title: Death and the "life review" in Halakhah.
abstract: Coping with old age involves resolving the task of "integrity versus despair," which demands a nondefensive confrontation with the inevitability of death. Halakhah (Jewish ethics) also considered this task critical in later years of life, spoke of death's inevitability, and attempted to discourage denial of death. The Jewish approach seems compatible with Butler's concept of "life review" as a reconciliation with death and a reintegration of one's identity that occurs throughout later years. While the Eriksonian goal is confronting old age with a certain capacity for "wisdom," the rabbis maintained that such wisdom must culminate in the creative act of repentance.
authors: Social work in the joint program of the Department of Social Work and Social Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
authors: M H
authors: MH
authors: Spero