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    Praying for the sick – Ask the rabbi

    Q. What should one say in a prayer for an invalid?

    A. Various components are important. These are some of them. The mother’s name is used, nor the father’s, because the mother tends to have the more emotional/spiritual bond with her children. If the mother’s name is not known, we use the father’s. If we do not know either parent’s name, we say Ben/Bat – son/daughter of – Chavvah (Eve), since Eve was “the mother of all living”; some say Ben/Bat Sarah. The prayer should include the words, “together with other sick of the people of Israel”, in order to think of the whole community. A Chassidic teacher prayed for the parnasah (livelihood) of the sick person because “when HaShem gives parnasah, it is to the living that He gives it”.

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