Looking around the shul on a Shabbos morning, I have noticed with time many of the faces that we have grown accustomed to seeing aren’t there any more. It is no great coincidence that Beth Zion’s misheberach list has grown correspondingly longer over the years. People are getting sick and that is where the Beth Zion Chessed Committee comes in, and that is where you come in.
The mitzvah of bikur cholim is of paramount importance in the life a Jewish person. Every morning we read in Birkhat HaTorah a quote from the Gemara in Shabbos 127a, “These are the things whose fruits man enjoys in this world but whose principal remains intact for him in the World to Come, … Bikur Cholim (visiting the sick)”. What a good investment! I think if a financial advisor were to offer any of us stock where we would live off the interest now and have the principal guaranteed to be given back to us later, we would be crazy not to sign! Same for the mitzvah of Bikur Cholim, we would be “crazy” not to do it!
Of course, we are warned by Antigonus, leader of Socho in Pirkei Avot (1:3) to not be like servants who serve their master for the sake of receiving a reward, but instead be like servants who serve their master not for the sake of a reward. Aside from the obvious benefits to the infirmed and their family, there is something particularly special about this mitzvah.
In Sotah 14a, the Gemara says that G-d himself visited the sick: “Hashem appeared to him (Avraham) in the plains of Mamre” following his brit milah.
The Gemara tells us that we should emulate G-d’s compassionate ways, just as He visited the sick, so should we visit the sick. Similarly, we know to clothe the naked because G-d clothed Adam and Chava after they sinned, we know to comfort mourners because G-d comforted Isaac when Avraham died, and we know to look after our dead because G-d himself buried Moshe Rabbeinu.
Admittedly, Bikur Cholim is not an easy mitzvah to perform, but it is one that we must do. The Chessed committee needs your help. We need more members as there are a lot of people to visit. If you are afraid to go alone, then I would be happy to go with you. I am grateful to the support Rabbi Shoham and Rabbi Perton have given me in guiding me with this mitzvah.
May all of our sick at Beth Zion not be forgotten, and may G-d grant them a full and speedy recovery.
Elliot Silverman
