Rabbi Joshua O. Haberman recently celebrated his 90th birthday and he spoke to his congregation about the milestone. He talked about the line in Robert Browning’s poem, “Grow old with me . . . the best is yet to be" and how he had realized that there were six reasons to justify Robert Browning’s positive view of old age.
In a New York Times article by Paula Span, the journalist identified the six reasons.
In a New York Times article by Paula Span, the journalist identified the six reasons.
Tranquility tops his list. “You have achieved in old age what you have wanted to, if you are fortunate,” he said. The important battles have been waged, the decisions made. “You no longer have to do the pushing, the striving, the struggle.”
Next, the cooling of passion. “You don’t rush to quick action,” Rabbi Haberman explained. “You’re more likely to stop and think.” These days he’s hardly indifferent to the world’s problems, he added, but he’s less inclined to think he can solve them, or that they’re soluble at all.
Number three: He’s learned “the art of submission.” Americans are activists by nature, but “more happens to us than we cause to happen,” he has found. “You have to accept the unalterable.”
Moreover, the rabbi confessed, he’s increasingly apt to consider the possibility he’s wrong, a gift of old age (fourth on the list) he labeled “liberation from the compulsion to set everyone else straight.” He has loosened up, he told me, since his more dogmatic youth.
The fifth benefit of growing old, “one of the most important marks of maturity,” is gratitude. “I’m more conscious of the little favors people do... "
Concluding the list: greater involvement with his family..."
http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/6-reasons-to-grow-old/
Rabbi Haberman concludes his remarks by stating, "As for death, I reject the term: “Departure.” We are not departing this world, we are not going anywhere. We’re staying in God’s world, and will be forever connected with our Maker. I can’t prove this by rational arguments. It is my leap of faith. In that faith, I recite each night the sentence from Psalm 31:6:
B’yado afkid ruchi, beyt ishan v’a-eera
V’im ruchi geviyyati, Adonai lee, v’lo ira
In God’s hand I entrust my spirit, when asleep and when awake,
My body and spirit, God is with me, I shall not fear."
To read full text of rabbi's speech, click here.
Next, the cooling of passion. “You don’t rush to quick action,” Rabbi Haberman explained. “You’re more likely to stop and think.” These days he’s hardly indifferent to the world’s problems, he added, but he’s less inclined to think he can solve them, or that they’re soluble at all.
Number three: He’s learned “the art of submission.” Americans are activists by nature, but “more happens to us than we cause to happen,” he has found. “You have to accept the unalterable.”
Moreover, the rabbi confessed, he’s increasingly apt to consider the possibility he’s wrong, a gift of old age (fourth on the list) he labeled “liberation from the compulsion to set everyone else straight.” He has loosened up, he told me, since his more dogmatic youth.
The fifth benefit of growing old, “one of the most important marks of maturity,” is gratitude. “I’m more conscious of the little favors people do... "
Concluding the list: greater involvement with his family..."
http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/6-reasons-to-grow-old/
Rabbi Haberman concludes his remarks by stating, "As for death, I reject the term: “Departure.” We are not departing this world, we are not going anywhere. We’re staying in God’s world, and will be forever connected with our Maker. I can’t prove this by rational arguments. It is my leap of faith. In that faith, I recite each night the sentence from Psalm 31:6:
B’yado afkid ruchi, beyt ishan v’a-eera
V’im ruchi geviyyati, Adonai lee, v’lo ira
In God’s hand I entrust my spirit, when asleep and when awake,
My body and spirit, God is with me, I shall not fear."
To read full text of rabbi's speech, click here.
The above stanza is found in the last paragraph of the Adon Olam prayer which is recited at the beginning of the daily morning prayers and at bedtime, before retiring.
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