Caring with presence: the laws of bikur cholim (visiting the sick)

Rambam, Laws of Mourning 14:1 (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, Spain 1135- Egypt 1204)

Visiting the sick is one of the ways to fulfill the mitzvah of “Loving your neighbor”. It is a positive commandment to visit the sick, comfort the mourner, bring out the dead [accompany the body to the funeral], bring the bride [to the chuppah], to have guests...and these are all physical acts of loving kindness, and they have no measure. Even though visiting the sick is a rabbinic decree, it is derived from the verse, “Love your neighbor as yourself”. Anything that you would want others to do to you, you should do to your brother...

Ramban, Deuteronomy 6:18 (Rabbi Moses ben Naḥman Girondi, Spain 1194-1270)

The Torah has written explicitly what is the appropriate behavior in all circumstances in life, and that is why God gave the clause: “Do what is right and good in the eyes of God”

TB Sota 14a

Rav Chama bar Chanina said: why does it say “After Hashem your God you shall walk?” Can a person really walk behind the Shechina [God]?! Doesn’t it say that “God is an all consuming fire”?! Rather it means that we should walk in the ways of God. Just like he clothed the naked, as it says “And God made man and his wife a leather tunic”, so too shall you clothe the naked. Just like God visited the sick, as it says “And God appear before him in Alon Mamre”, so too shall you visit the sick. Just as God comforts the mourner, as it says “And after the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Yitzchak”, so too shall you comfort the mourner. Just like God buries the dead, as it says “And they buried him in Gai”, you too shall bury the dead.

TB Nedarim 39b

It was taught: There is no measure for visiting the sick. What is meant by, 'there is no measure for visiting the sick?' R. Joseph thought to explain it: its reward is unlimited. Said Abaye to him: Is there a definite measure of reward for any precept? But we learnt: Be as heedful of a light precept as of a serious one, for you do not know the reward for precepts? But Abaye explained it: Even a great person must visit a humble one. Raba said: [One must visit] even a hundred times a day. R. Acha son of R. Hanina said: He who visits an invalid takes away a sixtieth of his pain...

Ramban, Torat HaAdam

When one visits the sick person and see what state they are in, one will then pay more attention and will have greater intention in their prayers on their behalf. We learn from here that we visit the sick in order to ask for mercy for their behalf. Therefore if you visit a sick person and does not ask for mercy on their behalf, they have not fulfilled the commandment.

Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah, 335 (Rav Yosef Caro, born in Spain 1488, died in Safed 1575) [Rav Moshe Isserles, Poland 1520-1572]

(1)It is a religious obligation to visit the sick. Relatives and close friends may visit immediately and others after three days. But if he (the sick) is gravely ill, all may visit immediately.

(3) The visitor should not sit on the bed, nor on a chair nor on a bench but rather wrap himself and sit before him because the Divine Presence rests above his head. Isserles: Especially if the sick person is lying on the ground because the one sitting would be higher then him but if he is laying on a bed it is permitted to sit on a chair or bench....

(4) We do not visit a sick person during the first three hours of the day because the illness is less pronounced in the morning and one might be tempted not to pray for him; nor during the last three hours of the day because the illness is more severe than and one might despair of praying for Mercy. And anyone who visits the sick and doesn't pray for him has not fulfilled the mitzvah.

(5) When one prays for mercy for the patient, if one is doing so in the patient's presence, one may pray in any language he desires, but if this is not in the patient's presence, one must only pray in Hebrew.

(6) [When one prays for the sick person] one should include in the prayer a request on behalf of all of the ill among the Jewish people, saying, "May the One have mercy upon you among the people of Israel," and on Shabbat, one should say, "It is Shabbat and we don't cry out on Shabbat, but healing is near at hand."...

(8) We don't visit patients with intestinal maladies, nor eye disorders, nor head disorders, nor those who have difficulty speaking. We don't visit in these patients' presence, rather, we enter the vestibule of their house and ask after their welfare, inquiring whether they need anything in particular, and we listen to learn about their suffering, and we pray for the patient.

Rav Yitzchak Silver, Mishpatei Shalom, 14:8

The commandment of visiting the sick has four components. 1. To do what the ill person needs 2. To provide comfort for the ill person and their family 3. To pray on their behalf at the bedside, because that is where the Shechina [God’s presence] is residing, and it is a time of asking for mercy 4. To take 1/60th of the illness awayEnglish