It is a great mitzva to visit with and assist a person who is ill. The visit itself, along with the caller’s display of empathy, can strengthen and encourage the patient, and can even assist in the healing process. This duty applies both when the patient is in his home and when he is hospitalized in a medical center where professionals are taking care of him and providing for all his needs.

The role of the visitor is to cheer up the patient, and therefore, it is important to be encouraging and to radiate optimism and joy rather than fear and despair.

It is crucial that the visitor takes the true needs of the patient into consideration. Some patients need physical assistance, while others simply want to talk and hear words of encouragement. Sometimes a long visit will weigh heavily on the patient, whereas on other occasions, every additional moment of one’s stay makes him happy. In any case, the halakha cautions a visitor against being a burden on the patient.

When it is not possible to visit an ill person, one can fulfill the mitzva by showing interest and offering one’s good wishes through a phone call.

The mitzva of visiting the sick includes sending good wishes for the patient’s recovery and praying for his well-being.

In synagogues, it is customary to recite the Mi SheBerakh prayer on behalf of the sick. The custom in some synagogues is for people to approach the gabbai (sexton) to tell him the names of the patients they know, using each patient’s Hebrew name and the name of his/her mother (e.g., Moshe ben Sarah, or Hannah bat Aliza), so that the gabbai will include those names in the text of the prayer. In other places, the gabbai recites the general formula of the Mi SheBerakh prayer, pausing for a moment for anyone in the congregation who knows a sick individual to utter the name in a whisper.

It is customary to add an additional name that expresses life or healing to the name of a person who has a life-threatening illness. For example, one might give a very sick man the additional name Ḥayim (meaning “life”) or Refael (“God is a healer”). A woman could receive the name Ḥaya (“living”). The name is added in the synagogue, while standing alongside the Torah scroll (on Mondays, Thursdays, or Shabbat, when the Torah is read) using the Mi SheBerakh prayer, or by reciting a special text designed for this purpose.

Further reading: For more on visiting the sick, see A Concise Guide to the Sages, p. 402.