Translation:Shulchan Aruch/Yoreh Deah/335

1. It is a mitzvah to visit the sick. Close relatives and friends may visit immediately and those farther away [not close relatives] may visit after three days. If the sickness "jumps on him" [comes quickly] both these and those may enter to visit immediately.

2. Even a person great [in stature] may go visit a lesser one, and even many times a day, and even if he is of the same age; and if one adds to this [visits many times] it is all the more praiseworthy, so long as he does not bother him [the sick person]. Comment: There are those who say that one who is hated [by that sick person] should go visit a sick person (Maharil 197), and I don't agree with this, but rather he should not go and visit, and not consult a mourner that hates him because he will not be happy to see him, and will only cause him pain. I agree with this (ש"ס פ' כג).

3. One who visits a sick person should not sit on the bed, or on chair, or on a bench, but should wrap himself or herself and sit in front of him [the sick person] because the shechina rests above his or her head. Comment And certainly when the sick person is sleeping on the floor, because sitting would make him above him, but when he or she is resting on the bed it is permitted to sit on a seat or a bench (Beit Yosef in the name of Rabbeinu Nissim and Hagahot Maimaoniot and in Tosafot) and thus we practice.

4. One should not visit a sick person during the first 3 hours of the day because every person is light in his sickness in the morning and does not feel that he needs one to ask for mercy on his or her behalf [pray for them], and one also should not visit during the last 3 hours of the day because then sickness is heavy upon him or her, and one would despair from asking mercy [find it difficult to do so] (and anyone who visits without having asked for mercy has not fulfilled the commandment) (Beit Yosef in the name of Ramban).

5. When one asks for mercy for him, if he asks for it in front of him [the sick person] he may recite it in any language he desires; if he asks for it not in front of him, he should only ask for it in the holy tongue [hebrew].

6. He should include him "among the sick in Israel" and he should say "May the Everpresent have mercy upon you among the sick in Israel;" on Shabbat, he should say "It is on Shabbat we cry out and may healing come quickly."

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