(2) Remember the long way that your God יהוה has made you travel in the wilderness these past forty years, in order to test you by hardships to learn what was in your hearts: whether you would keep the divine commandments or not. (3) [God] subjected you to the hardship of hunger and then gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known, in order to teach you that a human being does not live on bread alone, but that one may live on anything that יהוה decrees.
How do ancient Jewish texts underscore this thinking? (what did they know that we are only now resdiscovering)
(כא) הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, בֶּן חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים לַמִּקְרָא, בֶּן עֶשֶׂר לַמִּשְׁנָה, בֶּן שְׁלשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה לַמִּצְוֹת, בֶּן חֲמֵשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה לַתַּלְמוּד, בֶּן שְׁמֹנֶה עֶשְׂרֵה לַחֻפָּה, בֶּן עֶשְׂרִים לִרְדֹּף, בֶּן שְׁלשִׁים לַכֹּחַ, בֶּן אַרְבָּעִים לַבִּינָה, בֶּן חֲמִשִּׁים לָעֵצָה, בֶּן שִׁשִּׁים לַזִּקְנָה, בֶּן שִׁבְעִים לַשֵּׂיבָה, בֶּן שְׁמֹנִים לַגְּבוּרָה, בֶּן תִּשְׁעִים לָשׁוּחַ, בֶּן מֵאָה כְּאִלּוּ מֵת וְעָבַר וּבָטֵל מִן הָעוֹלָם:
(21) He (Shimon ben Tema) used to say: At five years of age the study of Scripture; At ten the study of Mishnah; At thirteen subject to the commandments; At fifteen the study of Talmud; At eighteen the bridal canopy; At twenty for pursuit [of livelihood]; At thirty the peak of strength; At forty wisdom; At fifty able to give counsel; At sixty mature age; At seventy fullness of years; At eighty the age of “strength”; At ninety a bent body; At one hundred, as good as dead and gone completely out of the world.
בֶּן חֲמִשִּׁים לָעֵצָה. שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר בַּלְּוִיִּם (במדבר ח) וּמִבֶּן חֲמִשִּׁים שָׁנָה יָשׁוּב מִצְּבָא הָעֲבוֹדָה וְלֹא יַעֲבֹד עוֹד וְשֵׁרֵת אֶת אֶחָיו וְגוֹ', וּמַהוּ הַשֵּׁרוּת, שֶׁיִּתֵּן לָהֶם עֵצָה:
"Fifty [is the age] for [giving] counsel": As it is stated with the Levites (Numbers 8:25), "And from fifty years, he - the Levite - shall return from service and not serve more; and serve his brothers, etc." - and what is the service? That he give them counsel.
And he said, "Fifty [is the age] for [giving] counsel": Counsel is considered greater wisdom, since not all wisdom is the same. For there is wisdom that is not so deep. About this, it said, "Forty [is the age] for understanding, Fifty [is the age] for counsel" - that being, deep counsel. And it is as if he said, "Forty is for the grasping of things that a person brings out from the power of his being and his insight, and that thing is called, understanding; 'Fifty is for counsel' - the explantion of which is deep counsel that masters hidden things" - and that is called, "Fifty for counsel." And counsel is deep, for it is written (Proverbs 20:5), "[deep] is counsel in the heart of a man." And this is said about things that are completely hidden. For even if understanding extracts one thing from another - as they said (Sanhedrin 93b), "Who is one with understanding? One who extracts one thing from another thing" - nevertheless, that thing is not from the hidden things. So [counsel] is a separate level of the intellect.
1. What are 2-3 pieces of wisdom you would share with someone from a younger generation (write them down).
2. Share with the group.
3. Based on what we heard, what are the top three for you?
On the basis that it's never too late to head down a new path/career/vocation/avocation...
(א) ויעל משה מערבות מואב - עלייה
(לג) ומשה בן מאה ועשרים שנה - זה אחד מארבעה שמתו בן מאה ועשרים, ואלו הם: משה והלל הזקן ורבן יוחנן בן זכאי ור' עקיבא. משה היה במצרים מ' שנה, ובמדין מ' שנה, ופירנס את ישראל מ' שנה; הלל הזקן עלה מבבל בן מ' שנה, ושימש חכמים מ' שנה, ופירנס את ישראל מ' שנה; רבן יוחנן בן זכאי עסק בפרגמטיא מ' שנה, ושימש חכמים מ' שנה, ופירנס ישראל מ' שנה; רבי עקיבא למד תורה מ' שנה, ופירנס את ישראל מ' שנה
(33) (Ibid. 7) "And Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died": He was one of the four who died at the age of one hundred and twenty: Moses, Hillel the Elder, R. Yochanan b. Zakkai, and R. Akiva. Moses was in Egypt for forty years, in Midian for forty years, and led Israel for forty years. Hillel the Elder went up from Bavel (to Eretz Yisrael) at the age of forty, attended upon the sages for forty years, and led Israel for forty years. R. Yochanan b. Zakkai was in business for forty years, attended upon the sages for forty years, and led Israel for forty years. R. Akiva was a shepherd for forty years, learned (Torah) for forty years, and led Israel for forty years.
How do we move beyond lifelong learning, which can be done at any age, and instead embrace "long-life learning," which is dedicated to living a life that's as deep and meaningful as it is long? "The things I want to learn and how I learn them are very different at 62, 72 or 82 than when I was 32," HBS' Shoshana Zuboff suggests, "The first half of life is about compulsion; the second half is about choice." Or, as award-winning business leader, brand strategist, and executive coach Jill Nykolation says, "We spend the first part of our lives proving ourselves, we spend the second part improving ourselves."
Three practices (according to Chip Conley, founder of Modern Elder Academy)
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Become a superb editor of you life - Identities and mindsets that are no longer serving you.
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Mine your mastery - Learn and understand what you have to offer. Your wisdom has your fingerprints all over it.
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Cultivate community of others who want the same thing - including creating rituals that help to transition from one stage to another. If B'Mitzvah ushers us into adolescence and brings one into the non-child Jewish community, what might the ritual that ushers us into middleescence look like? The right ritual is a key that opens the lock that allows you to facilitate across the threshold to another place and you are witnessed.
(David Whyte)