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Why does the Torah (תורה) give two distinct sources for bikur cholim — one in Parshas Yisro and one in the story of Korach? The shiur develops a fundamental yesod that there are two types of illness requiring different approaches: visiting someone who may recover requires building their self-esteem and desire to fight, while visiting the terminally ill requires helping them achieve shalom and a sense that their affairs are in order.
Rabbi Zweig explores a fundamental question about the mitzvah (מצוה) of bikur cholim (visiting the sick): What should we actually be accomplishing when we visit someone who is ill? The shiur begins by examining why the Torah (תורה) appears to give two different sources for this mitzvah — one in Parshas Yisro where it states "v'hoda'ta lahem es haderech yelchu bah" (which the Gemara (גמרא) in Bava Metzia interprets as referring to bikur cholim), and another hint in the story of Korach in Parshas Korach, where Moshe says that if Korach and his followers die a natural death after illness with people visiting them, then God did not send him. The shiur poses several difficulties: Why does the phrase "asher yelchu bah" (that they should walk in) indicate bikur cholim specifically? What does walking have to do with visiting the sick? Furthermore, why would the Torah need to give a second, obscure hint to bikur cholim in the Korach narrative when it already provided an explicit source in Parshas Yisro? And why would Moshe choose such a strange context — describing the natural death process including people visiting the sick — to make his point about Korach's rebellion?
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Parshas Yisro; Gemara Bava Metzia; Parshas Vayechi
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