by Aliza Arzt

When I was a child and car odometers were mechanical rather than electronic, it was always exciting to watch the digits change as they slowly turned during the last tenth of a mile on their way to a new number.  It was especially exciting when we were privileged to watch the transition from 99,999 to 100,000.  Since I was born at the end of the calendar year, I’ve had a similar experience, watching 2025 roll by with plenty of time to reflect and anticipate my approaching entrance to my eighth decade.
 
To me, 70 seems a more weighty milestone than any of the big digit changes that have arrived in the past. In order to help me process it, I’ve thought about what Jewish tradition has to say about this number, as well as my personal thoughts about what this milestone means to me. 
           
One of the most famous references is from Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) where, in chapter 5 verse 21, Rabbi Judah ben Temah discusses what characterizes each age:

He used to say: At five years of age the study of Torah;
At ten the study of Mishnah;
At thirteen subject to the commandments [i.e. B’mitzvah age];
At fifteen the study of Talmud;
At eighteen the bridal canopy;
At twenty for pursuit [of livelihood];
At thirty the peak of strength;
At forty wisdom;
At fifty able to give counsel;
At sixty old age;
At seventy “שֵׂיבָה”
(translated as “fullness of years” and also as “white haired old age”). . . 

This does sound as if we are near the end of the line at 70!
 
I can still take some comfort from what Proverbs (16:31) has to say about this milestone:

  עֲטֶ֣רֶת תִּפְאֶ֣רֶת שֵׂיבָ֑ה בְּדֶ֥רֶךְ צְ֝דָקָ֗ה תִּמָּצֵֽא׃

Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is attained by the way of righteousness

Even though our ancestors in Genesis seem to have lived extraordinarily long lives, by the time we reach the book of psalms, the prediction is much more realistic:

 
יְמֵֽי־שְׁנוֹתֵ֨ינוּ בָהֶ֥ם שִׁבְעִ֪ים שָׁנָ֡ה וְאִ֤ם בִּגְבוּרֹ֨ת ׀ שְׁמ֘וֹנִ֤ים שָׁנָ֗ה וְ֭רׇהְבָּם עָמָ֣ל וָאָ֑וֶן

כִּי־גָ֥ז חִ֝֗ישׁ וַנָּעֻֽפָה׃
Although we may live to be seventy, perhaps eighty granted strength,
our best efforts are but toil and foolishness;
they quickly come apart and drift away (Ps. 90:10)

In this part of our country, many of us are blessed with decades of a healthy and productive life.  If we have children, they are often home with us for a total of 2 decades or more and during that time, our lives settle around the rhythms of child-rearing.  When our children leave, we have more decades of productive work and community engagement.  This activity comes to feel familiar and eternal to us. I find, as I reach the age of 70, that I reflect more on the “end game” of life.  I have more years of productive adulthood behind me than ahead of me.  Things ache that didn’t hurt in the past and thoughts flee from my mind more quickly than they did before.  I find myself asking myself questions that I have no need to ask at this time, though they arrive in my mind periodically anyway:  What will I do when I can’t get into my claw-foot bathtub anymore? What’s going to happen to my books? My pets? My “stuff”?  Believe me, this is not a useful line of inquiry to take given the fact that I have no significant health or cognitive challenges at this time, but they come to mind anyway.
 
In my opinion, the most important question to consider at this time of my life is how to walk the boundary between reveling in the productivity of my current life now that I don’t have to spend time raising children and working while at the same time putting my affairs in order for my eventual demise?  Once again, I turn to Psalm 90 for comfort and advice:

 
לִמְנ֣וֹת יָ֭מֵינוּ כֵּ֣ן הוֹדַ֑ע וְ֝נָבִ֗א לְבַ֣ב חׇכְמָֽה׃
 
Teach us to apportion our days,
that we may come to have a heart of wisdom (Ps. 90:12)

The key word here is “לִמְנ֣וֹת” which is usually translated as “to number”, but more accurately means “to portion out”.  What is still meaningful to me in my life to do for my own edification and to help my community? As I review what I’ve accumulated in knowledge and wisdom during the decades of my adulthood, what legacy do I want to leave and to what extent can I take an active role in crafting that legacy?  Each of us has a different answer to these questions.  To my mind, the most important thing is to ask these questions and to contemplate the answers that arrive.
 
My response to these questions has been fourfold:

• to enjoy and connect with my family.

We are fortunate to be free of significant interpersonal pain and conflict.  I have a spouse and children that I admire and respect and we work together to make sure that we have time to enjoy and engage with each other.

• to continue to learn and explore new pathways.

Although I don’t have the memory skills of my youth, I study Cantonese and Arabic every evening, spend 2 days a week studying the Qur’an and reading meaningful non-fiction books about which I take copious notes in order to be able to access the content at will.  I continue to teach about topics that interest me and that seem to interest the community as well.

• to devote time to my close and extended communities.

            My strong engagement with the Havurah continues. Of necessity, within the last year, I’ve increased political action and community care by driving people to appointments, writing letters, making phone calls and patrolling my city in case there’s a need to witness and document kidnapping and assaults on my neighbors.  I’m finding ways to productively express my distress about what’s going on in Gaza along with my hopes for an Israel of my dreams.

• to preserve the results of my learning in a form accessible to interested people.

            I’m writing about topics that I’ve taught about in the past, for which I currently have only a source sheet, in order to produce a document that explains my train of thought, ideas and conclusions in a way that’s accessible to anyone who’s interested.  I’m still hoping to write an annotated Siddur Birkat Shalom to explain about the changes we’ve made in the liturgy during the past 40+ years.
 
There will come a day when carrying out some or all of these activities is beyond me, just as running up and down the stairs or carrying a 50 pound load is no longer an option.   I continue to hope that when this happens I’ll have the insight and understanding to pivot to other activities that are within my reach and to always be able to fulfill my goal of living a meaningful life

by Bev Schwartz

When I get too much on my plate, I usually end up overwhelmed, in front of the tv, binge watching something I've seen many times before, hoping the whole mess will magically disappear.

I had three big things on my plate:

• A very high stakes work demo and deadline.  The customer demo was scheduled on Yom Kippur.  I said absolutely not.  It got moved to the next week.
  
• Being part of the Hav community and living up to my commitments for the chaggim, which included preparing and leading a service and running and reporting on the Reverse Tashlich.
  
• The proposed Somerville City Charter was signed by the Governor on September 19th and would be on the November 4th ballot. Those of us who were involved with creating the charter now had to put together a campaign for the charter and get the word out to tens of thousands of voters in a month and a half.
  

Please, can I just turn on the tv, sink into the couch and not have to do any of this?

The work situation explained: The previous demo went well, and the government customer was pleased.  Great!  Until the next day, when the larger program that my project was a part of was cancelled.  Now the priority was documentation so that the customer could reproduce the demo without us, so they could find another funder.  I hate documentation.  And they wanted all the scripts we used for the demo, scripts that were never meant to be delivered, and were kind of, well, ugly.

Hop over to the High Holidays:  Time is running out to get the word out about Reverse Tashlich.  And time is running out for preparing my leading for 2nd night Rosh HaShannah.  Both involved writing, not my strong suit.

Hop over to the City Charter:  We had to create a campaign organization, create a mailer, write up documents explaining it, etc.  So much stuff out of my comfort zone.  And I was the one with the most intricate knowledge of the charter, so guess who had to write up materials to explain it.  Uggh, not my favorite thing.

Um, the tv is over there, calling my name...

A number of us were working on the documentation at work.  And I had people to read things over and help me.  I was not alone.

The volunteers for the charter campaign had a variety of skills, some of whom were experts in the things I didn't know how to do.  And 3 of us got together to discuss the mailer and literature.  I was not alone.

I came up with the idea of writing up the Reverse Tashlich description as if I was writing a cruise advertisement.  My wife thought that was hysterical and was happy to help.  I was not alone.

So with a stack of cruise line catalogs and the help of my wife, we came up with zingers like:

• In these Days of Awe, rather than throwing your nutritionally-deficient sins into a body of water, pick up your sins from the banks of the glorious Mystic River.
  
• Come see the natural beauty of the Mystic River teeming with human-corrupted waterfowl relaxing on trash-filled shores.
  
• We will gather at the sunlit river outlook opposite the rotary where the majestic Grand Union Boulevard meets the labyrinthine Great River Road.
  
• Our group will take a leisurely stroll westward to turn off on a scrub-lined trail across the street from Raymour & Flanigan, the crown jewel in our enviable collection of discount furniture stores in the glamorous Assembly district.
  
• Participate in the time-honored collection of colorful debris either on dry land where ancient peoples once walked, or along the inviting shore.
  
• After disposing of the river's timeless  treasures, we can tour charming streets to discover a tucked away quaint public restroom to restore ourselves to culturally-accepted cleanliness.
  

We were laughing so hard, the task became fun.  

And while I was still fretting about what to do with my service, I realized that I had been completely absorbed in humor, and that humor was what was helping me get through my challenges. And so humor became the theme of my service, not just reading my "ad" for Reverse Tashlich, but sharing fun pictures and stories from the times I've picked trash.  A reminder of how important humor is to endure challenging times.  The service was well-received.

And Reverse Tashlich?  We had 10 people show up, collected 7 bags of trash, and had a good time. And one of the younger members of the group landed a shark.

And so back to work and endless documentation. And what to say about those ugly scripts?  I wrote in the official documentation, "You may be looking at this and saying, there's got to be a better way... You're right, there is.  These scripts were written for a different program with different needs.  It was easier to adapt the old scripts than write new scripts.  Don't tell me you've never done the same. ;)"  When the customers came, they commented on how much they liked my snarky documentation.  Humor helped me, but it also helped them read through the reams of documentation before they arrived.

And finally the charter.  One member of the group was great at coming up with some good lines and created a Golden Girls meme:

• Govern like it's no longer 1899!
  
• Sophia: "Picture it, Somerville. 1899. A city charter is written and no one knows it will remain the same document (with some revisions) until 2025."
  
• Dorothy: "Ma, tell them why they should vote yes."
  
• Rose: "As we say in St. Olaf, vote yes on Question 1!"
  

And I created a website.  Writing thousands of lines of html, css, and javascript... no problem.  Figuring out how to launch a website.  Uggh.  Quick google search and I'm at godaddy.com.  Find a domain name... yes-on-charter.info.  Someone commented that they couldn't believe that domain name was available.  "Hey," I said, "not only was it available, it was only $4."

Okay, I've got to share it.  https://yes-on-charter.info

And then I signed up to write this blog post. Writing, not my favorite thing.  Remember, keep it funny!

Keeping fingers crossed for November 4th...