Visiting the sick (bikur cholim) is a core mitzvah (commandment), an aspect of righteous living that constitutes the fundamental Jewish concept of gemilut chasadim. Just as God observed these mitzvah by visiting Abraham when the patriarch was recovering from his circumcision (Gen. 18:1), so human beings are required to emulate this Divine example.
Bikur cholim is listed as one of the deeds for which "man enjoys the fruits in this world, while the principal remains for him in the World to Come" (Shab. 127a).
Recognizing the psychological value of convincing a sick person that he or she has not been abandoned to suffer alone, the Rabbis observed that one who visits the sick "takes away a sixtieth of his pain" (Ned. 39.b). Conversely, R. Akiva maintained, "He who does not visit the sick is like a shedder of blood" (Ned. 40a). The mitzvah of visiting the sick does not merely apply to Jews who are ill; as the the Talmud states, one should also "visit the sick of the non-Jew...in the interest of peace" (Git. 61a).
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