Rabbi Ben Ezra reflects on the relationship between youth and old age. Modern readers should consider the great emphasis society places on youth. It is ideal to remain as young as possible for as long as possible. Advertisements constantly offer ways to turn back the clock or look and feel younger.

The rabbi, however, does not advocate such attempts at eternal youth. Youth is only one phase of life. It is a time of ambition and sometimes foolishness, but it “shows but half of life.” Youth is also a time of striving and learning, and while such trials can be painful, they reveal the “spark” in humans that sets them apart from other created beings. Trials also help people grow into the wisdom of old age.

Only in old age can people look back upon their lives and reflect on their successes, failures, and lessons learned. This is “youth’s heritage.” They now have the maturity and wisdom to “discern, compare, pronounce at last” the meaning and value of their lives. They have proven the past, and now they can look forward to the next great adventure of the future, even if this is death.

This is why the rabbi begins the poem with an invitation:

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made.

Youth is a preparation for old age, and old age, with its deeper, richer perspective, is truly the better part of life, according to the rabbi.

For centuries, much debate has been over the relationship between the human body and the human soul. Sometimes, people have viewed the body as unimportant, secondary, or even wicked. They placed a great emphasis on the human soul as transcending the body. In the modern era, the trend often tends in the other direction, toward a glorification of the body and material culture.

Rabbi Ben Ezra, however, answers the question of which is more important, body or soul, with a firm “both.” He invites readers to cry out, “All good things are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now than flesh helps soul!”

The human is both body and soul; these two work together to make a full human being with complete faculties and abilities. The flesh provides its pleasures, which should be appreciated and enjoyed, but not to the exclusion of the soul with its intellectual and imaginative aspects. A human being who allows the flesh to reign is little more than a “brute” and a slave to the senses. A full human life requires both the senses of the body and a brain to treasure those senses and the whole of life.

What is success? What is failure? The rabbi answers these questions in a way that may seem surprising. Life succeeds the most when “it seems to fail.” It is not the success that counts. It is the trying, the aspiring, and the learning that matters. Even when these lead to what the world calls failure, they are valuable. They have made life richer and have kindled a greater “spark” within a person. This is success on a deeper level.

The heart of every human being, the rabbi says, should beat with “How good to live and learn.” People should “welcome each rebuff / That turns earth’s smoothness rough / Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go!” In other words, the struggles and failures of life provide opportunities for living and learning in a more meaningful way and for growing into a fuller human being.

Joy is “three-parts pain.” The striving...