Our ShinShinim

Shabbat Shalom,

Last week I told you about my late grandfather, Alexander Steinberg. Today, I would like to tell you about another important person to me; Margalit Pikarsky. 

Margalit was my grandmother’s older sister. For some, that might seem pretty distant. But not for my family, and certainly not for Margalit. She was a big part of my life, and of all my family’s lives.

Growing up, for me, Margalit was the symbol of beauty and elegance. 

I remember one time, when my best friend and I went to Haifa, Margalit’s city, and we had lunch with her. Margalit was over 75 at the time, and right when we left my best friend turned to me and said: “she might be the most beautiful woman I’ve seen”. 

Being compared to her was the biggest compliment for me growing up. Not only was she beautiful on the outside, she was also beautiful on the inside. The almost weekly phone call with her would brighten my day. She always knew what questions to ask.

I believe the best way to compose one’s character is with the memories of the people around him. Let me share with you a few memories my family has of Margalit that I believe show what kind of person she was.

Miri, Margalit’s daughter told me about Margalit as a mother. Margalit raised three children in Be’er Sheva - in the south of Israel.

The neighborhood they lived in bordered a neighborhood that wasn’t as well off. The two neighborhoods went to the same school. Margalit was a big advocate for education, and it was important to her that everyone had a chance to be educated. The library was far away from their neighborhood, so Margalit opened her house and her own collection of books to the children of both neighborhoods. Her generosity followed her throughout her entire life. 

One thing that every single person I talked to in my family mentioned- was how she always put her family, and the people she cared about, before herself. 

Alon, one of Margalit sons, told me that she was a real trendsetter. Much before tiktok and instagram, she fed her kids apple cider vinegar and honey, or every health “trend” she would come up with at the time.

The importance of education to her came up again when Alon told me that to this day, he remembers the songs and dances she made up for him when he didn’t want to study for a grammar test. And I fact checked - he sang them for me.

She also used to message my cousin, Maya Shai, a good luck test before each test. Maya tells me that Margalit remembered her test dates better than she did.

It always feels weird to talk this way about Margalit, because she was always the one who made all the speeches. She was an incredible writer, and always used to bring the most beautiful and precise quotes, usually from Jewish history. I wish you all could’ve heard her speak.

I’d like to repeat what I said last week. 

The reason I told you this today, is because or the George Eliot quote - “Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them”. I promise to never forget, but now the memory of Margalit lives on through each of you - even miles away from her country. Thank you for helping me do that. And let this be a reminder to you to hug your family a little bit tighter today. Family is everything, and you should do it while you can. 

Shabbat Shalom.