Though in today’s vernacular, this is a good thing, kind of how “bad!” meant good in the 1970’s, when Yosef was told that his father was ill, he must have been confused.
You see, our Sages tell us that until the time of our Patriarch Jacob, people didn’t become ill as they aged. Rather, they’d be going about their daily routine, perhaps in the market picking out some tomatoes or eggs, and they’d suddenly pass away on the spot.
Recognizing the need for people to put their affairs in order, Yaakov prayed that people would become sick before they died, as a sort of warning to start giving their children instructions and telling them what should happen after they were gone.
Since this was the first time, Yosef might have asked, “Sick? What happened? Did he get bitten by a crocodile? Got vertigo from climbing a pyramid?” But as a dutiful son he went to visit his father. The Torah tells us that when Yosef arrived, Yaakov was strengthened and sat up upon his bed.
The Vilna Gaon, (1727-1790) points out that the numerical value of the Hebrew word “ha-mita,” meaning bed, is 59. This comports well with the dictum of Chazal that when a person visits someone sick, thereby performing the mitzvah of bikur cholim, he takes away 1/60th of the illness.
Since Yosef visited Yaakov, he took away 1/60th, and Yaakov was strengthened to the point of “ha-mita”, only having 59 parts of the illness left. We can learn from this how important it is when we let people know we care. It can work wonders for them, even if all we do is show up.
