who seek earnestly to know God's way. And then Jacob blessed Pharaoh; the simple, old shepherd blessed the mighty king; and the latter bowed his head upon his throne, beneath the old man's outstretched hands.
This little incident beautifully illustrates the old Jewish virtue of reverence for old age. The Bible has commanded, "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man" (Leviticus XIX, 32). It has also said,
(Proverbs XVI, 31.)It is found in the way of righteousness.
and again,
(Proverbs XX, 29.)And the beauty of old men is the hoary head.
This virtue Israel has always cherished, and its young men
and women have always accorded to their elders and superiors in wisdom, the respect and reverence to which their age,
experience, and knowledge entitled them. In ancient Israel
the elders, as they were officially called, were the leaders and
counsellors of the people, to whom all hearkened readily and
wilingly. It is told of Abimi, the pious son of Abahu, a
great and wise teacher of old, that once he brought his aged
father a drink of water for which the old man had asked.
But finding that his father had fallen asleep in the meantime, as very old men are liable to do, he waited patiently
and reverently and without moving, in order not to disturb
his father, until the latter awoke, so that he might quench
his father's thirst at the earliest possible moment. Thus he
literally fulfilled the Biblical command, "Thou shalt rise up
before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man".
But even more, this incident symbolizes again the triumph of the spiritual over the temporal and the material, of eternal truth over evanescent might and power. Before the dignity of old age, knowledge and experience, and the wisdom which
