by Yehoshua Sopher

Turning 65 should be a celebration. Instead, many low-income Maryland seniors wake up to a rude surprise: Their Medicaid health insurance suddenly stops being handled through the Maryland Health Connection (MHC) website. MHC is hard enough to navigate. Now, you are taken to the benefits website (formerly myMDThink). The seamless, automated system you’ve used for years disappears overnight.

Seniors automatically lose Medicaid coverage on their 65^th birthday. At 65, everything moves to benefits.maryland.gov, a completely different portal with different rules, different documentation, and a much stricter income calculation. Many seniors lose coverage for long periods of time simply because they didn’t know this transition happens. It’s a terrible “birthday present,” and it catches people off guard every year. You are automatically removed on your birthday from Medicaid and have to figure out how to get it back.

Another shock is that Medicaid eligibility becomes month?to?month after age 65. A single month of higher income – even by a small amount – can cause a temporary loss of coverage. Seniors who were used to annual renewals suddenly find themselves in a system that recalculates everything every month.

The day after Pesach, my husband and I flew back from Atlanta, and my oldest grandson, visiting from Israel, surprised us. In the den, he walked over to my keyboard and said, “Bubby, you must have had this for 30 years.” He was right. I remembered how he and his cousin enjoyed playing their own “music” when they could hardly reach the keys. Even though I would love to hear him play the keyboard again, we know that it’s sefira. During this time, it’s a challenge for me not to pop in a CD of Avraham Fried or listen to the works of Mozart, Beethoven, or Bach, which I learned to like from a shaila I asked my rabbi.

About 35 years ago, the year after my beloved father passed away, I called Rabbi Emanuel Feldman (now Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Beth Jacob) and asked, “When can I listen to music again?” After answering, he shared that when his year of aveilus was over, he turned on his radio and heard his favorite piece of classical music.

I remember each year anew why I love the spring. Maybe it’s the flowering blossoms on the trees, or perhaps it’s the green shoots coming out of the ground. Here in Baltimore, this season takes its time to unfurl. It’s a wonderful feast for the eyes as the Master Conductor wakes up His creations, each in turn, from the long and cold winter slumber.

Spring has always been my favorite season, and flowers were something I enjoyed planting in the homes where I’ve lived. Since moving to a condominium, I’ve brought spring into my home with the tulips and daffodils, which grace my Shabbos table. The cold and icy winter we had this year has helped me to appreciate this season more than ever, and I’m grateful now for each blade of grass as far as the eye can see.

Gratitude has found its way into my worldview in other ways as well. This past Taanis Esther was a day like none I had ever experienced before, since it coincided with the events in Eretz Yisrael. My davening had more meaning, and for the first time, I felt as though I got a tiny glimpse of what Yidden in the days of Mordechai must have experienced. Gratitude indeed.

From years of working with adolescents, one truth has become very clear to me: One of the most impactful factors in an adolescent’s life, mental health, values, and decisions is the relationship they have with their parents. That relationship can serve as an anchor in a very complicated adolescent world, something I have referenced many times throughout my book Parenting with a Plan, where I expand on the ideas of respect-based and relationship-based parenting.

At the same time, I want to make a point that I hope offers both chizuk and perspective. Even when a relationship with a child is genuinely strong, healthy, honest, respectful, and deeply woven into the parent-child dynamic, there are still other factors that can weaken that protective barrier the relationship has built.

Most people know that exercise becomes more important as we get older. It helps maintain strength, improve energy, and support long-term health. However, many seniors worry about exercising incorrectly and risking injury. That is why the most important principle in senior fitness is safety.

These seven simple movements can help guide a safe exercise routine for seniors. (Consult with a physician, of course, before beginning a new exercise program.) Each movement focuses on basic functions the body needs for everyday life, such as standing up, bending safely, maintaining posture, improving balance, and staying independent. Most of these exercises require nothing more than a sturdy chair.

I did not include a specific number of repetitions for each exercise because every person is different. A good initial goal is to build up to 10 repetitions per exercise. Even 10 to 15 minutes of gentle movement each day can help maintain strength and independence.

When the topic of shopping comes up in conversation and I tout my latest thrift store finds, my listeners sometimes grimace and say something like, “Oh, I would never go there.” This attitude may have been more common in the past, when buying new was a mark of our rise from impoverished immigrant origins. Today, however, thrift shopping is positively in vogue. In addition to those taking advantage of this rich source of quality goods at low, low prices, I often see well-heeled women in the thrift store, browsing for one-of-kind vintage pieces for their homes and wardrobes. There are also those who are concerned about the environment and want to recycle clothing to keep it out of the landfills – not to mention that thrift shopping is fun, an adventure in discovering the new (to us) and unexpected!

Patients with cancer undergo various treatments including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy managed by oncology and related specialties. There are certain additional measures that patients can take on their own to improve symptoms and often increase longevity. Lifestyle measures include nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management, adequate social interaction, and avoiding risky substances. These form the six pillars of Lifestyle Medicine. In addition, spiritual matters are very important.

It has been known that exercise can prevent cancer, but only recently has there been a randomized controlled trial in patients with stage III or high-risk stage II colon cancer that showed decreased mortality with regular exercise. (New England Journal of Medicine 2025: 393:13-25). These are patients whose cancer had spread through the bowel wall to nearby structures or lymph nodes but not distant spread. After surgery and chemotherapy, patients were randomized to a structured exercise program or to only receive health education materials. There was significant improvement in survival in the exercise group versus the education group, without cancer return at five years, as well as decreased mortality at almost eight years. Improvements with exercise are in addition to those seen with the primary therapies.

“I will come and everyone else will follow.” This was the response of Rabbi Simcha Kook, zt”l, to a real estate agent who expressed surprise at the Rav’s insistence on purchasing a home in an area where there were hardly any Jews and that was frequented by Arabs.

In his book, Rav Simcha Kook, Builder of Torah, Beacon of Unity (ArtScroll 2025), Gedalia Guttentag gives readers a vivid portrait of the late Rabbi Simcha HaKohen Kook, Chief Rabbi of Yerushalayim’s Churva shul and Rechovot, a role he served in for nearly 50 years. This well-researched biography, culled from dozens of interviews portrays a man who was of shalom, a unifier, and a leading Torah scholar.

Rabbi Kook brought countless souls back to Yiddishkeit through tears, love, and diplomacy. He was a consensus builder working across ideological lines to get things done. Like his great uncle, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, zt”l, Rav Simcha led by example, and others followed.

We all want to live a long life in good health. But to do that, we have to get old. Aging is not easy and sometimes requires support from grown children, service providers, and the community.

Mrs. Smith* explained how difficult it was when her elderly father suddenly deteriorated from one minute to the next. He was living independently and taking care of himself, when he suddenly became disoriented and could not be left alone. It was very difficult to transport him, so the family really needed care at home. “We felt so lost,” explained Mrs. Smith. “We needed information about who could provide services like blood tests or IVs at home. We just did not know where to turn. It would be great if somebody would compile a list of service providers to help families in our situation.”

Mrs. Smith added, “One of the things we really appreciated was kindness from the people we met in the hospital or who came to our home. When you are in such a vulnerable situation, being treated with respect and sensitivity is most important. My father was an intelligent, articulate gentleman, and I wanted the caregivers and the people that interacted with him to treat him respectfully.”

I went on to speak to many service providers in our community. The information I gathered can be useful to families and seniors as they age. I found it amazing that every person I spoke to taught me something new. Most of all, I learned that supporting the elderly is not a one-person job. Caregivers, whether they are children or employees, need the support of society. I thank the people who contributed to this article.

As a Kiryat Arba resident, every Shabbos morning I try to walk down to Me’arat HaMachpela for vatikin/Daf Yomi followed by Sfat Emet study in the Beit Schneerson neighborhood of Hebron. February 28, Shabbos, was different. My childhood friend was visiting me, a 70-year-old widower, with his fiancée, and neither were vatikin people. Normally, I would take such guests to Friday night davening in the Me’ara. That davening has a magical feel, and Shabbos guests always enjoy it, whether they go with the lively Carlebach minyan or choose a more sedate minyan. But this being Ramadan, the Me’ara is closed to Jews for five Fridays. (On those five Friday mornings my Daf Yomi minyan davens in the Avraham Avinu neighborhood.) So instead, we davened at 8:00 a.m. in the Me’ara.