As we walked into the room, the strong scent of hospital food filled our nostrils. The rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor permeated the tense atmosphere in the room, disrupting the lonely patient’s effort to get a good night’s sleep. The only indication that Shabbat had arrived was a pair of flickering electric Shabbat lights standing on the windowsill overlooking the East River.
This scenario is a typical Friday night for many Jews who are forced to spend Shabbat in the hospital. Due to unfortunate circumstances, their health has prevented many of these people from spending Shabbat in the comfort of their own homes with loved ones. It is easy to take Shabbat for granted. Having a Kiddush setup, two challot, and a nice home-cooked meal are staples of a normal Friday night. When one has to spend Shabbat in in the hospital, though, the atmosphere is very different. Aside from lacking a home-cooked meal, many of these patients spend the entire Shabbat alone. The physical structure of a hospital further strains the Shabbat atmosphere. Navigating the labyrinth of electric doors, motion sensors, and automatic hand cleansers can make keeping the laws of Shabbat very challenging.
As volunteers for the Bikur Cholim of NYU Langone Medical Center, our job is to bring the spirit of Shabbat to our Jewish brothers and sisters. We leave the Stern campus before Shabbat begins and make our way to NYU’s Bikur Cholim room. This room is stocked with Shabbat food, snacks, beverages, magazines, and the like for patients and their families. Along with electric candles, we gather a compilation of various goods provided by the Bikur Cholim room and make our way to the patients’ rooms in order to distribute these items (although we put away the candle once Shabbat actually begins). The patients are always elated to see fellow Jews when they expected to spend Shabbat alone, with just the beeping of the heart monitors to keep them company. We often sing Shalom Aleichem and recite Kiddush for the patients who are unable to do so themselves. Many times we sit with the patients for a while, talking, laughing, and playing with the pediatric patients. We take the place of their loved ones who are not able to be there.
The patients we visit never cease to thank us for our efforts. Many of them cannot even fathom who would take the time out of their usual weekend plans in order to visit the sick. Many of our patients enter Shabbat only hoping that they will have the strength and ability to make it through the difficult weekend with their health in tact. Throughout our several bikur cholim experiences, we have met Jews from all walks of life, each one exuberantly grateful for the comfort a visit provides.
Volunteering at NYU has not only impacted the patients we visit, but it has changed our lives as well. We have learned how far a simple smile and words of encouragement can go. We have learned what it means not to take things for granted such as family, friends, or a home-cooked Shabbat meal. We only hope that our Shabbatot can continue to be a source of inspiration. The patients at NYU could always use more smiles. If you’re interested in getting involved with visiting patients as a Bikur Cholim volunteer, we would love to have you join us.
To find out how to get more involved, please contact the authors of this article at
Tkutner16@gmail.com or rivkiweiss@gmail.com