Bikur Cholim: Comforting the Sick in Jewish Religious Law
Frank Lieberman, MD, Professor of Neurology and Medical Oncology, University of Pittsburgh Hillman Cancer Center
Comforting the sick is a mitzvah (divinely commanded religious obligation) incumbent on individuals and the community. The mitzvah is based in the general commandment to emulate G-d’s ways. HaShem is described in Tanach, Talmud, and commentaries as being the Healer and as comforting the sick in a personal manner and we are obligated to the same. Halacha (Jewish religious law) addresses the components of the obligation encompassing both the spiritual and physical needs of the patient. Optimal performance of the mitzvah includes personal visitation, attending to the patient’s comfort and needs in manner appropriate to the situation and the visitors level of experience and expertise, providing encouragement, nurturing hope, and prayer. Individuals performing bikur cholim are aware that HaShem’s presence, the Shechinah, is palpably present in the sickroom with halachic implications regarding the proper behavior of the visitors. The primary obligation in the mitzvah of bikur cholim is prayer. The comforters are encouraged to visit in person as seeing the plight of the patient engenders more impassioned and empathic prayer. The comforters are enjoined to encourage the patient to pray as both the individual’s prayer and the prayers of others on the patient’s behalf have their own complimentary power to evoke HaShem’s mercy. The liturgical formulation of the prayers for the sick express the plea for a complete healing of the neshama (the soul) and the guf (the body) with the understanding that the healing of the neshama is paramount.
Many communities have created bikur cholim organizations to provide resources for patients and their families including housing, access to kosher food, synagogue services, childcare, and a sense of community for those who are dealing with illness disrupting their lives and the lives of their family. Examples of these organizations include Satmar Bikur Cholim, Chicago Center for Torah and Chesed, Bikur Cholim of Pittsburgh. Perhaps the exemplar of the expansive vision of organizational communal bikur cholim is Chai Lifeline. Chai Lifeline is an organization devoted to caring for children with life threatening illness and supports the children and their families throughout the course of treatment and with HaShem’s help recovery, as well as grief counselling and support when a child dies.
Although those performing bikur cholim and the patients themselves are enjoined to pray for physical recovery and continued life, the prayers for recovery express the understanding that in praying for a complete divine healing, the path to the healing of the neshama may not be the body being physically healed.
Many communities have created bikur cholim organizations to provide resources for patients and their families including housing, access to kosher food, synagogue services, childcare, and a sense of community for those who are dealing with illness disrupting their lives and the lives of their family. Examples of these organizations include Satmar Bikur Cholim, Chicago Center for Torah and Chesed, Bikur Cholim of Pittsburgh. Perhaps the exemplar of the expansive vision of organizational communal bikur cholim is Chai Lifeline. Chai Lifeline is an organization devoted to caring for children with life threatening illness and supports the children and their families throughout the course of treatment and with HaShem’s help recovery, as well as grief counselling and support when a child dies.
Although those performing bikur cholim and the patients themselves are enjoined to pray for physical recovery and continued life, the prayers for recovery express the understanding that in praying for a complete divine healing, the path to the healing of the neshama may not be the body being physically healed.