Chapter 2 examines aging in the context of parent-child relationships. This chapter closely examines one lengthy Talmudic unit (BT Qiddushin 30b–32a) whose overt topic is the duty to respect one’s parents and in which appears a series of stories that are all concerned with the reversal of power relations between generations and with the breaking of taboos that this reversal threatens to entail. The chapter traces several key motifs in the unit, such as the effect of aging on gender hierarchies, the theological dimension of relations with aged parents, and the reorganization of public and private spaces when old age is involved. It argues that each story propagates a behavioral norm and subverts it at the very same time, thereby divulging the rabbis’ uncertainty and consternation when it comes to the difficulties inherent to elderly parents’ gradual exit from the social order.
Life satisfaction of elderly parents and parent-child relationships in old age