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Carol Silver Elliott

Sep 29, 2026, 2:35 AM

Often when we think about aging well, we conjure up mental images of 90-year-old marathon runners and 85-year-old tennis players. Maybe we think about the late Henry Kissinger, continuing a career in political science, diplomacy and history even after...

Sep 29, 2026, 2:24 AM

A Time to Build

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven." These words from Ecclesiastes are millennia old, yet they have never really left us. In 1965, The Byrds set them to music in “Turn! Turn! Turn!,”...

Shanee B. Michaelson

Sep 25, 2026, 5:25 AM

The Best Thing About Old People

Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge photo by Rabbi Shanee B. Michaelson

“How old are you?” an eleven-year-old student asked me recently. “Fifty,” I said. She nodded, thought for a moment, and then said, “The best thing about old people is that they weren’t always old.” I laughed—partly because it was funny, and partly...

Sep 23, 2026, 9:05 PM

The Pause – Yizkor’s Urgent Summons

Life is a pause between our parents' dreams and our children's memories. I stopped at Costco recently to gas up. As I began fueling, the pump emitted a series of clunks and the flow of gas was extremely lethargic. I...

Sep 23, 2026, 6:26 PM

The Happy Holiday: Succot Memories and Guests

The Holiday of Joy On Sukkot, we are commanded to be happy!! You shall rejoice in your festival, וְשָׂמַחְתָּ֖ בְּחַגֶּ֑ךָ, with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your...

Sep 18, 2026, 1:10 AM

Walking in God’s Ways: Restoring Dignity to Aging

For over one thousand years, Jewish communities have repeated a powerful plea in our prayers leading up to and throughout Yom Kippur: Hear our voices, Shema koleinu… Do not cast us away in our old age; when our strength...

Carol Silver Elliott

Sep 16, 2026, 12:21 AM

We are beginning another year, 5787 on the Jewish calendar. These Days of Awe are a time for us to reflect on the year that is ending and think about the year that is to come. While making resolutions...

Andy Blumenthal

Sep 14, 2026, 6:45 AM

The Laps We Keep Walking

On Rosh Hashanah, we come to synagogue carrying more than a prayer book. We carry the year that was: the disappointments we did not expect, the fears we did not voice, the losses we still cannot quite name, and the...

Amitai Avnon Sawicki

Sep 9, 2026, 11:34 PM

What Israel’s ancient respect for age and its culture of innovation could teach a rapidly aging world Approaching Rosh Hashana, I am always reminded of how my grandfather used to say that we Jews live longer lives, age-wise – because...

Sep 8, 2026, 1:40 PM

This past December I became seriously ill, and only later did I understand how close the angel of death had come on that first night in the hospital. Fortunately, those caring for me made sure he was ultimately kept...

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