If you ever have the chance to visit the frum community in Seattle Washington you’ll notice two shuls with the same name right across the street from the other. My mother-in-law grew up attending the long-standing Ashkenzic Bikur Cholim synagogue which faces a different building — the Sephardic Bikur Cholim synagogue. When I asked her father our Saba Joe a”h why not one but two shuls are named “Bikur Cholim ” he responded that this mitzvah was the foundation upon which the community was formed.
Visiting Hours
We often loosely translate the mitzvah of “bikur cholim” as “visiting the sick.” However this is an erroneous translation.
Rav Hutner in his sefer Iggros U’Ksavim explains that the true tranSaveslation of bikur is to probe and discern. He brings a comparison between the concept of “bikur mum — inspecting a korban for a blemish” which was in practice at the time of the Beis HaMikdash. The Kohanim were obligated to perform an intense visual scrutiny of both the outside and later the insides of an animal for any blemishes in order to establish it as a suitable candidate for a kosher korban. Similarly the bikur involved in tending to the ill involves investigating and exploring what the ill person needs and how we can be of service to him.
Once we interpret bikur cholim correctly it changes how we approach the mitzvah. If we regard the mitzvah as simply “visiting” the sick we automatically assume that our responsibility is defined as spending as much time as possible right next to the sickbed. We may even bring “proof” from the Gemara which states that the mere presence at the bedside of the sick person has the power to erase one-sixtieth of the person’s illness.
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