Subject: In Memory of Baruch Yitzchak ben Yirmiyahu (Barry Pessin)
From: Heath Berkin <heath.berkin@gmail.com>
Date: 11/25/2016, 5:38 AM
To: Heath Berkin <heath.berkin@gmail.com>
BCC: menachem@alonsystems.com
The Mishna in Avos (4;20) says Rabbi Yose bar Yehuda from Kfar Bavli says "that when you learn from a young person it is like eating unripe grapes and drinking fresh wine, learning from an elder is like eating ripe grapes and drinking aged wine."
The Mishna is telling us the advantage of learning from an aged person as opposed to a young scholar. The aged person has seen life and has more experience, his knowledge is therefore more settled and should be heeded more than the words of a younger person. Torah Wisdom is compared to wine that gets better and stronger as time elapses.
Chazal point out that this is a great difference between the Jewish People and other nations, whereas they look down on their elders as being passed their prime, we on the other hand look up to them for their vast knowledge and sage advice.
There is a famous story about R'Yaakov Kamenetsky ZT'L who was flying on an airplane with one of his grandchildren. Throughout the entire flight the grandchild looked after his grandfather and treated him with the greatest respect, tending to his every need. Next to him was sitting a non-jewish person who turned to him and asked him with astonishment "I see your grandchild treats you with such respect and awe, why don't my grandchildren treat me in the same way?" R'Kamenetsky answered him by telling him that my grandchildren look at me as a link to Adam HaRishon the first man who was on a lofty spiritual level, and to Moshe Rabbenu the greatest prophet ever to live. I am two generations closer to these great people than they are. Your grandchildren believe we evolved from monkeys and you are therefore two generations closer to a monkey than they are they therefore treat you accordingly.