A sacred obligation devolves upon every Jew to comfort the mourners, whether he is related to them or not, and whether he was a close friend or a passing acquaintance. In Judaism, exercising compassion by paying a condolence call is a mitzvah, considered by some of our greatest scholars to be biblically ordained. The Bible records that God visited Isaac : “And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac, his son” (Genesis 25:11). The sages infer from this verse that God Himself, as it were, was comforting the bereaved Isaac.