GEN250 There is … one fundamental problem with regard to a clear analysis of the halakhic position which views time of death as being simultaneous with cessation of respiration. Is cessation of respiration to be equated with death itself, or is it merely a physiological symptom enabling us to ascertain the time of death? Couched in different terminology, are respiration and life itself one and the same, so that the absence of respiratory activity, by definition, constitutes the state of death? Or is life some ephemeral and indefinable state or activity which cannot be empirically perceived but of which absence of respiration is a reliable indication? There is some prima facie evidence indicating that lack of respiration and the state of death are, by definition, synonymous. The Sages inform us that the soul departs through the nostrils, thereby causing respiration to cease and death to occur. Pirkei de-Rabbi Eli’ezer, ch. 52  [See also Yalkut Shimloni, Lekh Lekha, no 77] observes that after sneezing one should give thanks for having been privileged to remain alive. Torah Temimah, Genesis 7:22  The Yalkut, noting that the first mention of sickness in Scripture occurs in Genesis 48:1, remarks that prior to the time of Jacob sickness was unknown. It is the view of the Sages that illness became part of man’s destiny in answer to Jacob’s plea for prior indication of impending death in order that he might make a testament before dying. Before the days of Jacob, according to the Yalkut, an individual simply sneezed and expired without any indication whatsoever that death was about to overtake him. The Yalkut can readily be understood on the basis of the verse “ … and He blew into his nostrils the soul of life” [this verse]. In the narrative concerning the creation of Adam, the soul is described as having entered through the nostrils. According to the Yalkut, the soul departs through the same aperture through which it entered; hence terminal sneezing is associated with the soul’s departure from the body. Apparently, then, respiration and life both cease with the departure of the soul.  [See also, Genesis 7:22 ROSNER 280-1] ROSNER 284-5GEN248zz