There is a well-known Talmudic saying that when one visits the sick, they remove one sixtieth of the person’s illness. However, many of us have recognized that even when we visit the sick, the patient doesn’t become better. Are our visits a waste of time?
In this week’s Torah portion, Vayeira, we see that G-d visits Abraham when he is weak, after his circumcision. If G-d’s intent was just to visit the sick, then why did he also send a “visitor” to heal Abraham? Shouldn’t G-d’s visit have healed him? The answer is that G-d did not come to heal; he came as an act of kindness. We all know that G-d didn’t need the visitor to be the healer – He could have done that on His own – yet G-d chose not to. From this, we can learn a very important lesson.
Of course, we would love if every sick visit we make would have a positive effect on a person, but sometimes, we visit just to be kind. We do not see a direct benefit from our visit. Nevertheless, we should know that just as Abraham appreciated G-d’s visit – even if it were not going to heal him – so, too, our visits matter, not only to the patient, but to the visitor as well.
G-d is teaching us that we should do what is right for the sake of ‘doing the right thing,’ even if we don’t see a tangible result.
Go, and do the right thing!