Parashat 'Acharei Mot-Kedoshim'

In this week's parashah we are commanded, 'Rise before the aged, and honor the face of the elder,' and this mitzvah is part of our ability to sustain a decent and good world. 'The world belongs to the young,' but alongside them it belongs also to adults and to the elderly and to all of creation. Even one who is no longer sharp, no longer fit, no longer at his best, is part of the sustaining of the world. And his strength and might and his upholding of the world in the years of his youth stand to his credit even in his old age, even when he is not as productive as before; but what has accumulated in his soul is a critical part of the sustaining of the world, even if it is not visible on the outside. And not only does it remain, but it is also refined. Like good wine, the years do not only wear away but also refine. The concepts become purer, the gaze deepens, and the ability to see life with a broad and precise eye becomes sharp precisely out of the time that has passed.