Judaism is a faith based on action. Jews believe that be performing G-d’s commandments called mitzvot, they connect to the Divine and bring holiness into the world. These rituals cover all areas of life from the intimate to the political but the main issues Judaism impacts on in daily life concern food and time. Jews have a series of food laws called Kashrut, which in brief concern not eating certain animals, eating meat that has been slaughtered and prepared in a certain way and separating milk and meat. Keeping kosher, as it is called, is of importance to many Jews though levels of observance differ. The same is true for issues surrounding time, the Sabbath and the Festivals. Judaism sanctifies periods of time such as the Sabbath or Shabbat, that goes from Friday evening to Saturday night. It also has many festivals with their different customs and rituals, often revolving around food. Again, while levels of observance may differ, these special times are important in the lives of most Jews.
This becomes especially true when people become older. Practices that were part of someone’s childhood, which may have been discarded in their youth, often assume increasing importance as people age and contemplate their own mortality. Elderly Jews who may have not particularly observant for much of their lives, may want to make up for it in their old age. Freed from the pressures of work and often family life, they reconnect to the Jewish community and may become more observant of the Sabbath or seek to keep Kosher to a higher degree. For those who have been relatively observant all their lives, it often becomes important to be able to continue this observance into their later years. This is especially true as their circumstances change and they may be forced to leave their own homes to enter care. Here Jewish observance becomes a link to their past life, even as it sometimes becomes more difficult in the context of non-Jewish institutions. In all these cases the Jewish community seeks to help older people to continue to maintain a Jewish lifestyle to the extent they wish to do so, and thus make their final years spiritually and culturally rewarding.
