Synagogue Life Committee

The Synagogue Life Committee provides special services and programming to the BethEl community. It coordinates our Community of Caring, whose mission is to provide meals to new parents or grieving families, and support to members who are house-bound or bedridden.

Recent programs and projects have included the Beth El Member Photo Directory and the Torat Z’kenim/Torah of the Elders.

Community of Caring – No meetings to attend; only wonderful mitzvot to perform. Can you occasionally provide a meal for the bereaved, ill or new parents in our community? Are you available to bring community members to Beth El for services? Do you need a ride to services? If you can help those in need regularly or occasionally, or if you need assistance yourself, please contact Mardi, 932-5663 or the office, 682-1238

Torat Z’kenim/Torah of the Elders: A Purpose and A Program

The third installment of our Torah of the Elders/Torat Z'kenim,
honored longtime Beth El member
Sidney David Markman on May 31,2007.
An archeologist and architectural historian, Dr. Markman showed slides of Spain's vanquished Jewish community, and shared stories of his life in the Old World and the New — his forays into Central America and his lifelong commitment to Judaism.

Purpose: Torat Z’kenim/Torah of the Elders

In his work, The Force of Character, James Hillman makes a claim on behalf of old age.  There is a reason why we live so far beyond our capacity to reproduce, past the height of our physical powers—in short, past “usefulness”.  Old age is the time for the presentation of character.  We do not develop character in the sense of creating something new.  Rather, we lay bare that character that is “etched” (the Greek word for “character” means “etched”) into us from the very beginning.

It is how we think about our lives that is important:  “… we need imaginative ideas that can grace aging and speak to it with the intelligence that it deserves.” (p.xiii).  We need to make a metaphor of biology.  The making of metaphor—better, the summoning of metaphor is a function of soul for Hillman.  Meaning making and soul making are the overlapping activities that characterize our most reflective postures, our most insightful moments.

Soul functions at its highest and best, Hillman teaches elsewhere, against a backdrop of mortality.  Is it possible that the old or, the old souls, or, those with shortened life expectancies have a greater capacity for soul making?  Is it possible that the old among us—by virtue of their steady presence among us—are the lightning rods that draws down soul meaning among us?  How can we fail to realize that Torat Z’kenim, the Torah of our elders is a treasure not to be overlooked?

The two rabbinic texts that follow point us towards the special importance of Torat Z’kenim/Torah of the Elders:

If there are no little ones then there are no grown-ups.  If there are no grown-ups there are no students.  If there are no students there are no sages.  If there are no sages there are no elders.  If there are no elders there is no Torah…  ( Im einn z’keinim, ein Torah)

(Esther Rabbah Petihta #11)

When the Blessed Holy One revealed himself on Mt. Sinai to give the Torah to Israel He appeared to them as none other than an elder.  What is the reasoning behind this?  It is written,  “In the elderly resides wisdom and discernment in the long-lived” (Job 12:12).

(Pesikta Rabbati 21:4)

If there are no sages there are no elders.  If there are no elders/z’keinim there is no Torah.   In the developmental stages of living and learning,  elders take their place after the sages.  Certainly, the sages are the custodians of Torah!  What is the critical difference between the Torah of the sages and the Torah of the elders?  Perhaps we could say that the Torah of the elders is the lived, enacted, embodied Torah that requires transmission through the seasoned and experienced among us.  The Torah of the Elders/Torat Z’keinim, is a Torah of long-lived presence; a Torah of witness, of continuity, of lasting:  “In the elderly resides wisdom; and discernment in the long-lived”.   That is to say, her very presence embodies the wisdom of traditions.  His life teaches of endurance, of constancy in good times and in bad.  They, in the years that stretch beyond rearing and “careering,” reveal a most important a Torah: Career is not a life’s work.  Life is a life’s work.

We need elders and their Torah,  heroes of aging because actuarial tables, insurance company and health club indices inform but do not inspire us; they speak of restrictions and say nothing of expansiveness.  They warn but do not warm us concerning the life that might be ours if we are fortunate enough to live long enough.

James Hillman, in The Force of Character, points out that “elder/old” means “nourished”.  It is to this state of being that we aspire, against which we measure ourselves throughout life:  “How old is the baby?”   How much “oldness,” how much world nourishment is in this one?  We need elders, “nourished ones” whose lives nourish the community.  Without them there is no hope for a future generation of elders.  Regardless of how many sages we have, without the elders there is a lack of Torah.

Program:

Torat Z’kenim is a project to shape community around the elders in our midst.  We hope to draw together those eager to learn the particular skills, insights, stories and wisdom of our elders.

We plan to consult with elders of our community in order to find the particular Torah that she, or he, has to offer to the community.  We will construct a program best suited to the teaching of that Torah.  Each event will involve a special circle of “youngers” who share the same interest, skill, etc.  In this way, we hope to bridge generations, honor a Torah that can best be taught by living it.  We hope to give our elders their rightful place as leaders and teachers among us.