Weekly Halacha Yomit: Kitzur Shulchan Aruch

This week we learn about the laws concerning visiting the sick, bikur cholim. Chapter 193 lays out the back ground clearly from the start:

When someone falls ill, it is a mitzva on every person to visit them… (143:1)

The Kitzur then quotes that we learn this from Hashem's visiting Avraham:

Now the Lord appeared to him in the plains of Mamre and he was sitting at the entrance of the tent when the day was hot. (Bereshit 18:1)

Rashi - And [the Lord] appeared to him: to visit the sick. Rabbi Chama ben Chanina said: It was the third day from his circumcision, and the Holy One, blessed be He, came and inquired about his welfare.

The question is asked – we see Hashem "appeared" to Avraham, but we don’t hear of him saying anything or of any follow up to this?! Rashi's answer is that He was doing bikur cholim since Avraham had just had his brit milah.

Although Rashi is citing a midrash, his reason for doing so – for believing that it represents the plain sense of the verse – is twofold. The first is contextual. The previous chapter has told of Abraham’s circumcision at the age of 99. Painful at any age, this was an operation that made Abraham frail and weak (in Bereishith 34 we read of how Shimon and Levi persuaded the men of Shechem to be circumcised; they were so weak three days later that the two brothers were able to conquer the entire town). Following the midrashic assumption that G-d’s conduct is a model for ours, Rashi infers that the first verse teaches us, by Divine example, the mitzvah of visiting the sick. The second reason is substantive. It explains why G-d “appeared” without saying anything. Normally, a Divine appearance is a prelude to an act of communication, but there are times – visiting the sick – when mere presence is enough.
[Covenant and Conversation, Vayera , Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks]

The Chief Rabbi identifies an important facet of bikur cholim – that at a time like visiting the sick, "mere presence is enough" – and we learn this from Hashem. There may be a temptation to bring all manner of gifts, to talk non-stop about the illness or otherwise try to pamper the ill person – but sometimes the visitor's presence alone will be enough.

Raba said: [One must visit] even a hundred times a day.
R. Abba son of R. Hanina said: He who visits an invalid takes away a sixtieth of his pain. (Nedarim 39b)

We are told not only of the extent of the obligation of bikur cholim by Raba, but also of the great power of a visit. But what is the meaning behind this strange mitzva? I believe it stems from a fascinating passage in the Gemara in Sotah (14a):

What means the text: "You shall walk after God"? Is it, then, possible for a human being to walk after God; for has it not been said: "For God is a devouring fire"? But [the meaning is] to walk after the attributes of the Holy One. Just as God clothes the naked… so do you also clothe the naked. The Holy One, blessed be God, visited the sick, for it is written: "And God appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre" (Genesis 18), so do you also visit the sick. The Holy One, blessed be God, comforted mourners… so do you also comfort mourners. The Holy one, blessed be God, buried the dead… so do you also bury the dead.

We learn from here the principle of imitatio dei, imitating God, but the Gemara asks how we can imitate Him? The answer is we imitate the way God interacts with us – his relationship with us.

[T]hey provide the original pattern for all relationship on earth… [It] reveals not only God's concern, but also what he desires of man. The relational attributes are God's law for man.
[Law and Morality in Jewish Tradition , Eliezer Berkovits]

By behaving as God does, and wants us to, we are doing a mitzva and fulfilling the law of God. Who would have thought that the simple act of visiting the sick would result in imitating the ways of God?! Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks puts it extremely eloquently:

[Maimonides] argues that it is for this reason [imitating God] alone that the Bible attributes character traits to God, speaking of him as merciful, gracious and so on… [The Torah is telling us] not something about God but about us – how we should behave, what kind of relationships we should have with people… It is not about what God is but about what we should aim to be.
[To Heal a Fractured World, Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks]

If you have any comments or feedback, please email daniel@worldmizrachi.org .

• Kitzur Shulchan Aruch with English linear translation: http://www.geocities.com/yona_n.geo/index.html
• Hebrew Kitzur Shulchan Aruch with nekudot: http://www.kitzur.net
• Hebrew Kitzur Shulchan Aruch without nekudot: http://www.shofar.net/Content/Kitzur_Shulchan.htm?id=5417
• Kitzur Shulchan Aruch project, calendars and order books: http://www.kitzuryomi.org/
• Kitzur Shulchan Aruch with Misgeret HaShulchan: http://www.hebrewbooks.org/9214
• Kitzur Shulchan Aruch with She'arim Ha'Metzuyanim B'Halachah:
  • Part 1 - http://www.hebrewbooks.org/14621
  • Part 2 - http://www.hebrewbooks.org/14622
  • Part 3 - http://www.hebrewbooks.org/14619
  • Part 4 - http://www.hebrewbooks.org/14620
• Selected chapters grouped by theme: http://www.torah.org/learning/halacha/
• New Artscroll Kitzur Shulchan Aruch. Sample available at: http://www.artscroll.com/Books/ksa1.html