Rav Kahana announced 'Rav Chelbo is sick. Will no one come?!

Once, a Talmid of R. Akiva fell sick, and Chachamim did not visit him. R. Akiva visited him and commanded to sweep and clean the premises. The Talmid recovered, and attributed this to R. Akiva.'

R. Akiva: Anyone who does not visit the sick is like one who murders.

(Rav Dimi): One who visits a sick person causes him to live. One who does not visit him causes him to die.

Question: How does he cause this?

Suggestion: One who visits him prays that he should live; one who does not visit him prays that he should die.

Rejection: He does not pray for him to die!

Answer: Rather, one who does not visit him does not pray, not that he should live, nor that he should die. (Ran - in some situations one should pray that he die, e.g. he is in great pain and cannot recover.)

Rava fell sick. The first day, he asked not to publicize the matter, lest his Mazal turn bad. Henceforth, he asked them to announce it.

He reasoned - whoever hates me will rejoice, and it says "do not rejoice in the fall of your enemy (lest Hash-m... will turn His anger away from him)";

Whoever loves me will request mercy for me.

(Rav): Anyone who visits the sick is saved from being sentenced to Gehinom - "Fortunate is the one who supervises Dal. Hash-m will save him from the evil day ";

"Dal" refers to a Choleh. We learn from "mi'Dalah (from sickness) He will save me", or (regarding Amnon) "...why are you Dal?"

"Evil" refers to Gehinom - "All actions of Hash-m are for His sake; also the Rasha, for the evil day."

Question: What is the reward for visiting the sick?

Objection: We already said that he is saved from being sentenced to Gehinom!

Clarification of question: What is the reward in this world?

Answer: "Hash-m will guard him, and keep him alive, give him happiness in the land, and not give him over to his enemies."

"Hash-m will guard him" - from the Yetzer Ra, "and keep him alive" through afflictions;

"(He will) give to him happiness in the land" - all will take pride in him;

"And (He will) not give him over to his enemies" - He will give to him friends like Na'aman's friends, who helped him to cure his Tzara'as;

He will not give to him friends like Rechavam's friends, who split his kingdom.

(Beraisa - R. Shimon ben Elazar): If youths tell you to build, and elders tell you to destroy, listen to the elders, for the (apparent) building of youths is really destruction, and the (apparent) destruction suggested by elders is really building.

A way to remember this is the counsels given to Shlomo's son Rechavam. (Elders told him to be soft initially, and later he could rule strongly. Youths told him to be harsh initially, and this caused most of Yisrael to reject him.)

(Rav Shisha brei d'Rav Idi): One should not visit the sick in the first three or last three hours of the day, lest he refrain from requesting mercy for him.

In the first three hours, the patient looks well. In the last three hours, he is so weak that one will despair and not pray.

(Ravin): Hash-m nourishes a Choleh - "Hash-m will sustain us on the bed of the sick";

This verse also teaches that the Shechinah (Divine Presence) rests above the bed of the sick.

(Beraisa): One who visits the sick should not sit on a bed, bench or chair. Rather, he should cloak himself and sit on the floor, for the Shechinah rests above the bed of the sick.

(Ravin): A sign of (much) rain in Eretz Yisrael is an increased water level of the Peras River (in Bavel. Therefore, the river might be mostly from rainfall, so one must enclose it to be Tovel (immerse) in it.)

He disagrees with Shmuel.

(Shmuel): Most of a river's water comes from its source.

Contradiction (Shmuel): The only river Kosher for Tevilah like in a spring (i.e. without enclosing the water) is the Peras River (or other rivers that never dry up naturally) in Tishrei. (At other times, (unless one knows that the water is at its minimum level) one must be concerned lest most of the water is from rain or melting snow, and he must enclose the water to immerse in it. The Gemara does not resolve the contradiction.)

In Nisan, Shmuel's father built Mikva'os (Ran - in the house; Rashi Nidah 67a - he enclosed water in or near the Peras) for his daughters to immerse in. In Tishrei, he set up mats (in the river, lest the mud be a Chatzitzah (blockage), or for privacy).