Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

May 15, 2025

Elders Have Forgotten That They Are Owed the Respect of the Young

Offering something steady and timeless in a world that feels increasingly unmoored.

In a talmudic passage made famous by a reference in the Haggadah, the eighteen-year-old Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah undergoes a sudden transformation to appear like a seventy-year-old-man—a divine intervention to give him the gravity to take on the position of head of the Sanhedrin. Today, most would see this miracle as a curse, which is a sign of a culture where the virtue of reverence for the elderly has been flipped on its head. Robert Henderson recalls an experience from his college days:

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