CHAPTER SIX - The Aging Process: Late Life Questions

A: BACKGROUND

5. The other side of the picture – a sad reality?

A close look at the Bible certainly shows that not all was ideal in the situation of the elderly. In Psalms, for example, we hear a plea to G-d:-

Do not cast me away when I am old: do not forsake me when my strength is gone.
Psalms 71:9

While it could be argued that this is a philosophical statement of the fear of abandonment by G-d in old age, it must be admitted that - judging by some of the other less idealistic statements about old age that appear in the pages of the Bible - this could also be an expression reflecting much more everyday human concerns.

There are so many voices woven into the Biblical text, that it is not surprising to hear some idyllic pictures of old age, together with some rather more sober assessments.

- Thus, when we hear in the very last piece of the Torah about Moses’ death, we hear that at the age of 120,

… his eyes were not weak, nor his natural strength abated.

- In contrast, the last picture that of that other great Biblical hero, King David, is somewhat different.

When King David was old and well advanced in years, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him.
I Kings 1:1

The following two passages spell out the fears of the aging in specific terms:
Prior to this - when David was still in his prime - Barzillai, one of his chief advisers addresses King David about his offer to provide for him in old age:

I am now eighty years old. Can I tell the difference between what is good and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats and drinks? Can I still hear the voices of men and women singers? Why should your servant be a burden to my lord the king?
II Samuel Ch. 19 v. 35

However, perhaps the most striking picture of the difficulties of old age is to be found in the book of Kohelet or Ecclesiastes - the most cynical, or as some would claim, the most realistic, of all the books of the Bible.

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”: before the sun and the light and the moon and stars grow dark and the clouds return after the rain: when the keepers of the house tremble and strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few and those looking through the window grow dim: when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades: when men rise up at the sound of birds but all their songs grow faint: when men are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets: when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags himself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets. Remember him – before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken: before the pitcher is shattered at the spring or the wheel broken at the well and the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to G-d who gave it. Meaningless, meaningless says the Teacher, everything is meaningless.
Kohelet 12:1-8

They constitute an astonishingly pessimistic/realistic view of the travails of old age, going far beyond Barzillai’s comments and offer the essence of a second, more pessimistic, Biblical view of age and aging.