In Genesis 48:10, the Torah says that Jacob's eyes "were heavy from age..." In the Talmud (B. Yoma 28b), Rabbi Hama says in the name of Rabbi Hanina, "Our Patriarchs never lost the ability to study Torah. Jacob was old and was sitting in the yeshiva, as it is written 'And Jacob's eyes were heavy with age.'"
The Torah Temimah explains that the Jacob's eyes were heavy not with age but with the words of Torah that he had acquired over his lifetime. In other words, the Torah is not saying that Jacob's eyes were physically weak but rather that they were spiritually strong with the words of Torah.
He goes on to say that Jacob could not have suffered vision loss in the physical sense because a midrash says that God gave Jacob a taste of the World To Come and that Jacob lacked no good thing. Losing one's vision is a terrible thing, so logically, Jacob could not have lost his vision in the physical sense.
The Talmud's comments on Jacob's eyes reflect a respect for the elderly that we have lost in our society. We seem to think that the smartest, best people in the world are the people who happen to be between 18 and 30. They are the ones who have the best command of technology and they are the ones who are most likely to buy things. Governments love young people because they can be counted on for decades of tax payments, whereas the elderly become a costly expense.
But when our respect for the aged is separated from our economic concerns, we find that it is the elderly who most deserve our admiration. They are the ones who fought for our country, they are the ones who developed all the science we use, they are the ones who loved us and protected us so that we could live the lives of comfort that we enjoy today.
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