Aging and old age in the Jewish scriptures

The study focuses on how aging and old age are viewed in the Tanakh texts, the corpus of Jewish scriptures. While doing this, references were made to non-textual sources as well as the context of the texts. Findings were created with hermeneutic qualitative content analysis based on the themes given by the texts based on the research questions. As in history and today, aging and old age contain multiple meanings that are not fixed. Certain meanings come forward regarding the period, society, and personal experiences. Since life is a blessing for the texts, living long and old age are also indicators of this. Special emphasis is placed on aging and respect for old age, and themes such as wisdom and respect are explained by associating them with religious concepts. Because of the special importance given to parents as they relate to creation, children are seen as the primary means for meeting the needs of aging family members. Emotions and behaviors towards parents are equated with those shown towards God. Elders function as carriers of culture in intergenerational relations. While the elderly can be seen as valuable only because of their age, independent of all other factors, they are also close to power by being seen as more valuable to the extent of their knowledge. The image of the holy is long life, white hair-beard, and wisdom. The notion of elders is associated with old age, but also expresses wisdom, and this wisdom also includes a religious meaning gained through the knowledge of God. Among the physical appearances that are considered as signs of aging are graying hair, loss of strength, loss of eyesight and reproduction. When it comes to old age, women are included in domestic labor and reproductive areas as in other life periods.