Hashem’s Guiding Hand
In My Car Accident
Rabbi Leiter’s poignant article (“It’s Not a Coincidence,” May 30) touched home and was very personal for me.
Nearly 24 years ago my father, a”h, was in hospice during the final stages of his battle with a serious illness. I had borrowed a friend’s car, since my vehicle was unavailable to me at the time, and went to visit and spend time with him.
On the way home I was crossing a major intersection as the light was green for me. Suddenly, out of my peripheral vision, I noticed a vehicle blasting through their red light, knowing that there was no time to react to this danger.
A major collision ensued with the errant car T-boning me on the driver’s side. I was knocked out, and when I regained consciousness, the entire roadway was shut down with emergency vehicles everywhere. The fire department extricated me from the vehicle and transported me to the hospital, where, b’chasdei Hashem, I was diagnosed with only a concussion and sore shoulder.
It could have been a lot worse, Hashem was very kind. Little did I know at the time that my father would be niftar just six weeks later. As it turned out, I could not work for around a month, but was able to spend time with my father while I was home recuperating. At the time of the accident, I had to deal with making it up to the friend who loaned me the car whole, since it was totaled.
Naturally my initial reaction was to question why this had to happen during this difficult time. A short time later I realized that what I had thought was a disaster was actually a blessing in disguise, because I was able to spend more time with my father than otherwise would have been possible. We can’t always see or understand the ways of Hashem, but for me it became fairly obvious, and definitely not a coincidence.
George Weiss
Via Email
Every New Yorker Must
Vote in Mayoral Primary
I wrote last November about Barack Obama’s famous line that “elections have consequences,” which is probably the only matter on which I will ever agree with him. Beyond that, we must also try to avert collateral consequences of elections.
New Yorkers are facing an ugly Democratic primary for mayor on June 24. Where all the possible winners are such bad choices, it’s easy to throw up our hands and say the primary doesn’t matter. As it was well analyzed in “Don’t Vote For The Zohran: Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s Israel Stance Draws Concern” (April 18), it certainly does matter because of the possible collateral consequences – the danger that an openly anti-Israel BDS supporter, a member of the anti-Israel Democratic Socialists of America and an advocate to defund the police, could be elected and empowered.
While unfortunately I don’t have a vote out here in Connecticut, this election is so important to the Jewish people that I humbly ask all readers to show up to vote in order to nip in the bud the brewing disaster of sending the “wrong message” by putting forth a notoriously anti-Israel face as the face of America’s most important and most heavily Jewish city.
Don’t assume that it’s good enough only for some of your neighbors to vote. The votes of each person, his spouse and his children are essential for our people. Please vote on June 24 or on one of the early voting dates, beginning on Sunday, June 15 (vote.nyc/elections#pe-june-24). If you are not a registered voter, your application must be received by June 14.
Mark I. Fishman, Esq.
Fairfield, Conn.
The Amazing Miriam Berfas
Regarding your columnist Miriam Berfas who writes “The Amazing World of Mimi” column. She helped me with a very difficult problem I was having with my landlord regarding important repairs I needed done in my apartment for quite sometime.
All this was being ignored until Mimi took over and got the landlord to respond to me and do the most necessary repairs. I cannot thank Mimi enough for how she handled this so successfully and walked me through every step of the way.
Kudos to her and to The Jewish Press for carrying her wonderful column.
Malki R.
New York
