Visiting the Sick

The Sages teach that visiting the sick is one of the mitzvos that offer benefit in both this world and the World to Come. And which one of us hasn't felt better after a visit from a friend? Especially if he or she knew what to say to put us at ease. However, few have really studied the laws of this important mitzvah. And we very often need practical guidance in its performance. What to say. What not to say. How to say it. How much time to spend.

In a thorough yet comfortably readable treatment, Rabbi Aaron Eli Glatt, M.D. explores a subject vital to individual and communal health. His cogent study presents:

• Talmudic discussions and the laws of visiting the sick from the Rambam, Shulchan Aruch, Chochmas Adam and Aruch HaShulchan
  
• Highlights of halachic responsa from HaRav Moshe Feinstein, zt""l and HaRav Eliezer Waldenberg, shlit""a
  
• Practical advice and guidance offered by a physician, a patient, and a parent of a sick child
  
• The medical implications of visitation vis-à-vis preventing infection, and maintaining patient dignity.

Rabbi Glatt's research, sources and pastoral experience, combined with his 25 years of bedside wisdom as a practicing physician will benefit anyone visiting or dealing with someone ill or recuperating. Rabbis will find it a convenient repository of halachic information. Teachers and Jewish communal professionals will find an abundance of useful source material for training individuals, classes, and congregations to be appropriately helpful and encouraging to a sick person. And every individual will gain an understanding of how to properly perform this life-enhancing mitzvah. We all pray that illness be banished from the earth, but until that blessed day arrives, this is a book that everyone should have.