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Millennials, Their Wiser Elders and Moses

[additional-authors]
February 2, 2023
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Millennials are allegedly all tolerant and open-minded,

confidently most ambitious,

but also are to their most grievous failings far too often blinded.

 

Among the ones that are pernicious

is that they are not just distrustful but are sadly disengaged

from non-millennials, so narcissistic

 

that they don’t honor the opinions of their wiser elders who have aged

in ways about which they’re not euphemistic

when they discuss them with contempt and generally without coherence,

 

referring frequently to phones more smart

than they, consuming data towards which their dumb, maladroit adherence

makes it an easy task their views to chart,

 

but not to understand, because the views to which millennials adhere

are to their elders often as incom-

prehensible as are the elders’ to millennials, which is why I fear

 

that these two generations will both bomb.

 

Moses said to Pharaoh the Israelites would go, both young and old,

together, Exodus 10:9.

maturity the antidote he needed to cool youth, too bold

 

to make decision he could sign,

determined to add calmness of maturity to rage

that burns more strongly during youth

 

than when it can be carefully controlled, both calmed and cooled by age,

its temperature reduced by truth,

which those who’re young consider to be less of a priority,

 

outing what they think outrageous,

while elders may, to rectify their wrath. assume authority,

like Moses, if they are courageous.

 


Norman Lamm writes in “The Calm and the Rage,” 1/17/77, a sermon explaining Moses’ statement to Pharaoh reported in Exod. 10:9 demanding  that he liberate young Israelites together with the old ones:

ט  וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה, בִּנְעָרֵינוּ וּבִזְקֵנֵינוּ נֵלֵךְ; בְּבָנֵינוּ וּבִבְנוֹתֵנוּ בְּצֹאנֵנוּ וּבִבְקָרֵנוּ, נֵלֵךְ–כִּי חַג-יְהוָה, לָנוּ.           9 And Moses said: ‘We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds we will go; for we must hold a feast unto the LORD.’                       

After Pharaoh accedes to Moses, and tells him לכו עבדו את ה’ אלקיכם, “go service the Lord your God” (Ex.10:8), he seems to have a second thoughts, and asks: מי ומי ההולכים – “but who are they that shall go?” (ibid.) To this Moses responds, ויאמר משה בנערינו ובזקנינו נלך, “We will go with our young and with our old” (Ex. 10:9).

Rabbi Shmuel of Slonim interprets this verse as more than an expression of the cooperation of generations who “go” together. Rather, he tells us that each, the young and the old, is a symbol of a special quality. Youth represents Zerizut– industriousness, diligence, sedulousness. Age represents Yishuv Ha-daat–thoughtfulness, pensiveness, deliberation.

עבודת השם (the service of the Lord) requires both. If we are told לכו עבדו את ה’ אלקיכם (go serve the Lord your God) and want to know מי ומי ההולכים (but who are they that shall go?), the answer is: בנערינו ובזקנינו נלך (we will go with our young and with our old), with both qualities, that which is representative of youth and that which represents old age….. 

There are certain times that circumstances call for precipitate and decisive action, for Zerizut. As an example, let us turn to the incident told in I Kings, which we study in one of our classes, the succession of Rehoboam to the throne of his father Solomon. After Solomon’s death, the people are disaffected and weary because of the heavy burdens that Solomon had placed upon them, (see I Kings, ch. 12). The people decide to meet Rehoboam in Shechem, instead of Jerusalem–already a sign of their protest against his father Solomon. They tell Rehoboam that they will accept his rule only if he will lighten the load upon them. To this Rehoboam turns to his advisors for counsel. The older ones, the זקנים, advise him to do the bidding of the people and ease their burden. But the ילדים–the children, the youngsters, the “boys”–advise him to take a “hard line.” Rehoboam decides with the younger ones. He takes the hard line, and the people–secede from his kingdom. Thus begins the tragic split that was eventually to cause the downfall of both the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judea. 


Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.

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