

Answer 1

See the Mishnah Brurah (230: 7):

מי שמתעטש וחבירו אומר לו אסותא יאמר לו ברוך תהיה ואחר כך יאמר לישועתך קויתי השם

That when one sneezes, and hears his friend say "אסותא" to him, should reply with the phrases ...

I wasn't 100% sure what אסותא meant, but I found it described here as "an Aramaic word meaning health".

So there you have it: a source mentioning saying some variation of "to health" in response to a sneeze.

By the way, that same Mishnah Brurah over there brings a reason: Originally, when a person would die there wouldn't be any sickness. The person would simply be walking about, sneeze, and then die. Yaakov came along and davened on the matter... [and the reason, if I recall correctly, is so that a person would then have time to do Teshuva]

Answer 2

As yydl mentions in his answer, there is the Mishnah Berurah as a source.

In terms of Double AA's answer that there may be a violation of Chukas Akum, I would like to expand upon it a little bit.

The Tosefta Shabbos, 8th perek, states:

ח,ב האומר מרפא הרי זה מדרכי האמורי ר' אלעזר ברבי צדוק אומר [אין אומרים מרפא מפני ביטול תורה של בית ר"ג] לא היו אומרים מרפא [מפני דרכי האמורי].נ

Without the brackets, it is a simple statement that they do not say Marpeh {=Asusah = Gesundheit.} With the full correct text, R' Eleazar beRabbi Tzadok said that one does not say this because of Bittul Torah. And in the house of Rabban Gamliel they said that it was because of Darkei Emori.

In Berachot 53a (English), a variant brayta attributes the former reason, of Bittul Beit Hamidrash, to the practice of the house of Rabban Gamliel.

תניא נמי הכי של בית רבן גמליאל לא היו אומרים מרפא בבית המדרש מפני בטול בית המדרש

It has been taught similarly: The members of the household of Rabban Gamaliel did not use to say 'Good health'21 in the Beth ha-Midrash so as not to interrupt their study.

I would note that the Mishnah Brurah cited above does not say TO say it, but assuming that his friend says Asusa to him, here is how to respond. Especially if there is a darkei Emori issue, I would not suddenly adopt a new practice, where it was not my custom to do this before...

The association of sneezing with the soul leaving, etc., is only first found in a post-Talmudic source, Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer. I wrote something up about this about a year ago, on parashat Vaychi.

Answer 3

Not the halachic-p'sak source sought, פרקי דרבי אליעזר chapter 52 says (in my own translation):

From the day heaven and earth had been created, no one became sick: rather, while he was on the road or in the market, he would sneeze and his soul would exit his nostrils. This was the case until our patriarch Yaakov begged for mercy regarding this, saying to God, "Master of all worlds, don't take my soul from me until I've given my [final] instructions to my children and household". God accepted his entreaty, as it says [B'reshis 48:1] "It was after these things that someone told Yosef, 'lo, your father is sick'", and all the peoples heard of this and wondered, as there had been nothing like it since the day heaven and earth had been created. Therefore one must say, when he sneezes, "חיים" ("life"), for death [by sneezing] had been changed to light, as it says [Iyov 41:10] "his sneezes brighten light".

Answer 4

How about Rambam Hilchot Talmud Torah 4:9?

יד [ט] אין ישנים בבית המדרש. וכל המתנמנם בבית המדרש, חכמתו נעשית קרעים קרעים; וכן אמר שלמה בחכמתו, "וקרעים, תלביש נומה" (משלי כג,כא). ואין מסיחין בבית המדרש, אלא בדברי תורה בלבד: אפילו מי שנתעטש, אין אומרין לו רפואה בבית המדרש; ואין צריך לומר, שאר הדברים. וקדושת בית המדרש, חמורה מקדושת בתי כנסייות.‏

So, as you can see, the idea of blessing someone who sneezes was prevalent at least 700 years ago. Furthermore, it seems like such a blessing would only be a problem in the Bet Midrash because it is unproductive, but it is not forbidden in general.

Answer 5

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/14404/bless-you-sneezing

This seems to imply that saying "Bless You" may really be a violation of Chukat HaAkum. (Alternatively, maybe someone here should post a new answer for English.SE explaining our position.) I'm no historian, but it would be interesting to see who actually started it.