Dearest friends,

 I found Purim “missing” something this year. Corona virus did not have anything to do with it.

 

I only realized exactly what is was now. Avigail taught me so much about Megillat Esther. We always talked about Purim as Purim got closer. I took her Megillat Esther course several times. Each time she added new material and made me look at the Megilla in a new and different way. She once said in a class: ” I hate to burst your bubble ladies and I know you were all raised on the midrashim of Megillat Esther but… no Esther was not a Bet Yakov girl. In fact she was probably assimilated in many ways”OY! We took this very hard! 

 I mean, we thought we knew Esther. We knew the usual story and the usual midrashim and only when Avigail came around we were forced to think ” out of the box” and see Esther in a brand new light. This did not go down easy with all of us! But then Avigail painted us a picture of a real Esther. We now understood where Esther was coming from. …what was really going on in her life, in Shushan, and what the Jews of Persia were all about?

 

 What was her relationship with Mordechai. What was making Esther tick?

 

Purim meant missing Avigail for me this year. Oh I know that I am not alone in this feeling.

 

I miss Avigail z”l . I know you do too. I just had to tell  you this. She enriched our lives in a million ways. 

 very sincerely and with warmth,
Yehudit