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What can the elderly offer us? They can offer us the wisdom of the ages as related in the following Biblical narrative. The Torah teaches us that when the Jewish people were leaving Egypt everyone was gathering gold and jewels from the Egyptians, whereas Moshe Rabeinu was searching for Yosefs bones.He had promised that he would bring them out of Egypt and bury them in Israel. How did Moshe find the hidden bones of Joseph? Not through prophecy nor through prayer. He asked the one person who was still alive at the time, Serach Bat Asher. She was extremely old but she has the wisdom of old age; she pointed to the Nile where Josephs coffin lay. The lesson is clear - the elderly hold in their hands the wisdom of the ages and the secrets of the depths of time.

I had a client in his nineties who had spent a large part of his life on board ships. I came across some newspaper clippings of his.They told the story about when he was a younger man during the height of ww11 and that he was called on to inspect a ship which was to transport Jews from Europe to the Holy Land. This ship was later to become known as the "Exodus". My client said that at the time he was examining the ship he thought it was nothing more than a "scary tub".This ship was originally called " The President Warfield"

I felt it was a great merit to be helping someone in his later years who had had such a rich involvement in our modern Jewish history.

The Talmud Bavli in Masechta Taanit discusses the obligation of giving honor to a wise sholar who has forgot his learning through no fault of his own. We learn to have this respect from the broken Luchot (tablets). This set of tablets was never discarded. Instead they were placed with the second set of luchot in the Holy Ahron Hakodesh. The broken tablets represent the Torah scholar who has forgotten his learning. Since he once had that knowledge he is due to be given honor even though now he has lost it. I feel that the elderly in many ways also represent these broken Luchot and as such must too be accorded the appropriate honor.

Rav Simcha Wasserman explains in his teachings that a person who is a giver is alive whilst a person who is simply a taker is as if he is dead. He gives a parable to demonstrate this concept.

There are two main bodies of water in the land of Israel, the Kineret and the dead sea. The Kineret gives out its waters to others and as such it is teaming with life. The Dead sea on the other hand gives out nothing, and as such remains stagnant and dead. We must - in the words of Rabbi Haber in the name of Rav Pinchas Sheinberg - live for others!. We must be aware that when it comes to the elderly we have to be sensitive to the fact that they may feel they have nothing to give. It is crucial to encourage and reassure them in a genuine manner that they have a great deal still to offer.