Sometimes a person’s death is caused by disease, but generally it is cold, heat, or negligence that causes death. On occasion, the causes of an illness may be spiritual.

Rabbi Hanina, because he lived in Tzipori, where it is cold, would say: Ninety-nine people out of a hundred die from excessive cold, and only one dies at the hands of heaven. Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahman said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: Ninety-nine die from excessive heat, and one dies at the hands of heaven. And the Rabbis say: Ninety-nine die from their own negligence, and one dies at the hands of heaven.

Rabbi Hunya Yaakov from Ofratim said in the name of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: When the verse states: “The Lord will remove from you all illness” (Deuteronomy 7:15), this is referring to fever. Rabbi Huna said, and some teach this in the name of Rabbi Elazar ben Yaakov: When the verse states: “The Lord will remove from you all illness,” this is referring to troubling thoughts…Rabbi Avun says: When the verse states: “The Lord will remove from you all illness,” this is referring to the evil inclination, whose beginning is sweet but its end is bitter. (Jerusalem Talmud, Shabbat 14:3)