Your most influential decade

The Jerusalem Post reports that a debate rages in Israel over the mandatory retirement age for a chief rabbi.

Some are trying to force the retirement of Schlomo Riskin from his post as chief rabbi in the city of Efrat (near Bethlehem), a lovely Jewish town where I have visited several times.

Riskin is a national and international figure who has attracted controversy because 1) he speaks to many Christian groups saying that he thinks of Jesus as a “model rabbi in many respects,” and 2) he thinks Judaism in past history tried to convert gentiles and ought to continue to do so, at least to ethical monotheism.  It is suspected that the reason why the Chief Rabbinate of Israel is trying to force R Riskin out is not because of his age but because of these views, especially the one on conversion.

I consider R. Riskin a friend.  I worked with him and other scholars for a period of several years (2008-2010) that eventuated in Covenant and Hope, a book  on Jewish-Christian relations that took some giant steps forward on both sides without sacrificing deepest differences.

I was always amazed at the rabbi’s youthfulness.  He was 68 to 70 in those years, yet had the energy of a 30-year-old and the looks of a 50-year-old.  Apparently his energy and looks are not much different now.  But he is 75 now, and the law requires that city rabbis step down at that age, unless they are granted a special extension to the age of 80.

Everyone who knows R. Riskin would say there is no reason not to grant him that extension.  The population of his city loves him and wants him to continue as their chief rabbi.  But now some in Jerusalem have taken issue with his views and are calling for a rigoristic interpretation of the law.

So what is the relation between age and public usefulness?

The Talmud says (according to this Post piece) that “The older Torah scholars become, the greater wisdom increases within them.”

Yet the same passage also cites numerous examples of the physical and emotional toll which old age can take on elderly scholars.  For example, they can forget the difficulties of raising children and judge young families too harshly.

Priests were not given age limits, but according to the Sages, were required to step down once they had physically aged, as signified by a tremble or an inability to stand on one leg while tying their shoes.

These days we would say that spiritual wisdom can be found in the elderly, even if they cannot manage these physical feats.  (At least I hope so.  I am “only” 62 and continue to run long distances, albeit slowly, but don’t think I could tie a shoe while on one foot!)

I like what I was told by a friend, citing a recent study, that one’s most influential decade is one’s sixties.  The second most influential, according to this study, is one’s seventies.  And the third?  One’s fifties.

So if you are in your fifties, you are not at your prime yet.  And if you’re in your thirties, you’re just a babe.