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Ethics in Everyday Life Situations

Visiting the Sick - Pushing in Line

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Visiting the Sick

Situation

One of our classmates got very sick. Everyday, a few students went to visit him in the hospital and would tell him what was happening in school.

At the Shabbat meal in our house, my father asked, "What good deeds did you do this week?" Of course, I told my father about visiting my sick classmate. "Have you prayed for his recovery?" asked my father. "No," I answered, "but I visited him and fulfilled the Mitzvah of visiting the sick." "I wonder if you actually fulfilled that Mitzvah, since you didn't pray for the sick person's welfare," was my father's question.

Is it that...

1. One who visits the sick but does not pray for his welfare fulfills the Mitzvah of visiting the sick?
2. One who does not visit the sick but prays for his welfare fulfills this Mitzvah?
3. Both answers are correct.

Sources

Code of Jewish Law - Chapter 193: Visiting the Sick

• 1. When a person takes ill, it is the duty of every man to visit him, for we find that the Holy One, blessed be He, visits the sick. As our Rabbis, of blessed memory, explained (Baba Metzia 86b) in the verse (Genesis 18:1): "And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre." From this is inferred that God came to visit Abraham because he was sick.
• Relatives and friends accustomed to visiting the sick person should visit as soon as they hear of his illness. Strangers, however, should not call immediately, but should rather wait three days in order not to spoil his chances of recovery by attaching to him the designation of "patient." Yet if one suddenly becomes ill, even strangers should visit him immediately. A great man should visit a less important person, and he should even do so many times a day if possible. It is meritorious to visit a sick person as frequently as possible, providing such visits do not weary the sick man.
• 3. The essential reason for the precept of visiting the sick is to look into his needs, and to pray for mercy on his behalf. If one visited a sick person and neglected to pray for him, he did not fulfill his duty. Therefore, on should not visit a sick person during the first three hours of the day since it is at this time that the sickness assumes a milder form, and the visitor will consequently be insufficiently moved to pray for him.

Pushing in Line

Situation:

When I got to the station, several people were already on line waiting for the bus. Suddenly, someone cut into the line and pushed to the front. "Sir, why are pushing to the head of the line?" someone shouted, "You're a thief; you're stealing my place in line!" The culprit angrily replied, "Call me anything you want, but I'm no thief!"

In truth...

1. Pushing to the head of a line is stealing.
2. Pushing to the head of a line is merely impolite.
3. If other people push ahead too, it isn't stealing.
4. An elderly person should be allowed to enter at the head of the line without waiting his turn.
5. An elderly person is allowed to cut to the head of a line only if the other people in line agree.

Sources

Popular Halacha - IV, Chapter 13, Lovingkindness (adapted)
• 9. There are customs which society has introduce in order to keep its peace and integrity, and these customs have become obligatory, along the lines of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do."
• For example: in a very busy place, the custom was introduced of people standing in line, on the first come-first served principle, with the person coming second taking second place, and so on. And since this was the local custom, this became the law, and under the Law, it is forbidden to usurp the place of one's colleague or to cheat him, and if somebody breaches the customs of "turn-taking", it is as if he has robbed that person of his right and committed an offence, and he will be punished.
• 10. Beyond the letter of the law: a young man gives up his turn to an older person, such as an old man or a weak person, an infirm man or woman, and everybody to Torah sages, whom many people need. If you are sitting in a railway carriage and an old man or a scholar comes in, you must rise, as it is written: "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man." (Leviticus 19:32)
• The sages have interpreted this as follows: not necessarily old in years, but also great in Torah; "old man" (ZaKen) is an acronym for "he who has acquired" (Zeh she-Kanah) wisdom.
  And it also says in the Gemara: "He who knows that his colleague is greater than him even in one thing--must treat him with respect."

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