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Jewish World Review Feb. 24, 1999 / 7 Adar, 5759
"These are the deeds whose fruits a person enjoys in this world but whose main reward is stored for the next - honoring parents, performing acts of kindness, arriving early at the house of study, being hospitable, caring for the sick…"
Curiously, the term bikur cholim is somewhat misleading. Literally it means ‘visiting the sick’, yet this is precisely what it is not.
According to the halachah (Jewish Law), bikur cholim has three components --- to ascertain what the sick person needs, to
uplift his spirits and to ensure that people will pray for his recovery.
The Code of Jewish Law even make it explicit that "someone who merely visits a sick person but does not pray for his
recovery has not fulfilled the mitzvah." On the contrary, if a patient is too ill to receive visitors the mitzvah is best fulfilled by
not visiting at all but rather by enquiring after the patient's needs and being prepared to supply them.
Applying this principle to bikur cholim, the rabbis insisted that those attending a sick person do everything feasible to maintain a positive mental state. This might include anything from talking about pleasant things to not admitting anyone whose presence
the patient might find disagreeable or embarrassing.
They also taught that the care-givers should keep the patient from morbid thoughts and avoid alarming him. They are not to
discuss any recent death in his presence, irrespective of whether he knew the deceased or not. If a relative had died, they are
not to inform him if the news might upset him. And where the patient knew that a relative had died, those around should not
remind him to tear kriya --- performing this act could have a dramatic effect on a seriously ill person.
If death is inevitable, those present have a duty to minimize the patient's anxiety by helping him sort out his will or ensuring
that his relatives were called. Even certain of the otherwise strict Sabbath prohibitions might be relaxed in such circumstances.
The final kindness is to help a dying patient say vidui, confession.
In Jewish teaching, a person's life or death, health or sickness, is ultimately in G-d's hands. For this reason, Jews have always
seen prayer as an essential part of a patient's cure. The sages advised both mentioning the sick person's name in one's private
prayer -- they even designated the eighth blessing of the amidah (refaenu, heal us) as the appropriate place for this -- and
blessing the patient during public prayer. This blessing (mi sheberach, He who blessed) is recited in the synagogue
immediately after the Torah reading.
The rabbis were also well aware that quite apart from invoking G-d's mercy, prayer can have a profound psychological effect
on the patient. For this latter reason, they advised bringing the patient into the prayer situation by saying to them "May G-d
have mercy on you" --- always being careful to add, "together with all the other sick among His people Israel." They also taught
that it is appropriate to pray for a sick person in their presence, and not necessarily in Hebrew but in whatever language they
understand.
Throughout history, wherever Jews have established communities, they have organized bikur cholim societies. Those who
served were always volunteers. These societies not only attended to a patient's care, but also provided cooked meals and
took care of children. In this way they offered relief from the extraneous hardships and anxieties that illness often brought in
its wake.
Today's care organizations, with their teams of trained professionals offering specialized care and backup, have
their origins in the work of these societies.
Yet bikur cholim is essentially a mitzvah, and at no time in the past or the present have Jews seen organized communal help
as an excuse for absolving themselves from it. In Jewish teaching, bikur cholim is essential to living a G-dly life since it is an
act which G-d Himself performs. The classic incidence is G-d's appearance to Abraham shortly after he circumcised himself
at the age of ninety nine (Genesis 18:1). Our sages tell us that G-d came 'to ask after his welfare' and urge people to follow
His example.
For those actively engaged in caring for a sick person, bikur cholim is a sacred charge. Rabbi Nathan Zvi Finkel of Slobodka
(1849-1928) put it trenchantly, "If one is looking after a sick person and goes away to join the congregation in prayer, his
prayer is no mitzvah at all --- it is
To do the work of angels
By Rabbi Arye Forta
THIS
STATEMENT OF VALUES, recited each day at the beginning of the morning prayer, places bikur cholim, caring for the sick, among
the most cherished of Jewish ideals.
But bikur cholim goes way beyond attending to a patient's medical or even physical requirements. Long before the rise of
modern medicine, the sages understood that bodily health and mental health are intimately related. "Three things drain a
person's health," says the Talmud, "worry, travel and sin." And again in the Mishnah, "Jealousy, lust and the pursuit of honor
drive a person out of the world."
JWR contributor Rabbi Arye Forta is a London-based Jewish educator.
1/18/99: Making a sefer Torah of oneself