Age and The Wisdom of Torah

(Published in The Outreach, February 2006)
The Outreach is the newsletter of Valley Outreach Synagogue, Reseda, California
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Bronwen and I recently took our daughter, Hannah, to a retirement home where we befriended a wonderfully spirited elderly man. After some songs and refreshments in the lounge, Tom asked us to come to his room to see his artwork. Paintings, sculptures, war medals and photographs told of a man's relationships and achievements. The beautiful woman posing in the oil painting was Tom's wife. Sadly, today she has no recollection of Tom, let alone of sitting for the gorgeous painting.

The Torah says very little about retirement. It simply beckons us never to retire from life. One might conclude from reading the Torah that life only becomes noteworthy in its maturity. In the chapter that we recently read that ended the book of Genesis, Jacob was said to have lived one hundred and forty seven years when he gave his blessings to his children and grandchildren, transforming the future generations of Israel. How old must his sons and grandsons have been? No spring chickens, to be sure. The same was true of Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Joseph and, of course, Moses, all of whom were very active senior citizens. "Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: His eyes were undimmed and his vigor unabated" (Deuteronomy 34:7). Perhaps Moses' vigor could be attributed to undying stimulation and constant responsibility toward others.

Consider that some of our greatest sages, Rabbis Hillel, Yochanan ben Zakkai, and Akiva, led the Jewish people even after they were a hundred years old. While these examples are inspiring, surely, not all of us are required to be our nation's sages and leaders. So what does Judaism ask of the rest of us in our later years?

Maimonides states in the Mishnah Torah, "Every Jew is obligated to study Torah , whether he is rich or poor, in sound health or ailing, in the vigor of youth, or very old and feeble...Until what period in life ought one study Torah? Until the day of one's death".