To formulate an attitude toward aging that works for today, Rabbi Wechsler looks back almost two thousand years to the literature of the Talmud and the Midrash. While the Bible says: "Rise up before the white haired and give deference to the old," the Talmud asks why. What is there about old age that should elicit such behavior? Rabbi Wechsler describes the unique role that learning and experience play in creating a society that venerates the old...