Bikur Cholim DOES Mean ‘Visiting’ the Sick!

Controversialists sometimes point out (often trying to score a point against “Zionist” Hebrew) that the word “Bikur” means mainly examination, as in בקור מום, not “visiting” at all. We see this in the story of Rabbi Akiva who swept the room of his ill student, they add.

Vayikra 19:20:

ואיש כי ישכב את אשה שכבת זרע והוא שפחה נחרפת לאיש והפדה לא נפדתה או חפשה לא נתן לה בקרת תהיה לא יומתו כי לא חפשה.

Rashi there:

בקרת תהיה, היא לוקה ולא הוא יש על ב”ד לבקר את הדבר שלא לחייבו מיתה כי לא חפשה ואין קידושיה קידושין גמורין. ורבותינו למדו מכאן שמי שהוא במלקות יהא בקריאה שהדיינים המלקין קורין על הלוקה אם לא תשמור לעשות וגו’ והפלא ה’ את מכותך וגו’.

Yechezkel 34:12:

כבקרת רעה עדרו ביום היותו בתוך צאנו נפרשות כן אבקר את צאני והצלתי אתהם מכל המקומת אשר נפצו שם ביום ענן וערפל.

Actually, one leads to the other. To examine one needs to visit, so “Bikur” came to mean visiting, too.

“Nichnas levaker” means only that one enters the inner room of the patient.

(“Boker” means “morning” because it differentiates between night and day.)

re: Don’t Delay the Mitzvah on Wedding Night!

One of our readers told me Rabbi David Bar Chaim rejects the Gezeirah of Dam Besulim as practical halacha, probably based on the Rambam Issurei Biah chapter 5 (although the Nosei Kelim don’t seem to regard this as a Machlokes Rambam\Raavad).

I don’t know whether or where the rabbi ever elaborated further in writing.
(Or maybe Rabbi Bar Chaim just tells this to, er, “certain types of people”, as I know even some mainstream rabbis do.)

Does Vayoel Moshe Stop Jews From Doing Aveiros?

I recently alluded to my disagreement with Rabbi Teitelbaum’s anti-Zionism to a fellow Jew in the opposing camp.

With great pathos, he turned to me and asked if I had ever learned through “Ma’amar Yishuv Eretz Yisrael” myself.

Yes, I responded.

“Let me tell you one thing,” he enthused. “After studying what Vayoel Moshe’s “Ma’amar Yishuv Eretz Yisrael” has to say about the sanctity of the land, one simply cannot do Aveiros for three weeks!”

I had to agree.

Except, well, it introduces new Aveiros you weren’t even considering, like heresy (and giving chizuk to heretics), and makes you feel superior, so you no longer need to improve. And what can a Jew do mitzvah-wise, anyway, if staying out of the Land of Mitzvos in false “respect”?! And their Birkas Hamazon must be repeated.

Not to mention attacking some righteous, innocent Jews, etc.and causing Jewish blood to be spilled through excessive appeasement.

The Chazon Ish once commented on those who intentionally introduce undue stringency in hilchos shemittah leading to undue leniency, quoting the Vidduy of Rabbenuu Nissim:

את אשר התרת אסרתי. ואת אשר אסרת התרתי. את אשר אהבת שנאתי. ואת אשר שנאת אהבתי. את אשר הקלת החמרתי. ואת אשר החמרת הקלתי.