THE BEAUTY OF AGING
Excerpted from a talk from Rabbi Ahron Lopiansky
The Midrash relates the following conversation between Avraham and HaShem. Av-raham turned to HaShem “You told me that I am most beautiful of all people and yet when I and my son enter the city nobody recognizes who is the father and who is the son and they therefore do not know to whom to give respect”, since Avraham and Yitzchok were identical. HaShem responded “With you, old age shall begin”. That night Avraham’s hair whitened.
There are two points worth addressing. One point is that Avraham possessed no sense of vanity. Why then does he wish to be the most beautiful of all people?
The second point is that while the Midrash implies that white hair and old age are as-sociated with beauty, we find in other places that white connotes approaching death and death itself. We wear a white kittel on certain occasions to remember the day of death. In fact, the whiteness of hair comes as a result of the dying of the pigment on the hair follicles. Since death is certainly not associated with beauty why should old age and specifically the whitening of the hair be so?
Every person has two parts. He has an outer shell; his body. And he has an inner self; his soul. In his youth the outer shell projects itself with color and vibrancy while the inner self has still not yet matured. As he travels along the path of life encountering challenges and overcoming difficulties his inner self begins to develop. The beauty of the inner self is much more delicate and finer than the coarse nature of the outer shell. It is therefore difficult to discern the beauty of the inner self while the outer so boldly over-shadows it. Just as it is difficult to discern the beauty of the fine nuances of the hundred piece symphony while there is a rock concert next door, similarly, it is difficult to discern the fine lines of beauty of the inner self while the outer shell distracts so much attention.
Our father Avraham had achieved remarkable greatness through the challenges that he faced and that he conquered. His inner self shined with blinding brightness. However, so long as his physical beauty did not recede, people did not recognize who is the father and who is the son. His inner self was not recognized. Avraham wanted the outer shell to recede and allow the inner self to shine through.
Our father Avraham was not vain. He had no interest in the world other than to increase the awareness of HaShem’s involvement in the world and in the lives of its inhabitants. The reason he wanted to have beauty and to be recognized and respected was be-cause when people would see the beauty of his inner self it would inspire them to elevate themselves to their own greatness as well.
Avraham wanted his outer shell to recede from its bold expression of colorful vibrancy and allow the fine nuanced beauty of his soul to penetrate outward for all to see and to be inspired.
It is no wonder that while old age and the whitening of one’s hair are not signs of beauty in their own right, they are nevertheless prerequisites for the pure beauty of the inner self to shine.
Have a very safe and very wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind