The extreme ages provided at the beginning of Genesis have provoked questions throughout the ages. Many solutions were proposed. This was not an area with halakhic overtones, but needed to be explored in order to define old age.

On a more practical level the care of the aged frequently posed a problem. In order to keep such individuals from becoming burdens for the broader community, halakhic decisions needed to be made and implemented. The issue defined the nature and structure of the family. The multi-generational family living in a single household needed clear definitions of the roles to be played by each generation and the limits of independent decision making.

The two thousand years between the conclusion of the Bible and modern times have seen many changes in Jewish life and also in our attitude toward the elderly. What could be taken for granted in the Biblical age was no longer appropriate for the period of the Talmud or later rabbinic times. Furthermore it became necessary to frame the

matters in a halakhic context, so that obligations and rights were defined.

Such definitions did not exist in the Bible , but they were necessary to gover daily life. The halakhic framework which emerged from the discussions of the Talmud and later rabbinic literature, then governed the popular view of the elderly. The Torah created an attitude through stories of patriarchal and matriarchal lives; later Judaism did so through the details of the halakhah.

The topics were limited by the needs of each age and therefore only a handful of areas significant for us were discussed in the traditional halakhic literature, while many others, important to us, were not even touched upon. The societies in which we lived were different and many issues which face us now, did not exist.

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