Since the birth of my daughter, I have learned that when people ask how old she is, the units are of utmost importance. We begin counting by weeks- she is six weeks old, seven weeks old, etc.- until at some point we transition to months- she is now seven months old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week, a questioner had the courage to follow up and ask me how old I am. I smiled and responded that Chaya is 7 months old, and I am 320 months old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And of course, the person looked surprised, as we do not expect someone in their twenties to be keeping track of their age in months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As our age increases, the units we use to count increase as well. For a baby, there are developmental milestones at each week and each month. But as we age, the days, weeks, months, begin to lose their significance; there are less milestones, and we count our age in years. A young child may feel insulted if you suggest that he or she is six instead of six and a half, but every adult counts his or her age solely with years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this week\u2019s parsha we are repeatedly confronted with age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The parsha begins with telling us the number of years in Sarah\u2019s life. As we continue through the parsha, we read about an aging Avraham, ultimately about his passing, and the parsha ends off with the aging and passing of Yishmael. The Haftorah follows a similar theme, telling us of the end of Dovid Hamelech\u2019s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Society around us is very attuned and attentive to aging. With advancements of modern medicine and nutrition, the average life span across world has been steadily climbing over the past fifty years, and with the Baby Boomer generation approaching their seventies, aging has developed into a major industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, society\u2019s general attitude towards aging is somewhat negative. While it\u2019s wonderful that we have systems in place helping people- nursing homes, planning for retirement, Medicaid- some argue that the Baby Boomer generation is in a sense in denial about their ages. Physical signs of aging are treated in our society almost as a disease: the anti-aging industry, consisting of hair restoration, hair coloring, skin care products, has grow into an 100 billion dollar industry, with the goal of fighting, delaying, and stopping old age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While society may see aging as a battle, our tradition, embraces and glorifies aging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I mentioned before that aging is a prevalent theme in our parsha, and I would like to focus on one moment in the parsha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our parsha begins with the passing of Sara, Avraham purchasing a gravesite for her, and ultimately burying her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Immediately following this episode, the Torah informs us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
V\u2019avharam zakein ba bayamim, vaHashem beirach et Avraham bakol.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Avraham was old, well on in years, and G-d blessed Avraham with everything. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you do the math, Avraham was 139 years old at the time. He would certainly qualify for the senior citizen\u2019s discount. Yet the gemara in Bava Metzia 87a makes a peculiar comment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u05e2\u05d3 \u05d0\u05d1\u05e8\u05d4\u05dd \u05dc\u05d0 \u05d4\u05d9\u05d4 \u05d6\u05e7\u05e0\u05d4 <\/em>\u2026<\/em> \u05d0\u05ea\u05d0 \u05d0\u05d1\u05e8\u05d4\u05dd \u05d1\u05e2\u05d0 \u05e8\u05d7\u05de\u05d9 \u05d5\u05d4\u05d5\u05d4 \u05d6\u05e7\u05e0\u05d4<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Until Abraham there was no old age; Thereupon he prayed, and old age came into existence,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The gemara quotes the source for this surprising suggestion from our pasuk: And Abraham was old and well-on in years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A very strange gemara. What does it mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are Chazal alluding to when they suggest that no one before Avraham was old? Certainly there were others who lived as long as Avraham! Look throughout Parshat Bereishit and Noach: the people were living well past 100. In fact, this is not even the first time that the Torah refers to Avraham as \u201cold.\u201d In last week\u2019s parsha, the Torah tells us v\u2019avraham v\u2019sara zkeinim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what does it mean that until Avraham, until this point that Avraham prayed, there was no old age?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The commentaries suggest that Avraham was the first to embrace his old age. Before Avraham, of course people aged, but there were no physical signs of their aging: no one had white hair, no one\u2019s skin wrinkled. Avraham desired these physical signs of aging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Avraham was proud of his age, and wanted to show it to the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Torah does not accept the ant-aging notion that the old age is something to battle with. <\/strong>The old age Avraham sought out is something he wanted and prayed for, something to be respected, admired, appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chazal teach us that the Hebrew word zaken<\/em> for an elder, alludes to zeh shekaneh chomchma<\/em>. He who has acquired wisdom. The physical signs of aging represent wisdom and experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have a commandment mipnei seiva takum, that we should rise in the presence of the elderly, respecting and honoring their life experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But not everyone ages like Avraham, calmly, pleasantly, gracefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Haftorah we read of Dovid Hamelech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n V\u2019hamelech dovid zakein<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n King David was in the final years of his life. There was unrest in his kingdom, uncertainty of his legacy, and he physically was not what he once was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While his old age may have brought with it more challenges with than Avraham\u2019s old age, the navi uses the same words to describe his age, clearly connecting him to Avraham Avinu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vhamelch Dovid zaken, ba bayamim<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The same as Avraham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n V\u2019avraham zaken, ba bayamim<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n While their experiences were very different, Like Avraham, Dovid Hamelech\u2019s in his old age was someone to be admired and respected for the wisdom and experiences he had acquired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We do not have to be senior citizens to learn a valuable insight from these two great men. Whether we are 27 or 107, we have all moved beyond the stage of my daughter counting her age in weeks and months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For everyone in this room, the days, the weeks, and the months are subsumed under the years. I do not say I am 300 months or 9000 days old, I am 26 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if we look a little closer to the terminology used by Avraham and Dovid, we will notice something strange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n V\u2019Avraham zaken\/<\/em>V\u2019hamelech Dovid zaken<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ba bayomim<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Literally translates as arriving with their days<\/strong>. Not ba bshanim, arriving with their years<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sfat Emet explains that Avraham did not look at his life as a group of years, but as a series of days. Ba bayamim- Avraham arrived at the age of 139 with his days, and Dovid Hamelech arrived at his old age with his days. Avraham approached each day with meaning: each day was a fresh opportunity for him, and he was excited and enthusiastic for life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n L\u2019havdil, A more contemporary Abraham, Abraham Lincoln, once commented that it\u2019s not the year in your life that counts. It\u2019s the life in your years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps this is what the gemara means when it states that before Avraham there was no old age. Until Avraham, people lived their lives and aged, but Avraham was the first to approach life as days<\/strong> instead of as years<\/strong>. Avraham used each day as an opportunity, and as he reached a ripe old age, he was proud of the life he had lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our years and our lives are built up with days. To follow in the footsteps of Avraham and Dovid, we must not allow those days to be lost among the years, but appreciate each day as a challenge and an opportunity to build the lives we seek to live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since the birth of my daughter, I have learned that when people ask how old she is, the units are of utmost importance. We begin counting by weeks- she is six weeks old, seven weeks old, etc.- until at some point we transition to months- she is now seven months old. 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