The Righteous Take Advantage of Old Age: Shaarei Teshuva 2:9 with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] everybody welcome back to the shari truva khabura welcome back a warm welcome to everybody who's joined us online on whatsapp i'm sorry it's on zoom actually on zoom okay and those who are watching on youtube after the fact this is the safer we're using remainder yona unbelievable this is our already our 29th class we're just going deeper and deeper into you know you shouldn't get depressed okay i know that we've discussed this idea wow it's overwhelming but it really shows hashem's steady involvement in our lives you know what i mean the wake-up calls so what we're dealing and what we had dealt with was denial right sometimes we're in a state of denial right cognitive dissonance i'm perfect i got nothing to work on well guess what the older you get the closer you are to the as the clear car commonly uses the word or hanitsuki to that eternal light and it's like a wake-up call you know that this is this world is where you can make everything happen once we pass on to the next world it's static this is the world of accomplishment this is the world of action so now is the time to do what we need to do well before we start i know we started ready but i want to mention also our learning should be dedicated to the refusal name of pinto yoshiyahu yosef ben zakri zarat hashem chevron so now in this world is where we can accomplish everything so the however the the way the robin or yonah is going to talk about it and the psuche talk about and it's interesting because my wife's from jamaica right so the concept of when someone passes away i think they say the person went south or they went west right and the truth is it it's because the sun sets in the southwest i mean at least the northern hemisphere so there's this idea of when the sun is setting and that's a common usage of someone approaching death in tanakh so we're talking about approaching darkness but keep in mind whenever we use that it's just a term it's a symbolic of approaching death not that it's dark right it's it's actually just keep that in mind so there's no depression here when we use that concept and words of darkness by the way so that the basic title of the chapter that we're going to the paragraph we're going to be dealing with today we're only going to be dealing with the second chapter the ninth paragraph so the title would be comparing those in denial with the righteous meaning if you're in denial you're evil i mean look is it really evil or you're just sleeping you know if you have an opportunity in this world to accomplish something and you're not because you're in denial it sounds pretty bad let's call it like it is now even the word rash rasha means noise the word rash is from noise ra means evil but rasha the word rash when you're able to be quiet and listen to the still small voice that means you're in touch with hashem you're in touch with your inner self right but when you have all this rush all this noise all this chaos how can one live your life how can one live their life you know you're just moving through you know just moving you don't really accomplish anything accomplishing anything i mean let's say you really have a good system and you're you know with kevana and thought and there are going to be chaotic times where you're just going through the motions but those are those motions you're going through is because you set yourself a perfect path right that your your legs are taking you through the motions that you need to go through that you've already made a clear decision such as introspection time for prayer right make it in the counting of the soul but bazrat hashem you'll see that so for those who are using the same safer the same book as we're using we're on page 149 now what had we that we discussed this idea of denial in the previous you know even close to death being in complete denial now we're going to talk about how the truly righteous are polar opposite of this now when i said let's not get depressed because this can be a little bit overwhelming when the words he uses describes somebody who is truly righteous so if we don't fit that description that means that we are maybe on the way maybe a little bit truly righteous not completely truly righteous right so let's see what he is to say he says it's a very incredible statement he's making by contrast the righteous people whose hearts are straight and upright they live ready with a constant lion like roar in their thoughts prodding them to improve their ways i mean we're going to talk about having a heavy sense of guilt maybe not sleeping so much at night listen to what he says they will in distress like the storming of the sea about their sins now i just want to preface this right we talked so many times i think we're already familiar with the idea did he sin yeah there was some sin involved it was definitely not adultery right binyamin i'm sorry not reuben rouhani did not sleep with his father's wife right um on and on there's there's there's the more righteous you are the smallest sin is exaggerated it's like under a microscope well that's true from hashem's perspective guess what remember we imitate hashem so the more righteous you are the smallest sin you are completely devastated and bothered over okay you get the idea okay so as we said they wail in distress like the storming of the sea about their sins hashem because they actually feel the it's like it's internalized how short they have fallen in their service to hashem they desire to be perfect now they have to remember that you have to have a lot of self-compassion and for those men who will be watching this later this is why you have to be married women are yeah they have a lot of din it's true but they also know and um share at least my wife does a lot of self-compassion so at the same time as being a true evidence sham and trying to work hard you need to take a breath you need to have a a a positive sense of of worth and i believe that uh women will help the men in that regard anyway let's go on there the herba ashmont now on account of this idea of falling short in the surface of god the person sometimes is considered just as much as a sinner and accumulates just as much as much guilt again it's not true but someone has to realize that the more righteous they are they realize they have to have a good perspective right you can't blow up a small sin to the most tragic thing on a on a objective level you have to know this is subjective from where you're holding from where you're at in life this could be tragic right you've you've said the wrong thing to somebody now they say no it didn't bother me at all but you feel devastated over right so that means you have to work on this right it doesn't mean you have to sell your whole business and give him hundreds of thousand dollars millions of dollars because it didn't even bother him but you know that it was inappropriate on your level okay as i mentioned king david right what a what a horrible sin that we consider that he did when he he didn't even sleep with a married woman right yet we that so he he feels this righteous person feels as for transgressing the most severest of sins even though that obviously wasn't what happened like it says in gamora giga in the action in the first in the first um in the first temple period right we know that we violated the big three right uh murder and um illicit relations also idol worship but hashem was willing to overlook he actually was willing to overlook two of those greatest sins two of what called the three cardinal sins um there's a very interesting comment here number one and that's from the prophet jeremiah will read so jeremiah was the one who prophesized about the downfall of of the first temple period and was giving giving rebuke he says who is the wise man who will understand this that he may explain it for what reason did the land perish all right so let's look at the over who is the man so wise and he can understand this and who is he to whom the mouth of the lord has spoken that he may declare it this is jeremiah chapter 9 verses 11 and 12. why is the land ruined and withered like a wilderness without anyone passing through next verse and the lord said you know what the answer is because they have forsaken my law my torah which i set before them and have not hearkened to my voice nor walked by it now try to get this into your head because we're we're all human we're all flesh and bones right we all have desires we all have you know in the gates of iran but if you know that you need to grow you need to join a kabura like this you need to learn torah then hashem will overlook in fact just to get the idea of the para people think atonement forgiveness what does the word mean what does kapoor mean kapari means a covering hashem is willing to overlook so if you're growing if you're actually growing that's all that hashem wants you're moving up you're developing the relationship so yes there's stumbling blocks on the way there's mistakes on the way but he's willing to overlook those mistakes provided that you join a hebora that you join a toro group that you are studying his words so you could obviously grow that's the go that's the goal of learning right in order to perform in order to do so this is a very interesting idea here that the i that the what what the rabino yona is bringing down is that we for so we pursue learning the torah and that's what caused ultimate tragedy of the destruction and of the first temple and the exile i hope that's clear um i'll just read the words he has as here we find that during the first temple era the holy one blessed be temporarily overlooked the sins of illicit relations and murder but did not overlook the sin of neglecting torah study we see then that the falling short in performing missiles because that's the whole idea of sinning is falling short is sometimes treated more severely than committing the worst transgressions the righteous therefore worry about this constantly meaning yeah what did i do what did i do that's fine but if you don't even know what you did that's why learning torah is so important i'll just bring two ideas one is as we said when tragedy falls and we have to ask ourselves what did i do examine your actions and if you can't figure it out chalk it up to not learning enough torah truth is women also have to learn the torah that they need to know in order to perform the tour what they have obligations to do as well um then there was another idea i wanted to bring down and it will come to me but i just forgot for i just got it for the moment but i will remember bizarre okay given the severity of falling short in one's performance of mitzvahs those who do not adopt the above attitude of the righteous are surely deficient so this is the idea it's the attitude of wanting to not don't be satisfied with making mistakes know that there's a way to improve them and that is through learning and dedicating yourself to learning torah but also not being comfortable with the fact that even a small mistake allow it to be exaggerated to whatever extent or whatever level you're on so here we go milo raw onoshima karma surely filled with evil then are those people the bulk of whose activities and thoughts you know what their problem is they're devoted to physical desires right the desires of the body and heave lays money waste of time futilities and also they're they're not occupied with soul concepts right s-o-u-l right they're not i think this is really what you know people ask me what is what does it mean to be spiritual right if you know you have a soul and you're trying to perfect it or you're trying not to go down because the salt is already in a good state to start with you want to do everything you can not to soil your soul so you delve into um you know torah study which has to do with the fear of heaven so these people don't even consider it it's not even on their minds i had a hard time with translation all these words translating all these words but i'll read how he translated translates it nor do they allow their souls to focus on arousing their consciousness to contemplate fear of heaven which also is what i spoke earlier about having that time for silence and to contemplate what is on your heart and let's see how he translates it in the innermost chambers of their hearts in solitude at set times this is very very important whether it's time for prayer whether it's meditation i don't know what you call it it's even studying torah and then taking time to process what you learn right i know people just run from one class to another what about process time right you need process time they give torah no share in their activities again you're sitting on a bus or maybe in jerusalem it's much easier you can talk torah to the person sitting next to you right um just ask questions about the parsha to to people strangers on the street what's the problem right you see somebody sure hey you have an answer to this question i mean whatever anything anything to a torah the idea is to absorb and to live it and to have it on your mind um give torah actually i'm just saying the opposite these people give no torah a share in their activities here one should um i'm sorry ubi will meek libon right and all the source of soul searching which i told you is a very important idea it's vanished from their hearts it's like they don't even think twice well don't you ever think wow that was strange when i said something to that person they gave me a look well maybe it's something i said i mean yeah you can always blame the other person right that's the easy way right go through life blaming everyone else for their problems maybe i caused it maybe just ask yourself could it have been something and even ask a third party who might have witnessed it did i did i respond okay to that person because they walked off crying it's like yeah man you said that like you know the worst thing you could have ever said no kidding but uh you do have to make this money this is a concept they're considered a nation bereft of council um and that's stylistic based on the commission means the lowest level right these kind of people are entrenched in the lowest level of the existence remember the greatest clown the clog all right i'd love to love your neighbor as yourself okay how do we understand it means don't do unto others which you wouldn't want done unto you i mean that's the greatest um you know way of measuring it right would i want someone saying that to me would i want somebody acting like that to me it's very hard because we don't know what other people love and enjoy so it's like it was all about just giving other people pleasure and enjoyment there would be no end right but it's an easier gauge to at least know what a normal person would not want oh yeah i love when people step on my toes well then you know you need a doctor you know what i mean a psychiatrist of some sort but okay i think they have a special name for that right masochistic or sadness anyway okay let's continue we're on the the bottom of page 150. robina returns to the topic of being spurred spurred like edged on to do true upon reaching i'll use the words old age right old age i don't know today what it used to be 50 then it turned 60 now 70 maybe even 80 right but there's a pasik i mean not a positive there's a perky a vote so let's use perky vote um it's in chapter five uh mishna 21. let's use that as our um do i have it here i know i have it here somewhere here now the the previous mission i guess pistol 20 is written is taught by ben bagbag okay ben bagbag so the next mission is says what he used to say and it's towards the end so bear with us he used to say that five years is the age where you begin to study scripture 10 for the study of mishnah 13 the obligation to observe the mitzvoth 15 for the study of talmud 18 for marriage 20 to pursue a livelihood 30 for strength 40 for understanding 50 for council so i guess we're getting close to all of our age i i don't know i don't know i think heather's probably the youngest but anyway 50 for council 60. so the truth is i don't really understand this english but the hebrew is um the zika 60 is zika which means elderly myth it doesn't mean really old old age it's just elderliness in fact it really synonymous with wisdom right as a con a beard which none of you guys have i hope right is uh is symbolic of wisdom for some reason okay or old you know okay then she named the seva which really means how do they translate it here and for elderliness it really means like white hair i know many women they're allowed to color their hair to make themselves look younger and more beautiful and men actually so those men listening you should know it's forbidden i mean you could talk to your local orthodox rabbi about how and when maybe in certain cases but basically it's forbidden to dye your hair um you know to make yourself look younger but so that has to do with wisdom in fact in the buses in israel right behind the the bus driver or maybe there's a few other special seats near the other doors that says this is reserved for the elderly but it's in hebrew based on this possible that you're supposed to stand up that you're supposed to respect the elderly it really means the wise because even if they don't have white hair but they're of 70 years old we stand up for them okay so that's it then schmo when you reach 80 degree which is strength then when you hit 90 it is depends uh how we which text you have but it's referring to here it says to stoop but it's not to stoop it's um i shouldn't say that there's an opinion like that the suac means prayer but anyway to stoop means like bent over 90 person is um most likely i shouldn't say in all cases but in many cases um it's very hard for them to stand up these walkers and canes and whatnot and a hundred years old it's as if you already passed into the next world and you're not even here anymore all right it doesn't sound very nice but let's go into what the uh roberto yost rubino yona has to say about this he does mention i'll use his words 60 year old reaches old age and 70 year old is called ripe old age and an 80 year old reaches the age of strength that doesn't really mean the age of strength means if you're strong as king david said you'll you know the strong will reach 80. 90 year old has reached the age of prayer and he talks about the different language whether it's but we'll talk enable talk about it now i will get i think we'll get across to it like when yitzhak goes down to the field to pray yeah we'll talk about we'll get to it so let's um but it means you walk through the streets usually these little kids come over to you and they want to use your phone this is very common in israel you know so they'll say like they want to borrow your phone to have a conversation with their parents obviously they're not calling their friends it could be someone they're meeting up with but um is a conversation a hundred year old is generally so weak and infirm that it is though he passed away and ceased from the world okay so let's go back into the text he will discuss all these ideas from the barack obama so the rabbis the great rabbis of blessed memory spoke about these words lahazir al-etcheva again the idea was don't wait right that says do truva a day before you die if you if you're 70 you're 20 years old oh yeah i got all the time in the world well it's not true right if you're supposed to do true the day before you die you're supposed to realize you're not immortal i mean any god forbid i mean people do get sick people do get seriously injured in accidents people don't have to go through it you know what i mean but this is an alert to alert people about the importance of doing truva as they grow older so that as you're reaching these days of old age at least by the time you're 60 you're going to give serious thought about your end now the truth is we we talked about the the the punishment called karet karate means being cut off there's different opinions what that means i think a more metaphysical sense it means being cut off from the jewish people but at least in this world that's in the world to come but in this world many of the rabbis have explained it means a dying and early death now what age is that what's considered early there's some say not before 52. if you live 52 you've passed car race most hold it at 60. and many people make a big kiddush a big party usually we don't celebrate birthdays but uh at 60 it's a big it's a big deal that you've that you didn't pass away because of karate guys you ever heard of that one before no never heard that one okay now you did and meaning if you didn't merit to do in your youth again the idea of doing truva and staying righteous right so very nice god forbid someone sinned but they broke hashem they came around and they're living a clean sober you know holy life again there's always temptations along the road right you really don't know until you finish this life if you've really accomplished true the way you're supposed to but the best thing the best time to do truva and it's really meaningful we talked about this already when you have the desires when you're strong when you're young the ahref and then he comes through so if he didn't do it when he was young but he comes through the realization when he's closer to the end again we know we never know what that time that is but at least you know you're close to 60 and onward so right this is the time to abandon your preoccupation with your physical wants and your desires and turn instead to focusing on rectifying your soul so i just want to emphasize this is not only for the elderly right this whole idea is while we're young but if we failed or if we didn't focus we were distracted which many people are through their uh we'll call midlife right whether it's rearing your kids which believe me if you're so focused and you're spiritually inclined that's the best thing your kids can have right everyone just oh i have to work like workaholic because this is all that matters at the moment you're destroying you know you're destroying your kid's future you have to be i never say what you have to do but i'm going to tell you you have to be god focused through your whole life so if you if one failed in the early parts of their life it's never too late okay and that's really what this idea is about now roberto yeon explains the next part of the mishnah ube when you reach that age of 70 which we said is a ripe old age yosef the garesh melibo indian oil so then you're you're banishing it's like you're banishing the the physical world you're you're kind of i don't know let's say growing out of it to a certain extent hopefully right and lithium and as the years are continuing you know they're getting fewer and fewer so too you're less inclined for all the physical desires right you're gonna if you're gonna buy a yacht if you're gonna buy a plane a private plane you might as well do it in your 20s and 30s i mean you know you're going to spend your whole uh old age doing that no yeah yours hashem but rather what should you concentrate on as you get older trying to increase in your frequency and sitting in solitude and contemplating the fear of hashem the lake show the nav show kain midotav torah and mitzvos right ha levi we should be doing this our whole life but as the sun is drawing close to sunset right so you it's time to make a reckoning with your soul and improve your character traits and seek opportunities to do torah missus which you know in the when i was growing up they had this thing called tm tm so i think they called it uh transcendental meditation but i i say no no it's torad mitsu's tm you're you really want to get close to hashem it's tm not the i mean whatever i don't know it's a religion i don't know what it is but let's say of course true translation is good whatever they have i have no idea anyway let's continue we're now on page 152. right remember this idea in the mishnah that when you reach 90 it's for less what is that so there's a few there's two verses we want to use here for proof and that you'll find in psalms 102 verse it says a prayer for a poor man when he wraps himself and pours out his speech before the lord he pours out his speech look in the hebrew hashem he's pouring out and we know what is sikho how do we translate a speech what does it really mean look in genesis chapter 24 verse 63 24 63 of genesis isaac went forth to pray in the field towards evening interesting towards eve because that means the afternoon prayer abraham invented discovered tapped into the power of chakrite yitzchak isaac tapped in invented the power they tapped into the power and instituted the minha the midday prayer and eyes and yaakov he invented discovered tapped into the evening prayer so here he went forward to pray in the mid in the field towards the evening which is the late afternoon he lifted his eyes and saw him behold camels were approaching but the hebrew is the yeah to speak to point out a speech this is prayer so when we're talking about someone's 90 years old it's a time to really uh to get in touch with with prayer obviously you have your whole life before that but it's also okay fine commercial pair is another broccoli like the rabbis explain and gemar brocco's 26b here it is like it says vietnam let's go on after you've reached that age of 90 the person is usually too weak to be involved with mitzvahs that require physical exertion look we should all be well right when we say someone should live to the age of 120 we're not blessing them we're not wishing them that they should actually lift 120. what we're saying is that you should be healthy and together in the brain until the very day that you die moses died at 120 and moses says he was strong like he was 20 years old he was he was vibrant he had everything together right he was as strong as he was when he was young as as when he was 120. so when we're saying you should live to 120 we're saying that you should be so vibrant when you're old right you should have your physical width you should have your mental width everything should be healthy uh in in every area so um where did i leave off here okay so what happens when someone reaches 90. look there's all everyone's difference right there's some people you couldn't even tell they're like you ever see rabbi torsku passed away recently i mean he was 96. the man was with that he could he could push his wheelchairs what do you call it the walker he could be at the other end of the street before you even turn around right i mean that man was on fire this is what we're talking about be on fire but ever everyone's different everyone has sometimes it's a pain just to walk to take a step but this rat hashem someone should have that kind of coch that kind of power so he says the reason that is referred to as such that once a person reaches the very old age of 90. he usually is too old too weak to be involved in mitzvah require physical exertion even his mental faculties are often too dulled for him to be involved in serious torah study look there's no quick way there's no guarantee that one would not get dementia alzheimer's these are things sometimes it's in the dna it's just hereditary it could be your diet i have no idea but i did notice that those who are involved in torah study even though they have some level of dementia they're on the page it's unbelievable because you have long-term memory the short-term memory for many is gone but i learned with people in their 80s and they know it's like not just review they're going deeper and they're there like in the present tense because even though they learned it their whole life right they learn torah their whole life they're awake it actually enhances their life it's it's like the highlight of their day because that's something they remember you know what i mean so i'm not saying it's a guarantee for anything i'm not giving a any doctor advice but i will give rabbi advice right it it's it's helpful to study when you're young and of course sometimes the only thing you can do when you get older is be involved in torah study and unfortunately unfortunately sometimes even that could be overwhelming for some roi loliyot called isuke filos hashem so what's what's left if they can't even study torah that's that's why they should pray because they can't even accomplish anything meaningful when it comes to actual studying therefore it's appropriate that he occupy himself with nothing but prayers singing the praises of hashem and speaking about his wonders how levi we should be on that level if only we could all be on that level right when we're 90 and onward king solomon himself said um uh the diva allah vashallah zika he talked about old age you shouldn't become lazy right it's true that there's a diminishing of the vigor that comes along with agent aging but a person should do everything he can not to slacken so there's a verse in ecclesiastes 11 6. let's see [Applause] in the morning sow your seed now what's that going to refer to in while you're young that's the time to act have children and in the evening as your life progresses towards the sunset do not withhold your hand don't give up stay energetic stay involved for you know not which will succeed this one or that one or whether both of them will be equally good so look somebody who's let's say they're 60 70 80. a man let's talk about a man for example just because he's his wife passed on to the next world and he already has children for the first marriage he should actually continue to try to have children okay maybe that's asking too much for a big sacrifice for a woman like listen everybody make their own choices if it's in the cards right if it's in the cards so it's like uh rabbi torski for example when he had lost his first wife he got married a second time i believed the second marriage his wife was over 50 i don't think he was trying to have any any more children but if you're uh there's no reason not to try if you're able to that's all i'm saying and that's what one of these ideas are i'll read rashi if you learn torah in your youth learn torah in your old age if you had disciples in your youth you should have disciples in your old age if you married a woman of child bearing age in your youth you should marry a woman of child bearing age in your old age okay it's it's not going to happen to most people right it's just not but anyway it's a possibility and we shouldn't um look down on these if it happens if you performed acts of kindness in your youth perform acts of kindness in your old age because you don't know which one's gonna succeed the children you had when you were young okay i'm gonna say you were young and stupid but inexperienced right there was a lot of inexperience when we were young and we had children when we were young and you know what now we're older and now we're more experienced and i want to just let you know students are your children so it doesn't literally mean you also have to go and you know try to have more children if you already you know but don't stop learning torah don't stop doing acts of kindness your your deeds later on could be much more successful in many ways because of your experience yeah so don't give up from trying okay so let's go back to the text we read this verse these two verses really one verse verse six in the morning sow your seed in the evening do not be idle for you cannot know which will succeed this or that or whether both will be equally good so the romanian goes on himself the idea is that the early part of your life that's compared to the morning your days of youth and adulthood i'm sorry the days of youth is to the morning whereas the the the um the old age is referred to as the evening the hazara derek mashall labani vitamin the idea of seeding is a metaphor for both children and students remember students are your children kamosha amru is like it says in the morning 62 b even if one married a woman and had children in his youth meaning when he was younger he should still bury a woman and have children in his old age right we're talking about er when you have um a wife who passed away of course um so too likewise even if you have developed students where you were young you were a teacher don't give up teaching you're wiser right you're you probably learned quite a lot you're even more value more valuable teachers you get paid triple what you got paid when you were younger and you were inexperienced he should still develop students in his old age but because you're probably i'm adding that word you're going to probably be much more successful in your old age than you were when you were younger and we're talking about especially in torah mitzvahs so too the students you develop in your old age will probably be more successful than ones you did when you developed when you were young or at least the same maybe you didn't grow which was cabal but i'm sure you did i'm sure you have quite a lot of experience right can imagine taking a school teacher when she taught first grade when she was 21 years old and now she's teaching 12 12th graders and she's in her 50s come on just imagine the experience it's invaluable right or a nurse or a doctor right first surgery i don't know if your hands are shaking i imagine let's say not but your heart is shaking right and so then after a hundred i don't know or a thousand or tens of thousands of heart surgeries you can do it blindfolded right and that doctor would be most desirable right if god we're talking about a major surgery and we would we would try if we had the ability to choose a doctor who has not yet performed the surgery or has however many under his belt i'm sure i'm sure there's no doubt we would choose the more experienced doctor okay the acrylic ammar afterwards now we're actually going in we're dealing with the same idea in ecclesiastes chapter 11 verse now verse 7. we did six right chapter 11 6 and the light is sweet and it is good for the eyes to see the sun right now we're talking about the light is good the toad lane i'm and it's good for the eyes the liro enters to see the sun s-u-n i have to emphasize s-u-n i don't know just in case someone's listening and has the wrong idea um pirush what does that verse mean this idea is going back on the idea of of old age right someone is towards the towards the the sun setting did i skip something one second yeah the explanation is the verse is not beginning a new topic but it's king solomon is now speaking about old age which is com which compared the previous verse to the evening they came because of this now this i can't imagine right i didn't have covet but i heard through the grapevine to the doctors through people who've had it that you lose your sense of taste and i know that smell smell at least taste anyway can you imagine the older you get now i don't know if this is really true but i know that many of the older people that i have contact with they enjoy their their jello their porridge their um um you know the the softer foods of life but uh he's saying that you can lose your taste it's not the same as when you're young i mean i can imagine if you don't have teeth you're not gonna you're not interested in a nice steak you know what i mean so it's just not the same chomping down i think the part of when i eat a steak which is rare i just have tight it's very rare but when i do the enjoyment is the chewing it right so if the older you get i'm not so sure how enjoy and how much enjoyment you get from chewing as you may get from slurping some jello anyway but he's claiming that you lose this when you get older now there is a verse in the torah that that proves this the question is is it scientifically proven in second samuel chap in second samuel chapter 19 verse 36 um barzillai the guillotine is speaking he says i'm 80 years old this day can i still discern between good and bad or can you serve and taste what i eat and drink or can i listen to the voice of singers and strong song stresses why then should your servant be yet a burden to my lord the king okay um this just a comment over there when king david was fleeing from his rebellious son of shalom barzillai assisted dove and his men after abshalom's rebellion was put on down david wanted to reward bart's life with his kindness he offered him an opportunity to live with him in jerusalem by the way tonight is jerusalem day that's the 28th which is the 28th is 28th of the yard uh the unity of you shalom but anyway he wanted he invited him i'm inviting all you guys to come and live in new slime too but who am i king dave was putting him up in the palace right so imagine living in the palace you get all the luxuries and he thought listen how old was he he was pretty old i think he was in his 90s so what's the point what's the point of give it to someone else i'm not going to be able to enjoy it right you're going to give me all this great food and uh it's basically here he says he would live in you shalom with all his needs taken care of in turn in turning down this offer bars like claim that his old age would prevent him from truly benefiting from david's generosity at one point he says i am 80 years old today right we said that in the positive that's how it began does your servant taste what i eat or drink this indicates that a person's ability to taste food and drink diminishes it's not completely gone but at some point it becomes diminishing okay here we go i kind of lost my place here we go to olaf basically we explained already king solomon therefore stated that an old person should at the very least take pleasure in the sunlight right that's why they have in these old age homes they take them out and they sit and they bask in the sunlight at least they can enjoy and really that's that's what they should do right what did we learn over the last year and a half not to be locked down in your house get out into the sunlight right because vitamin d which is free from the sun is extremely healthy and necessary and especially for the the older people it's just just sitting there having some some enjoyment from the sun and that's the um that's what king solomon the wisest man who ever lived is making this suggestion especially if so that the person does not become disgusted with his life right we pray to hashem don't forget me don't abandon me when i become old right so it could be very frustrating maybe not being able to see your grandchildren great-grandchildren maybe maybe you're alone maybe you live in a different city you're not much family uh whatever it's it's it's it's it's a big test right everything in life's a test and just because you're on pension and everything's taken care of for you doesn't mean you still have challenges in life and one of them is not to be you know my mother always says you know when you wake up in the morning and you feel some pains and you know what i mean it means you're alive right so i know that uh it could be disheartening right oh my god i'm getting older i'm getting older but this is the whole idea know that you have to do truva know that there's still work to do and that's what he says and for being disgusted with life holds a person back from heaven's work meaning the service a service of god the arrest the light of the sun while your s-u-n the light of the sun a relatively minor pleasure though it is will be sweet to the old person when he compares it to the upcoming days of darkness again i mentioned it's not really darkness it's just symbolic of death okay now we're going to read verse 8. we did ecclesiastes 11 6 11 7 and now 11 8 for if a man lives many years let him rejoice in them all and let him remember the days of darkness for they will be many all that befalls him is vanity now what does it mean kim shanim as we said even if a man lives many years let him rejoice in all of them let him remember that the coming days of darkness will be many all that comes is utility pirish what does it mean what does it mean that even if the person becomes extremely old and no longer enjoys what you the person used to enjoy he should enjoy he should be sure not to lose the zest of life and become even a burden to himself of course i think it's very difficult when you feel you start burning on everyone else how are you not a burden ah the the advice here is to be in a state of joy he should rema remain happy through all his years and try to enjoy whatever small pleasures you have i know that the the older people they they talk amongst themselves about the accomplishments of their children and their grandchildren i'm sure they've all just repeat the same stories about the colleges they went through the successes they had but it brings such joy to them and you have to constantly remind yourself to have that enjoyment so that not one of the years go to waste and he never ceases from serving hashem the use and in order to increase the appreciation of being alive even in the old age you should remember that the upcoming again days of darkness will be many and there's a verse in psalm 6 6 psalms that's to hillary for there is no memory of you in death in the grave who will thank you right we cannot praise hashem any longer all the praises we give to hashem is while we're in this world but the idea is there's no memory of you in death what does that mean um and then he will be unable to serve hashem this is this is the this is the life this is where we have light okay the light the opportunities are here i think that's his point rebecca now describes how the righteous a pray approach old age okay so we're all young right so let's find out the proper way to appreciate and approach when the righteous grow old they summon inner power right the outer power is weakened right you're not running around riding on your motorcycle and jumping i don't know you know doing all the stuff you used to do when you're young big right they summon inner power gird themselves with strength and become re in reinvigorated with the service of hashem it's all about the inner work at this point so it says in the gemara shabbos the rabbis explain the it's like wine right the older the torah scholar gets the more in wisdom increases in them hopefully right if the person is the shame shaman he really worked on himself when he was young so if they're taught a scholar they only get better with age this applies to everybody obviously whatever level you're on rebecca yon explains the verse conveys a similar a verse that can stick conveys a similar message and that's in psalms 90 to 15. they will yet grow in old age fat and fresh will they be oh this is what we sing on friday night on your noodle in the seva the shannon iran and you and i translated already they they will still be fruitful in ripe old age vigorous and fresh they will be but then it goes on this girl tamar yifra this is actually in verses 13 and 14. we just read um 92-15 but go back and i didn't actually print the whole thing here sorry for myself a righteous person a righteous man will flourish like a date palm in other words it's going back on the previous verse like a cedar lebanon he will grow tall planted in the house of hashem in the courtyards of our god they will flourish hashem rayhem who's righteous they planted themselves in the house house of hashem when they were still young right for all those people were still young this is the time and grow in the houses of study in their early adulthood while they're still young put time aside like we're doing now to learn katamar shiyifrokh this is again what we sing friday night this is in psalms and 92 it's uh verses 13 and 14. like a flourishing date palm and like a cedar that grows in lebanon and the sages also mentioned in midges to hillam based on this verse what is the mischaturnbeit hashem planted in the house of god elah tanookas these are the children these are while you're still young like saplings al derek masjid similar in psalms 144 verse 12 for our sons our children are like saplings grown up in their youth our daughters are like cornerstones praised as the form of the temple what does that mean well our sons are like saplings nurtured from their youth and then what does it say afterwards you know king david because he wrote psalms after having compared the righteous in their youth to trees and he goes on to say that in the following respect and regard to their condition their old age the righteous are not compared to trees now this i didn't know the older the tree is he's claiming they no longer bear fruit i spoke to someone to say that the the um the the quality of the fruit the amount of the fruit will diminish so that must be what it is okay that um the quality in the end and the quantity uh no longer bear their fruit it may be true that they don't bear fruit is all part of the same song while the righteous remain productive in the spiritual realm even in the ripe old age so the older you are you're not compared to a tree because the tree either no longer bears fruit or it diminishes and hopefully we will continue to grow in our strength and our voters hashem and be on fire so amazing you know to certain very religious communities you know we don't put our old people away like some of the secular i'm not trying to diminish the secular i'm just saying there's many that just don't have the time and they put them in some kind of a home many in the most religious neighborhood maybe they can't afford it but i know that they know it's a mitzvah it's a big misfortune of taking care of your parents in their old age and they want them at home and you can see you could see with the children running around the homes and these old the older people are there it's not like you're sitting with just a bunch of like older cockers you know these old people talking about the good old days they're living it even though they're sitting on the sidelines in the house watching it's uh and and those who are able to get up and walk around and do whatever they do you can see the you can see the energy the life force it's just the most amazing thing um that's what i wanted to say about that and in keeping with the description of the righteous elderly king david hoped and prayed for his own old age would be dedicated to serve hashem as it says in psalm 71 18 and says and even until old age and hoary hairs o god do not forsake me right in the shema khalena we say in other prayers we beg hashem do not abandon me in my old age until i tell you of the strengthened generation to everyone who comes your might this idea of king david himself prayed that he should not be forgotten by hashem and the meaning the inner strength would still be there of course the physical health should be there as well but up here and here so with rajasham next week we won't have a class because of shivohuis but resurrection will continue the following week so what i do is i turn the camera off now and i take any comments from the the peanut gallery on zoom so in the meantime haksamer right um have a great life continue to grow in torah and uh we'll continue this bazrat hashem you'll see us in a few weeks [Music] yes is