And Israel loved Joseph more
than all his sons, because he was son of his old age (ben zekunim); and
he made him a coat of many colors.
Genesis 37:3
Rebbe
Natan, the spiritual successor of Rebbe Naḥman of Breslov, focuses attention on
the fact that the word zekunim, which is translated as "old
age," is in the plural, explaining that there are two types of old age:
old age of holiness and old age of "the other side" (the satanic
forces of evil). "Old age of the other side" acts to weaken a
person's consciousness, as if he is truly old in his behavior and deeds. That
is, "old age of the other side" is the feeling of physical and
emotional old age which inclines one to accept his spiritual status with no
aspirations to improve himself. Concerning this type of old age, Rebbe Naḥman
commented that it is forbidden to grow old. In contrast, "old age of
holiness" results from acquiring knowledge, as the Sages comment
"'Old' refers only to one who has acquired wisdom." [Babylonian
Talmud, Kiddushin 32b] This true type of old age can indeed overcome the
"old age of the other side."
The
verse describes Joseph as the son of old age because, despite his youth, he had
already reached the level of the true old age, the "old age of
holiness," which endowed him with the ability to subdue and eliminate the
aspect of "old age of the other side."
This Dvar Torah is dedicated to a man who has
achieved old age of holiness, Dov Landau, great-grandfather of our new niece
Eliraz van Lueewen Leiter. Dov survived five years of ghettoes, forced labor
and concentration camps, came on aliya and fought in Israel's War of
Independence, where he was taken prisoner and spent eleven months in a POW camp
in Jordan. As Dov himself says, he was privileged to start a new "tribe"
which now numbers fifty (the number of members of his family who perished in
the Shoah). My blessing to myself is to reach Dov's age in no worse shape and
with his amazing joy of life. May he live in good health until one-hundred-twenty.
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