Seven Days of Silence
Iyov's friends came from far away to sit with him in silence, and in the end it was Iyov's prayer for them that brought his healing.
It is told that when Iyov's three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Tzofar, heard of all that had come upon him, each left his own place to comfort him. The Gemara relates that they lived three hundred parsaos apart, and yet they came in through one gate at the same moment. How did they know? Chazal relate that each of them had a sign that changed the moment trouble came to one of the others. From them people learned to say: either friends like the friends of Iyov, or death.
When they saw him from afar they did not recognize him, and they wept and tore their garments. Then they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word, for they saw that his pain was very great.
Later they spoke, and spoke hard words, insisting that he must have sinned. Hashem answered Iyov out of the storm, and then turned to Eliphaz: you and your two friends did not speak of Me rightly, as My servant Iyov did. Take offerings, go to My servant Iyov, and let him daven for you. Iyov, sitting in his own pain, prayed for the friends who had wounded him. Only then, the verse says, when he prayed for his friends, did Hashem restore him and give him double. From this the Gemara learned that one who prays for another, while needing the same thing himself, is answered first.
Source: Iyov 2:11–13, 38:1 and 42:7–10; Gemara, Bava Basra 16b and Bava Kamma 92a (Talmud Bavli). English: The JPS Tanakh (Gender-Sensitive Edition); The William Davidson Talmud (Koren–Steinsaltz).
Iyov was still in pain when he davened for his friends, and that was the moment his healing began. This week, when you ask Hashem for something you need, a refuah, parnassah, a shidduch, first name one other person who needs the same thing, and ask for them by name in Shemoneh Esrei. And if a friend is suffering, think of the seven silent days: sometimes the kindest thing is to come and sit, and say nothing at all.