Aging and Judaism

Shalom! This video is about aging in the Jewish tradition. First the joke, a Yemenite Jew goes to the doctor at the age 75 for a check up, but the doctor is, “Oh my God, your on great shape. How old are you?” He answered him 75. “Well, 75 in such good shape, how old is your father when he died?” “Well, my father is still alive, he is 98.” “Your father is 98, still alive, oh my goodness. How is he doing?” “Well, he is doing great, he is getting married next week.” “Getting married next week? Why is he getting married the age of 98?” “Well, his father wants him to, he got a girlfriend!” The Yemenites have this tradition of extraordinary old age and living healthy lives. But that goes to the Jewish idea of life itself is a value. In fact, when a Jew raises a cup to celebrate, wine is a great piece to say, ‘high into life.’ So how we do understand life? In fact, Jews usually say, “My age is so and so till a 120.” There is another joke about a guy who supposed to testify in court. The judge is, “How old are you?” and the man says, “I am 89 till a120.” The judge says, “No, no, just how old are you?” “Maybe, 90 till 120.” The judge said, “Do not answer that way. Just answer exactly what I ask you.” And the man at the back said, “Judge let me ask him and then I can solve the problem. Mister till 120, how old are you?” and the guy said, “89.” The guy says, “How do you get to be 120?’ “Get to be 120 and then be very careful.” Well this video is about aging and what we have learned about aging and what the Jewish views are. First of all, a lot of people who are older will say, at old ages are not for sissies or it is tough to be old and the body starts falling apart, so what is the Jewish thinking and the wisdom about that? First of all why that does happen? Well we know about some laws of nature, but spiritually why? Can we learn anything a value from it? There is a great Midrash, about the first time, the words ‘akaine’ is used for the Torah, which means ‘old.’ It is used in the context of Abraham, this is Abraham’s ‘akaine babayamin.’ Abraham got old and he came to his days. So, why does he have to say both akaine and babayamin and here is why it is said, introduced the words akaine. Abraham and Isaac were walking along until that point people did not show they age. They just got older. And Abraham said that, no one knew who is older and no one knew who they should pay respect to—the father or son. Who was the father, who was the son? So God said, “The only way I could fix that, to let them know who is older is you will feel older.” And Abraham said, “The value of honoring the elderly is so important, I think, even though it will have consequence that will feel older, you should do it and God changed the laws of nature that time. Now obviously, that is not a scientific story, it is a story about the value of honoring the elderly. And just to make sure we do not miss the point, in Leviticus we are thought, “You should rise before the hurrahed—the older person and honor the face of the elderly,” commandments in Judaism. There are some great statements and Proverbs and Psalms about this. “Teach me the number on my days, so I may attain a heart of wisdom.” Then with aging supposedly comes wisdom. But the God will teach us to number our days to take each day as something significant and meaningful to learn from it. But we are also we are taught, “Do not forsake me and my old days,” that concerned that all people are considered to be buy some out of not in the main stream anymore and so this is the very important caution to do not forsake them in their older age. And then we have, “Honor your mother and father” which generally teaches the respect that is due to the elderly, to people that are older than us. In fact the mission in two thousand years ago has an obligation or responsibility in every age of life, and it has a special word reserve for people who are 60 and 70 and 80, it says the age of ‘gebur,’ special strength. A notion that with increased age can be increase vitality and still very important powerful values that can help teach society. So listen to general idea about aging in Judaism—the importance of honoring the elderly, the ability of the elderly to teach and guide, the idea that they should be kind to people at all ages, no matter what should be constantly learning. So what have we learned from science and the study of aging that can help us in this regard. Well first of all, there is a serious pharmaceutical company called Sirtris which claims they are developing a drug which will help fight lots of diseases, and the only bad side effect will be, it is not bad at all, would be increased of lifespan. And this is not some quack pharmaceutical company, this is a well regard Harvard Scientist. This maybe appeal soon which will be able to do this, but certainly there is a lot of wisdom now about what we can do to help improve aging. There is a growing body of scientific knowledge that growing old does not have to mean frailty, that frailty is a preventable and perhaps treatable condition. Studies shown that weight training, strengthen muscles even in very old individuals, reduces inflammation health prevent falls. They are now launching a definitive study to determine if a combination of aerobic exercise, weight lifting and balance training can help frail sedentary individuals, exercise. In fact, I saw an article that said, there are 137 different measures of true age, that is asking somebody ‘how old they are and what is their true age’ and most factors include the things I mentioned, exercise, includes eating well and vitamins. It includes keeping stress to a minimum. Do you smoke? Do you keep out learning? In fact, older people going to studies or visit museums, play musical instruments, play chess, have a schedule path with brains stimulating for fun activities are less likely to develop to dementia including Alzheimer’s—a new study found, so keeping your mind active. How do you laugh? Humor is known to be an anti-aging activity. Do you floss? The real life age says that if you floss regularly, you decrease your real age by over six years. Do you visit a doctor regularly? Do you buckle up? Do you think positively? Know this, thinking negative thoughts about getting old, then, you will age more quickly. If you think good thoughts about aging you will likely stay healthy and live longer. Once study show that people 70 and older have negative thoughts or beliefs about aging had poor memories as the years passed, and that in fact, it said those with positive use lived a medium of seven years longer, even after taking into account difference in age and health, so thinking positively. And of course religion, the studies clearly show that people that are more religious that pray more regularly and attend their church or synagogue, study the bible, have lower levels of stress, lower blood pressure, then you ask which city in Israel has the highest average lifespan. And you add to it, the fact that it is the poorest city in the Israel per capita—it got to be the religion because it is Bnei Brak the longest lived city per capita is the that it is also the poorest city. So I am not recommending poverty here, I am recommending religion. So you think about all of those qualities that can affect the real age. I love the story about a Rabbi was asked in an interview for a position in pulpit, “What age do you deal better with?” And he said, “I deal best with young people of all ages.” And clearly in the Jewish idea is that we get older and there is respect due as we get older. It is common to part society not to forsake the elderly. The elderly have to learn wisdom continually as they grow. And these various the devices can help forestall the aging process, so it can help you have your real life age lower than your chronological age—to live with zest in vitality and religion in purpose. But of course the end comes when none of us are immortal or mortal. And then we move on the world to come. But while we are here, our job is to live as healthfully as we can, as my monotheist teaches us over and over, so that we are better able to love God and do more commandments.