Healing
Searching for meaning or solace in a time of sickness or pain? Here we offer Jewish insights and rituals, both traditional and contemporary, for those in need of healing.
To access the CLAL Healing Archive, click here.
Visiting the Sick
As I approach this obligation, this mitzvah, this mitzvah of Bikkur Cholim, I hope I may provide comfort and strength. Let me enter the room with respect for the dignity and infinite uniqueness of (say the person’s name), a tzelem elohim, an image of God. May I see that image at this moment. And may I shed the anxiety and fear that I feel as I enter the room. May I move karov -- closer -- and not distance my body or my heart.
Meditation
(before entering the room of one who is ill)
Hineni mukhan um’zuman
Here I stand,
Ready and waiting
To fulfill the mitzvah of bikkur cholim,
To strengthen those who are sick.
Blessing
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable and provide healing.
Teaching
Walk in the ways of God. As God visits and brings comfort to those who are ill, so must
I emulate God by visiting and bringing comfort to those who are sick.
(BT: Sotah 14A)
Just as God creates worlds and inspires life,
you, human beings, are also capable of doing the same.
(Midrash Psalms 116:8)
Rabbi Charles Savenor tells this story: When he was studying hospital chaplaincy he
witnessed his supervisor, a Protestant minister named Mary, say to the patient she
visited, "I would like to say a prayer for you. What do you hope for, Harry? Come,
let us hold hands, focus our energy and pray together." From her lips emanated a
prayer as eloquent as a psalm. This short, spontaneous prayer included the person’s
name, vocalized the patient’s hopes for a speedy recovery and requested strength for
the patient’s family. "Dear God, I am here with Harry from Long Beach. Harry is
scared, Lord. He has a wife and two daughters. He wants to recover and return home in one
piece, able to work on their behalf and to serve You. Please allow this man the chance to
heal and to feel whole again. Amen." Later, when Rabbi Savenor visited his own father
who was ill, he prayed: "Mishebeirakh: May God, Who grants life and vitality to all
creations, bestow upon me the strength to work with the ill and empower me to facilitate
in the healing of others. God, I love my father and I want him to live. Please, please
keep an eye on him. Amen."
(Hadassah Magazine, January 1998)
(CLAL Faculty)
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