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Cornelius
Sweden
1051 Posts |
 Posted - 20 Jan 2007 : 20:33:54
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I got this one by e-mail from Donald one of my senior family members living in the USA and a good friend of my late grandpa Louis.
” An Old Man
An elderly man in North Carolina had owned a large farm for several years. He had a large pond in the back, fixed up really nice, along with some picnic tables, horseshoe courts, and some apple and peach trees. The pond was properly shaped and fixed up for swimming when it was built.
One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn't been there for a while, and look it over. He grabbed a five gallon bucket to bring back some fruit.
As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee. When he came closer, he realized it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond. He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end to shield themselves.
One of the women shouted to him, "We're not coming out until you leave!"
The old man frowned and replied, "I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked." Holding the bucket up he said, "I'm here to feed the alligator."
Moral of the story: Old men may move slow but can still think fast. ”
In one of the commentaries to this week’s Torah Portion PARASHAS VAEIRA (I used the Stone Chumash, Rashi, Sforno, and Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin's "Insights in the Torah"from which you too may read his commentary (page 71) on the line ”Moses was eighty years old”
” People are accustomed to rest in their old age. Even government employees are put on pension, to spend the remainder of their days in rest and satisfaction. That is what the gentiles are accustomed to do, and those of our people who have learned from them. But it is not the way of our sages and leaders: the older they get the harder they work at Torah study, and in refining their character, and shepherding the city and the country.
This verse shows us how right they are to do so; for in Moses’ day the human life span had dwindled, as he himself said ” the days of our lives are seventy years, or with strength eighty years.” even given their unusual life span, Moses and Aaron were already in their old age, and two thirds of their lives were over as they headed for the Pharaoh’s palace. Yet, see what they accomplished for the House of Israel and for the whole world, at a time when ordinary people are taking it easy!
Stop and think what a desolate world it would be without the Torah, how the world would be sunk in ignorance, sorcery, tyranny, and slavery, if those two old men had ”gone on pension”. That is why their ages are mentioned here: that no one should think that people should be idle in their latter years.”
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Edited by - Cornelius on 20 Jan 2007 22:16:00 |
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