Fifty and Still Counting
Counsel is more than acquisition of knowledge in all of its forms (breadth, length and depth). It is also the ability to distill that knowledge, removing the undesirable ideas that can taint and distort the thinking of even one endowed with the greatest intellectual capacity. LIGHT FROM THE FUTURE ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
Forced Retirement
When a Levite reached his fiftieth birthday, as this week’s parsha informs us, he was required to retire from his service for the Mishkan (the portable Temple in the desert).
The Levites were charged with several responsibilities: They performed the musical service that accompanied various offerings; they also manned the gates of the Temple; and, during the forty years the Jewish people were in the desert before entering the Promised Land, the Levites were also responsible for transporting the Mishkan and its vessels.
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
From which of these functions did the Levite have to retire when he reached fifty? Rashi tells us that this refers, specifically, to “the work of transporting the parts of the Mishkan on their shoulders. Even after their retirement from this work, they would return to close the gates of the Temple.”
Rashi appears simply to be distinguishing between the more physically challenging labor of carrying heavy objects and the relatively light work involved in opening and closing the gates. When the Levite reached the age of fifty, and was no longer in the prime of his physical prowess, he still would be required to perform the lighter duties. In our own day and age, virtually all professional athletes have retired by the age of fifty.
Getting Older and Better
Upon deeper reflection, though, it is evident that the mandatory retirement age for the Levite and his transfer to gate duty was not simply a matter of the physical changes that occur by the age of fifty.
In Judaism, aging is not a down-hill headed process. In fact, our tradition recognizes that the reason one’s physical capabilities decline is to facilitate the growth of intellectual and spiritual qualities. Our ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA sages, thus, state in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) that “Fifty is the age of eitzah-counsel.” When we reach the age of fifty we have, hopefully, garnered sufficient life experience that we are capable of imparting some of our “counsel” to others.
Kidney Counseling?
Counsel has been defined in at least three ways. Taken together, they describe the three levels of counsel that we acquire by the age of fifty.
Maharal defines counsel as having and using a deeper level of understanding. At the age of forty, one achieves the level of binah, which enables the drawing of inferences from knowledge that is already possessed. Counsel, however, refers to an added dimension that exists beneath the surface, which cannot be deduced logically but must be appreciated by one whose mind is so attuned.
In our younger years, when our capacity to remember is at its peak, we acquire a breadth of knowledge. By the age of forty, we are able to extend our knowledge to new areas. We can take a concept and find ways of applying it to other situations. By the age of fifty, according to Maharal’s approach, we develop the capacity to delve more deeply into the subject matter.
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
A second level of Counsel is alluded to in the Talmud’s association of counsel with the kidneys! With the kidneys? Yes, with the kidneys!
The organic function of our kidneys is to filter undesirable matter from the body. When we absorb a plethora of ideas from the outside world, we need to be able to filter the wrong ones from the right ones, to separate the chaff from the wheat.
This “filtration” process is what one acquires by the age of fifty. Life’s experiences at that point should suffice to enable us to know which ideas – though logical and reasonable seeming – are absolutely wrong.
On this level, counsel is more than acquisition of knowledge in all of its forms (breadth, length and depth). It is also the ability to distill that knowledge, removing the undesirable ideas that can taint and distort the thinking of even one endowed with the greatest intellectual capacity.
A young man was once lost in the forest, going in circles until he chanced on an older person. He was overjoyed to find someone who could show him the way out. The older man said that he was also lost, but the young man was not to despair, because while the older man did not know the correct way out, he could tell him which paths he should not take… ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA The art of knowing which way not to go is the art of counsel that we acquire at the age of fifty.
Teaching at Fifty
There is yet a third level of counsel that we develop by the age of fifty.
Counsel, in Chassidic thought, is associated with the ability to transmit knowledge. When we are endowed with the highest levels of wisdom and possess the power of discernment, we can transmit our knowledge to the outside world.
Occasionally, even the brightest person can find it difficult to transmit knowledge to those who are intellectually inferior. One needs to use one’s power of counsel to convey profound knowledge without either adulterating the knowledge or overwhelming the student. This ability comes by the age of fifty.
To summarize, counsel includes, the “beneath-the-surface” knowledge, the power of discernment and the ability to transmit knowledge to others.
Moving to a New Venue
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
In this context, we can understand why the fifty year old Levite retires from carrying the holy objects of the Mishkan to tending its gates.
Carrying the holy objects, metaphorically refers to the process of bringing holiness from one holy location to another. While performing this function, the Levite was involved in strictly holy premises, with holy objects. The movement of the Mishkan did not involve moving something holy to a less holy venue.
This is a burden that any dedicated person could “shoulder.” One did not need to have these extraordinary powers of comprehension, intuition and eloquence that are wrapped up in the Torah’s definition of counsel.
Open the Gates
At the age of fifty, however, the Levite is introduced to a higher form of Divine service. By then he is able to open and close the gates, to know whom (and which influences) to allow into the Temple precincts and whom not to allow. This power of counsel and discernment requires a higher level of maturity, intelligence and spiritual growth.
Fifty: The Power of Redemption
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
The number fifty is also a reference to the state of freedom, based on the Biblical assignment of the fiftieth year as the Jubilee year, when all slaves would go free. This also alludes to the advanced state of knowledge we all will attain during the Messianic Age, when the world will achieve a complete state of freedom from all distractions and impediments to knowledge and spiritual growth. This is the age of which it is said that “one will not have to teach one another for all will know Me,” an allusion to the intuitive knowledge that one acquires at the age—and state of— fifty.
With the coming of the Messianic Age that is associated with the number 50, we will have attained all three levels of counsel in their most complete form. We will be endowed with the deeper knowledge, have the power to filter the negative and be able to transmit the knowledge to everyone.
This is actually alluded to in our daily prayer, when we ask G-d to restore our judges and our counselors. Moshiach is the ultimate counselor who will endow us with his power of counsel as well.
By devoting our lives to that which is represented by the number fifty— particularly those who have actually reached the chronological age of fifty—which is deeper understanding of Torah, standing vigilant to discern between healthy and harmful influences, and by eloquently ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA transmitting this knowledge to others, we will all hasten the coming of Moshiach and the onset of the Age of complete freedom with its concomitant attainment of the highest levels of knowledge.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Behalosecha by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
