Kedoshim parsha: Older years can be the most formative | Commentary

The Torah stresses the importance of venerating the elderly, mandating that we “Rise up before the aged and show deference to the old; you shall fear God: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:32).

The honor given to the elderly plays an important role in our lives: it reminds us that they can and do make significant contributions to society. It is also important to remind the elderly themselves of this truth. Otherwise, too often older people can be caught in a vicious cycle: If treated as infirm, they can consequently feel incapacitated and cease believing they can still help themselves – let alone that they have something to offer others.

Now that I’ve reached a senior age, I too experience this phenomenon. I now pay half fare on subways and buses. While this discount is perhaps intended to honor us, the effect can also be detrimental. If we pay half fare, we may begin to believe we only half contribute to society.

Rabbi Benjamin Blech quotes a 1961 talk on aging given by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel at the White House. In it, Rabbi Heschel sees older years as potentially the most formative. His words to that effect, uttered more than fifty years ago, resonate powerfully even today:

May I suggest that man’s potential for change and growth is much greater than we are willing to admit and that old age be regarded not as the age of stagnation, but as the age of opportunities for inner growth. The years of old age may enable us to attain the high values we have failed to sense, the insights we have missed, the wisdom we have ignored. They are indeed formative years…

Now, of course, there are elderly people – and for that matter people of all ages – who are limited and have little to contribute. Even then, the rabbis insist, by virtue of their life experiences and having lived long years, they deserve to be honored (Kiddushin 33a).

The elderly are considered the most god-like of people. Note that the mandate to honor the elderly concludes with the words “I am the Lord.” In his later years, my father explained the juxtaposition by suggesting that God is telling us here that, since He is the oldest in the universe, He is particularly concerned about those who share this divine quality and about the way they are treated. Honoring the elderly is honoring God. Dishonoring the elderly is dishonoring God.

Candle lighting:

Kedoshim parsha

May 10th at 7:40 p.m.