What is Age According to Judaism?
(כא) הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, בֶּן חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים לַמִּקְרָא, בֶּן עֶשֶׂר לַמִּשְׁנָה, בֶּן שְׁלשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה לַמִּצְוֹת, בֶּן חֲמֵשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה לַתַּלְמוּד, בֶּן שְׁמוֹנֶה עֶשְׂרֵה לַחֻפָּה, בֶּן עֶשְׂרִים לִרְדּוֹף, בֶּן שְׁלשִׁים לַכֹּחַ, בֶּן אַרְבָּעִים לַבִּינָה, בֶּן חֲמִשִּׁים לָעֵצָה, בֶּן שִׁשִּׁים לַזִקְנָה, בֶּן שִׁבְעִים לַשֵּׂיבָה, בֶּן שְׁמוֹנִים לַגְּבוּרָה, בֶּן תִּשְׁעִים לָשׁוּחַ, בֶּן מֵאָה כְּאִלּוּ מֵת וְעָבַר וּבָטֵל מִן הָעוֹלָם:
(21) He [Yehudah ben Teima] used to say: Five years [is the age] for [the study of] Scripture, Ten [is the age] for [the study of] Mishnah, Thirteen [is the age] for [observing] commandments, Fifteen [is the age] for [the study of] Talmud, Eighteen [is the age] for the [wedding] canopy, Twenty [is the age] for pursuit, Thirty [is the age] for [full] strength, Forty [is the age] for understanding, Fifty [is the age] for [giving] counsel, Sixty [is the age] for mature age, Seventy [is the age] for a hoary head, Eighty [is the age] for [superadded] strength, Ninety [is the age] for [a] bending [stature], One hundred, is [the age at which one is] as if dead, passed away, and ceased from the world.
What is age here?
Some people have years, and others have old age.
B'reishit Rabbah 59:6
What does age mean here?
The Torah uses two different languages Zaken and Seyva which generally speaking both refer to an older person. The Torah doesn't tell us, however, how old is "old". Zaken refers to a wise person and not based on age.
Birth is a beginning, and death a destination. And life is a journey: from childhood to maturity, and youth to age; from innocence to awareness, and ignroance to knowing; from foolishness to discretion, and then, perhaps to wisdom.
Alvin Fine
Human being is a disclosure of the divine. The grandeur of human being is revealed in the power of being human.
~Abraham J. Heschel, The Insecurity of Freedom; Essays on Human Existence (New York: Schocken Books, 1972), p. 25
How do we want to be treated as we age?
when my strength fails, do not forsake me!
What does Judaism teach us about Aging?
(לב) מִפְּנֵ֤י שֵׂיבָה֙ תָּק֔וּם וְהָדַרְתָּ֖ פְּנֵ֣י זָקֵ֑ן וְיָרֵ֥אתָ מֵּאֱלֹקֶ֖יךָ אֲנִ֥י ה' (פ)
(32) You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old; you shall fear your God: I am the Eternal
Show respect to an old man who has forgotten his learning through no fault of his own, for we have learned that the fragments of the old tablets were kept alongside the new tablets in the Ark of the Covenant.
Babylonian Talmud, B'rachot 8b
It is easy to criticize others and make them feel unwanted. Anyone can do it. What takes effort and skill is picking them up and making them feel good.
~Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav
It is natural for old people to be despised by the general population when they can no longer function as they once did, but sit idle, and have no purpose. The commandment “Honor your father and your mother” was given specifically for this situation.
Gur Aryeh la-Levi (seventeenth century), commentary on the Fifth
Commandment, in Melekhet Mahshevet
“A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel
What should we be striving for at this point in our lives?
You should not look at all the best things in your life and say "Now I will improve myself." Rather you should look at your positive traits that you have gained and dwell up your goodness. From there you can say, "Now I will prove myself."
Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav
According to all the standards we employ...the aged person is condemned as inferior... Conditioned to operating as a machine for making and spending money, with all other relationships dependent upon its efficiency, the moment the machine is out of order and beyond repair, one begins to feel like a ghost without a sense of reality... Regarding himself as a person who has outlived his usefulness, he feels as if he has to apologize for being alive.
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...are indeed formative years, rich in possibilities to unlearn the follies of a lifetime, to see through inbred self-deceptions, to deepen understanding and compassion, to widen the horizon of honesty, to refine the sense of fairness.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Perhaps this is the must urgent task: to save the inner man from oblvion, to remind ourselves we are duality of mysterious grandeur and the pompous dust. Our future depends upon our appreciation of the reality of the inner life, of the splendor of thoughts, of the dignity of wonder of reverence. This is the most important thought: God has a stake in the life of man, of every man. But the idea cannot be imposed from without; ever man must discover it; it cannot be preached, it must be experienced.
Abraham J. Heschel
We are meaning seeking animals. We want to know who we are, what we can know, what we can hope for, why we were born. We seek meaning in the work we pursue, the relationships we forge, the homes we build, and the communities to which we belong. When we form congregations....we are really seeking meaning. Wherever and however we see meaning in life, whether in the religious or secular world, the answers to the questions, "Who am I?" and "Why am I? define a theology ---a special theology that is our own
-Carol Ochs