HOSPITALITY: Bikur Holim: Visiting the Sick
Genesis 18:1 The Lord appeared to him at the Terebinths of Mamre while he [Abraham] sits in the doorway of the tent in the heat of the day...

From here [we see] that among the ethical traits [midot] of the Holy One Blessed Be He is to visit the sick. Babylonian Talmud Sota 14a [Background: at the end of the previous chapter and episode in Genesis, Abraham circumcised himself and all the males of his household: Gen. 17:23. Therefore, God is visiting Abraham in the form of the 3 messengers at the height of his infirmity.]

Torah Temimah: In the adjoining Torah section God visits him in his [Abraham's] infirmity after his circumcision. and we gather from this that humans will learn to cling to God's ethical traits, as is written in Parashat Re'eh "You shall follow after the Lord your God and cling to Him." And we interpret, "Is it possible to cling to the Shekhinah [God's indwelling presence on earth]? For it is written "The Lord your God is a consuming fire." Rather, cling to [God's] ethical traits; just as He visits the sick..." [so shall you visit the sick].

From here we have the very essential mitzvah, to visit the sick, further elaborated in the Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 5b. This mitzvah is not only essential because it relieves suffering, but because in connecting to those who are ill we create or reinforce essential human connections and build community. We learn the intricacies of the path all of us will walk eventually, and enhance our capacities for sympathy and empathy. Thereby we increase our humanity, bring others to God (the mitzvah of kiddush ha-shem, sanctifying God's name in the world), and share our souls, delving below the superficialities of many conversations. Here ma'aseh [deeds] demonstrate their superiority over limud [study]. It's so easy to study the mitzvah of visiting the sick, but in actually performing the mitzvah we raise two souls: ours and the person who suffers with illness. In this mitzvah all three of the beings present in ethical mitzvot become obvious: self, recipient of the mitzvah, and God.