Hagaon Hacham Mordechai Eliyahu z.s.l.

A Prodigious Possibility

Your cover article, "Portrait of a Prodigy" [about HaGaon Hacham Ovadia Yosef, shelit”a] made a strong impression on me. Then, several days later, the passing of Hacham Mordechai Eliyahu made me remember how lucky we are to have a sage like Hacham Ovadia Yosef, may he live and be well, living among us. Even in his younger years, people recognized the special merit of being in the presence of Hacham Ovadia. Of course, today, in his advanced age, the rabbi is unable to travel like he used to, but nevertheless, anyone can visit the rabbi’s shul (which is located below his home in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem) and pray with him and hear him deliver words of Torah. It is an opportunity that no one with the means to do so, should miss.

D. Sutton

Free Medical Clout

Your piece on Medstar was very informative and bought out many good points about our community’s medical services organization. But I feel that the most important benefit may be glossed over by many readers. That benefit is the ability of Medstar to undertake collective bargaining on our behalf.

If we as a community made a point to use Medstar for all our medical referral needs – a function which the organization carries out splendidly and for free – then Medstar, as our proxy, would have that much more clout with the doctors, medical centers and hospitals we often use.

Recognizing the amount of business coming from our community, the local medical establishment would sit up and take notice of any request made by Medstar for a patient in our community. That means getting the overbooked doctor to rearrange his schedule to examine an ailing loved one, finding a bed in a top specialized unit that is full, and a host of other accommodations that could make a huge difference for those in need of medical care.

But all this will be possible only if we first give Medstar the power to advocate for us. All we need to do is call them for referrals instead of – or at the very least in addition to – outside organizations. It’s a minuscule price to pay (free) in comparison to the enormous potential benefits.

S. Harari

Keeping the Housekeeper Happy

Good Shaatra article last month about housekeepers! The one tip I find helpful with most housekeepers is to show appreciation – thank you and please go a long way.

Also, don’t micromanage. If they know what they are doing, then let them do it. Some people go a little crazy and stand over their housekeepers while they dust every molecule behind the couch. I have one friend who insists the housekeeper hand washes and irons her stockings, and she also wanted her to dust the backboards of the closets. Believe it or not, she keeps maids for a long time because she speaks nicely to them, shows interest in their family, buys little presents for them, and shows appreciation.

But for the rest of us, it’s probably best to give them some space. If it seems like they know what they are doing, let them do it. Don’t stand over them with a white glove. Nobody likes to be micromanaged!

Linda T.

Waste Water to Save Money?

You may have noticed your water bill steadily dropping because most New Yorkers have been using less and less water, as the media and NYC ads have been advising that it is good for our environment to save water. 

But, as mentioned in the Life in the Big City section of the May issue titled, “City Water Rising,” this reduction in use has caused the NYC Water Board to vote to increase our water rates to make up for the revenue lost from the days when people wasted more water.

My question is, if we go back to wasting water, will they lower the water rates back to what they were?

J. D.