Question: How does Jewish Law relate to Mental Illness?
Does mental illness have the same status in Halacha as physical illness?
Answer: Mental illness is taken very seriously within Talmudic and Halachic literature and is treated with the same seriousness as physical illness. (See Shabbat 50b and 128b)
To further illustrate: Just as one is permitted to suspend the Shabbat restrictions in order to save someone suffering from physical ailments that could lead to loss of life or limb - so too we are to suspend the Shabbat restrictions to secure the safety of someone suffering from a mental condition that could potentially lead to loss of life or limb.
It is certainly a mitzvah to visit those who are suffering from mental conditions just like one who is suffering from physical ailments.
Rabbi Ari Enkin
Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel
