EXOD577 Visiting the Sick, Bikkur Holim. "A master said that the Torah's phrase about a man injured in a fight, 'He must walk' [this verse] is, by implication, the source of the commandment that we must visit him until he is up and about. As that master also taught, the bikkur holim of a person the same age as the sick one takes one-sixtieth of the stricken one's illness away with him when he leaves. Although even that slight exposure to illness might deter people from visiting the sick, we have a text indicating that he still must visit him" (Bava Metzia 30b). According to the Hafetz Hayyim, the late ninetheeth century Polish sage, visiting the sick has no fixed measure of stature or time. "Someone who is quite distinguished is required to visit a person of more ordinary accomplishment. Should it be desirable, this mitzvah is to be performed even several times a day" (Ahavat Hesed [Love of kindness]). A non-rabbinic kal ve-homer argument (reasoning that proves from the trivial what is true in a weightier matter): Forward-looking physicians, experimenting with ways to help the elderly keep their dignity as they get frail, have discovered that occasional but regular visits by very young children revitalize nursing home residents, despite significantly raising the noise and activity levels. Their research has also found that cuddling dogs and cats and responsibly caring for plants positively affect the quality and length of life of the aged. If even superficial contact with plants, animals, and kids is beneficial to the elderly (kal), how much more so would be visits by adults of their acquaintance (homer)?