Sacred Aging

Rabbi Heschel ‘s speech to the White House Conference on Aging was entitled, “To Grow in Wisdom”. His words, “Just to be is a blessing^. Just to live is holy”, were intended to serve as an antidote to the idolatry of youth and the “twin phenomena of our civilization, contempt for the old end the traumatic fear of getting old.”

Heschel wrote: “Old age is a major challenge to the inner life; it takes both wisdom end strength not to succumb to it. According to all the standards we employ socially, as well as privately, the aged person is condemned as inferior. ^in terms of manpower he is s liability, p burden, s drain on our resources. Conditioned to operate as s 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. The aged may be described as a person who does not dream any more, devoid of ambition, and living in fear of losing his status. Regarding himself as a person who has outlived his usefulness, he feels as if he had to apologize for being alive.” (Growing in Wisdom)

“Old age has the vicious tendency of depriving a person of the present. The aged thinks of himself as belonging to the past. But it is precisely the openness to the present that he must strive for. The marvel is discovered in celebration… all it takes to sanctify time is God, a soul and a moment.” (Heschel’s speech to the White House Conference on Aging)

How poignant are Abraham Heschel’s words:  ”The goal is not to keep the old man busy, but to remind him that every moment is an opportunity for greatness.” He continued, “Inner purification is at least important as hobbies and recreation. The elimination of resentments, of residues of bitterness, of jealousies and wrangling, is certainly a goal for which one must strive.” And, “Only a few people realize that it is in the days of our youth that we must prepare for old age.”

Heschel wrote, “The tragedy is that old age comes upon us as a shock for which we are unprepared. If life is defined exclusively in terms of functions and activities, is it still worth living when these functions and activities are sharply curtailed?” Of course, there is the related question of the worth of “life defined exclusively in terms of functions end activities.”